[Mobile Mod]

Hey all, i just got X11 and fink and (hopefully) KDE working on my 17". My next question is how to i get another type of window manager? I have heard of gnome and such, but canot find a way to download them and get them working. To get KDE i typed like sudo fink install-kde-bundle or something and it worked. Whats the way to get gnome, and then how do i launch it (startgnome??)?

Thanks again!
Justin

[alfredo]

type panel &

[clarkgoble]

The best and easiest way is to use Fink Commander. It lists all the various window managers and then the gnome stuff.

The other way to do it is to type fink list gnome (Or something like that. I'm not at my Mac - type man fink for the actual command)

Be aware that Fink Commander breaks if you install Perl 5.8. Also be aware that the new verison of OSX likely will have Perl 5.8 standard so there will undoubtedly be a few weeks where Fink won't work right. I made the mistake of installing Perl 5.8 and while most Fink things work right, I still find a few problems.

[suthercd]

Heads up that there are differences between window managers and desktop managers. KDE is a desktop manager and can utilize different window managers. The distinctions can be vague.

Craig

[clarkgoble]

I have had problems using KDE with a non-KDE window manager though.

[bracken]

I use WindowMaker. Fast, elegant, and support for GNOME, KDE, and GNUstep.

[suthercd]

KDE is designed to run in root mode- meaning it uses its own desktop vs rootless which works within a window. X11 on Mac OS X is rootless and xDarwin is rooted.

Gnome-session will start gnome from xterm if you have your paths set up for that, else /sw/bin/gnome-session.

Configuring window and desktop managers for appearance mods can be a challenge. On a straight *nix machine, the directory structure is clear. With X11 on the Mac, X11 is in /usr but fink creates its own directory /sw where it installs the packages for the apps like kde et al available through it. Window managers, kde, gnome all expect to find their own subdirectory in your home directory- i.e. ~/kde, ~/.gnome, ~/.blackbox etc.

bundle-kde from fink installs better and better with each release. X11 is up to beta3 and I bet there will be a lot more seamless integration with OS X as time goes by. Quartz-wm is designed to have copy/paste and other services work between X11 and OS X. You can modify the .xinitrc file to have those quartz-wm capabilities, but not the window appearance. Change the exec quartz-wm line in .xinitrc to exec quartz-wm --only-proxy.

Again, in 6 months after 10.3 is out and more development time is put into the x window finctioning is OS X, I'm betting that the functioning between the two is great.

KDE is fun to look at and experiment with but why have another desktop manager than OS X is what I ended up asking myself. If I were in a CLI environment, KDE or gnome would be a dramatic addition. With the rootless x11, all the x apps and utilities are available without the possible complication of running a second desktop manager.

HTH

Craig

[pimephalis]

There are a ton of other window managers available. Here's a short list:

- IceWM -- A nice, lightweight window manager
- Blackbox -- very lean and clean WM
- Enlightenment -- the ultimate in eye-candy goodness
- Metacity is gnome's default WM

That's just a very brief list. There are dozens, and they can be found at Freshmeat.net. To really blow your mind, have a look at ratpoison.

[clarkgoble]

Speaking of not needing an other desktop manager (KDE or Gnome) I agree. However some applications that are under Ghome or KDE I can't quite figure out how to run from the commandline. For instance what is the path to Nautilus? (Gnome's file manager)

[suthercd]

Assuming fink is installed, there is a good readme at /sw/share/doc/nautilus/readme. It discusses a Nautilus install outside of gnome.

You can ask with locate nautilus- and get a listing of all files and directories with nautilus in the name. If you have recently installed fink, then I would run sudo /etc/weekly to rebuild the locator database.

HTH
Craig