Peter76
May 6th, 2006, 05:57 AM
I've been using Icewm with Rox now for a while on an older machine and thought it a good idea to share my gathered knowledge till now, seeing not a lot of info on Icewm here.....
I'll assumme you did a server install and know your way around the command line.
Also have a look here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation/LowMemorySystems
For this configuration, you need the following packages:
gdm ( or any other dm )
x-window-system-core
icewm
icewm-themes
rox-filer
menu
xfce4-terminal ( This is a Dapper package; use xterminal in Breezy )
Any other programs you like
Ok, so you have installed this and are ready for your first login. Now in GDM, set your session to icewm and make it the default. Otherwise it will start up with gnome and this doesn't work properly ( have never tried to get it to work though, so no info here. ) Well, type your log and pass and enter... There you are at a simple looking icewm session.
Now we are going to tweak this a bit so it looks nicer, we have a desktop with icons, and you know how to edit the icewm configuration files.
So first open a terminal, if you installed one, there should be a treminal icon in the taskbar and in your start( icewm )menu
mkdir ~/.icewm
cp /etc/X11/icewm/* ~/.icewm/
Now, with your favorite editor ( I use Mousepad here... ) create a file "startup" in the ~/.icewm directory and put the following line in it:
rox --pinboard=yourusername &
Save it and make it executable:
chmod +x ~/.icewm/startup
Now logout and log back in, in the Icewm menu -> Logout. Now you come back into Icewm with Rox filer having taken over the desktop and a nice icon sitting there for your home directory. If you right click, you now get the Rox menu, have a look around here, especially the options, this is pretty straight forward.
If you want more things on your desktop, just drag them there from a Rox window. One thing I like to have around is an icon for my cdrom, as this doesn't automatically appears as in gnome: from a rox window, go into the /media directory and drag the cdrom dir to the desktop. Now if you insert a cd and open this icon, it gets mounted automatically....
Setting the standard application for a certain file is also a matter of drag and drop: right click on the file you want to set the standard app for and -> Set run action.
Now in a Rox window go to ( most of the time ) /usr/bin/ and from there drag the application you want to use to the Set run action window. That's it!
There's no trash by default in Rox; you delete files PERMANENTLY by right clicking on them and -> delete. If you want to have a nice trash on your desktop, download a tarsh from here: http://www.hayber.us/rox/misc/Rubbish-001.tgz
Extract the file:
tar xzvf Rubbish-001.tgz
Drag the icon to your desktop and Voila, you now have a trash. Drag stuff to it to put it there. Be warned though: the delete option from the Rox menu still deletes things PERMANENTLY!!!
Two more little nifty Rox tricks: in a Rox window, hit '/' and you can type the location you want to go to, hit 'esc' to get out. Hit 'shift+!' to get a command line, hit 'esc' to get out again
Ok, this far about Rox, now we'll get into configuring Icewm. As you prabably figured out, the configuration files for Icewm are now in ~/icewm.
To add an application to your Icewm menu, there is are two ways. The easy way is to use the 'program's' menu in the Icewm menu. This menu is managed by the menu package. Every time you install a new application,run update-menus from the terminal and this menu will get updated with your new app.
The other way is by editing the ~/.icewm/menu file. Open it with your favorite editor and have a look at it; it's pretty self-explanatory. You can leave it as it is and add things to your needs, or delete everything in there and start all over again as I did. What it comes down to is this:
If you want a menu, add:
menu "NameOfMenu" folder {
}
And DON'T forget the closing bracket:-). If you want a submenu, add the same code between the brackets of the menu.
The syntax for adding a program to a menu is like this:
prog "NameOfProg" pathtoiconofprog commandtoexecute
You don't have to use the " " in the name of the program if it's a single word, but with them you can use spaces in the name.
The path to the icon for the program is nine out of ten times /usr/share/pixmaps/nameofprogram.png. If this doesn't work, try .xpm instead of .png. If that doesn't work, you have to do a bit of searching around.....
So, if for example, we want to create an 'Internet' menu, with a 'Browser' submenu, with 'Firefox' in there, you need the following:
menu "Internet" folder {
menu "Browser" folder {
prog "Firefox" /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png firefox
}
}
In the same way you can add programs to your toolbar, only then you have to edit ~/.icewm/toolbar ( DUH ).
Have a look at the other files in~/.icewm as well, especially the preferences. They shouldn't be too much trouble now. Don't change the programs file though, as it is maintained by the menu package.
Also don't forget to have a look int the themes menu in the Icewm menu ( Icewm->themes) I personally like the SilverXP a lot; looks very slick.
Hope I helped some people out with this HOWTO; any comments are very welcome!!! Many thanks to the Ubuntu developers for making this happen and to the Ubuntu community for being so alive and kicking!
I'll assumme you did a server install and know your way around the command line.
Also have a look here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Installation/LowMemorySystems
For this configuration, you need the following packages:
gdm ( or any other dm )
x-window-system-core
icewm
icewm-themes
rox-filer
menu
xfce4-terminal ( This is a Dapper package; use xterminal in Breezy )
Any other programs you like
Ok, so you have installed this and are ready for your first login. Now in GDM, set your session to icewm and make it the default. Otherwise it will start up with gnome and this doesn't work properly ( have never tried to get it to work though, so no info here. ) Well, type your log and pass and enter... There you are at a simple looking icewm session.
Now we are going to tweak this a bit so it looks nicer, we have a desktop with icons, and you know how to edit the icewm configuration files.
So first open a terminal, if you installed one, there should be a treminal icon in the taskbar and in your start( icewm )menu
mkdir ~/.icewm
cp /etc/X11/icewm/* ~/.icewm/
Now, with your favorite editor ( I use Mousepad here... ) create a file "startup" in the ~/.icewm directory and put the following line in it:
rox --pinboard=yourusername &
Save it and make it executable:
chmod +x ~/.icewm/startup
Now logout and log back in, in the Icewm menu -> Logout. Now you come back into Icewm with Rox filer having taken over the desktop and a nice icon sitting there for your home directory. If you right click, you now get the Rox menu, have a look around here, especially the options, this is pretty straight forward.
If you want more things on your desktop, just drag them there from a Rox window. One thing I like to have around is an icon for my cdrom, as this doesn't automatically appears as in gnome: from a rox window, go into the /media directory and drag the cdrom dir to the desktop. Now if you insert a cd and open this icon, it gets mounted automatically....
Setting the standard application for a certain file is also a matter of drag and drop: right click on the file you want to set the standard app for and -> Set run action.
Now in a Rox window go to ( most of the time ) /usr/bin/ and from there drag the application you want to use to the Set run action window. That's it!
There's no trash by default in Rox; you delete files PERMANENTLY by right clicking on them and -> delete. If you want to have a nice trash on your desktop, download a tarsh from here: http://www.hayber.us/rox/misc/Rubbish-001.tgz
Extract the file:
tar xzvf Rubbish-001.tgz
Drag the icon to your desktop and Voila, you now have a trash. Drag stuff to it to put it there. Be warned though: the delete option from the Rox menu still deletes things PERMANENTLY!!!
Two more little nifty Rox tricks: in a Rox window, hit '/' and you can type the location you want to go to, hit 'esc' to get out. Hit 'shift+!' to get a command line, hit 'esc' to get out again
Ok, this far about Rox, now we'll get into configuring Icewm. As you prabably figured out, the configuration files for Icewm are now in ~/icewm.
To add an application to your Icewm menu, there is are two ways. The easy way is to use the 'program's' menu in the Icewm menu. This menu is managed by the menu package. Every time you install a new application,run update-menus from the terminal and this menu will get updated with your new app.
The other way is by editing the ~/.icewm/menu file. Open it with your favorite editor and have a look at it; it's pretty self-explanatory. You can leave it as it is and add things to your needs, or delete everything in there and start all over again as I did. What it comes down to is this:
If you want a menu, add:
menu "NameOfMenu" folder {
}
And DON'T forget the closing bracket:-). If you want a submenu, add the same code between the brackets of the menu.
The syntax for adding a program to a menu is like this:
prog "NameOfProg" pathtoiconofprog commandtoexecute
You don't have to use the " " in the name of the program if it's a single word, but with them you can use spaces in the name.
The path to the icon for the program is nine out of ten times /usr/share/pixmaps/nameofprogram.png. If this doesn't work, try .xpm instead of .png. If that doesn't work, you have to do a bit of searching around.....
So, if for example, we want to create an 'Internet' menu, with a 'Browser' submenu, with 'Firefox' in there, you need the following:
menu "Internet" folder {
menu "Browser" folder {
prog "Firefox" /usr/share/pixmaps/firefox.png firefox
}
}
In the same way you can add programs to your toolbar, only then you have to edit ~/.icewm/toolbar ( DUH ).
Have a look at the other files in~/.icewm as well, especially the preferences. They shouldn't be too much trouble now. Don't change the programs file though, as it is maintained by the menu package.
Also don't forget to have a look int the themes menu in the Icewm menu ( Icewm->themes) I personally like the SilverXP a lot; looks very slick.
Hope I helped some people out with this HOWTO; any comments are very welcome!!! Many thanks to the Ubuntu developers for making this happen and to the Ubuntu community for being so alive and kicking!