Ummm, it would surprise me if gnome -session runs without a window manager. I think rather that it will pick a default window manager if you have not specified one. (Academic difference, but I would like to know if gnome really runs without a window manager.)

Yes, the green world of twm was coming up.

Now, if you followed what I said above, and start XDarwin, you should see the gnome installation coming up to greet you.

When we confirm that, you can then start to configure.

Also, you can start learning how to call gnome-session from other window-managers.

You can use enlightenment, icewm, windowmaker, etc.

Then, we could install some new gtk new themes, so you can have a variety of choice.

I came this way, as I think is interesting you learn to install from source too.

It takes time, but slowly you learn more.


Cheers...

Well, soon we will know.

Before, this confusion about the .xinitrc file, I wanted that BahamutX, start an X session with 'exec enlightenment' and then configure the window manager to work with gnome.

The same I wanted to do with windowmaker.

If you do it that way, even icewm works, and you 'only' need to write in your .xinitrc:

exec gnome-session

I use it everyday in that way.

And that's what rusto was telling WillyT in the beginning of the post.

But when there are too many people cooking the same soup, it gets a bit messy.


Cheers...

Not that many cooks here, is there? :) I don't doubt a second that gnome works without the user specifying a window manager. It was just surprising to hear that gnome wouldn't need a window manager at all.

But I am curious about one more thing. Why do you guys insist on using the fink command instead of apt-get? My experience is that things are a lot less messy using apt-get to get things done. Not to mention the speed difference.

Well, maybe this is not the right thread to discuss this in. But it's in this thread this reluctance to utilize apt-get has been the most obvious.

osxpez,


No, to use apt-get is very fine indeed.


It's just me, I like to install from source.


I'm a bit fanatic about it.


I learned a lot with the 'fink install' command.


And I really prefer that way, sorry about that.


Things building slowly, taking time, digesting the errors, trying again.


Till I find a way, sometimes days, waiting for the answer.


I like that.


Again, is just me.



Cheers...

going to school now... i'll see what i can do when i get home.

Anyway, thanks guys!:D

sao: Sounds like you like the pain. :) Have you thought about offering your assistance to those guys who build the apt-get packages? That way much of the time you spend waiting and tweaking with getting compiles through could be utilized by us lazy apt-get dudes.

haha, i'm in school now, actually i can't get what was displayed in the terminal when programs were installed in the 'fink install' command. But i find it very fun to see the terminal processing.:D

BahamutX,

Again, I made several mistakes.

Please, do the following, go to terminal and type:

wmaker.inst

This creates and will set up the .xinitrc automatically to use windowmaker, in the user's home directory.

To change to a different window manager, change the line that says

'exec wmaker'

to exec somemthing else, for example

'exec icewm' or 'exec blackbox'


After you did this, open your ~/.xinitrc file and it should be just like this:


After this, open XFree86 with XDarwin and you should be greeted by the windowmaker icons.

Now, to start gnome for the first time, let's do as ospez said:

Delete 'exec wmaker' in your /~.xinitrc file, and write:


WINDOW_MANAGER=sawfish
exec gnome-session


Start, XFree and you should get a gnome-session running. (You should see the panels, etc)


Cheers...

my .xintic looks different.. but I'll run Xdarwin now



#!/bin/sh
# $Xorg: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.3 2000/08/17 19:54:30 cpqbld Exp $

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f $userresources ]; then
xrdb -merge $userresources
fi

if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
xmodmap $usermodmap
fi

# start some nice programs

twm &
xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &
exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login
WINDOW_MANAGER=sawfish
exec gnome-session

BahamutX,

This is weird.

1-Did you run from terminal

wmaker.inst ?


2- Are you looking to your ~/.xinitrc
(in your home directory, /Users/pm/.xinitrc)

or xinitrc at
/private/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

I say it one more time,

change your home directory ~/.xinitrc file to look like this:


that will start you in windowmaker.

or like this:


That will start you in gnome.


Cheers...

I've been following this thread, trying to get the gnome and XDarwin to run on my machine, and so far all of the installations have gone fine (thanks to all your detailed instructions), but for some reason, when I launch XDarwin, it doesn't launch a window manager, or if it does, there are no windows or terminals or anything I can use. It's just a blanck screen.

It seems like it's not even looking at my .xinitrc file, or even the /etc/X11/xinitrc file.

Two things that might be causing this problem, as best I can tell:

I had a previous installation of the complete Xfree86 4.2 package (downloaded from Apple's site), which I removed (from /usr and /etc) before following the instructions in this thread. I had been using OroborOSX as my window manager, but I wanted to start fresh and get the gnome working.

I don't think it should matter, but I'm running bash instead of tcsh. I made sure all the appropriate directories are in my $PATH (/usr/X11R6/bin, /sw/bin, etc). Just to see if this was in fact the problem, I tried running tcsh before I launched XDarwin.

To make sure I'm doing this part right, the command I've been typing is either

XDarwinStartup -rootless
or simply XDarwin

Either way, it launches and gives this output:


2002-05-23 11:23:30.109 XDarwin[9080]
XDarwin 1.1
Running rootless inside Mac OS X window server.

XFree86 Version 4.2.0 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6600)
Release Date: 18 January 2002
If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your hardware is
newer than the above date, look for a newer version before
reporting problems. (See http://www.XFree86.Org/FAQ)
Operating System: Darwin
Using keymapping provided in /System/Library/Keyboards/USA.keymapping.
_XSERVTransmkdir: Owner of /tmp/.X11-unix should be set to root
Display mode: Rootless Quartz
Screen 0 added: 1056x771 @ (0,21)
Screen 0 placed at X11 coordinate (0,0).


From there I can switch to XDarwin, but there's nothing but a mouse cursor and the menus. My .xinitrc calls twm (as does /etc/X11/xinitrc), but I get no windows. What am I doing wrong?


thanks!


tar

tar,

1-Have you installed a window manager ?

2-Can you please post yor ~/.xinitrc file ?

3- I you use bash, set your environment in .profile with:

/sw/bin/init.sh

4-When you deleted your previous XFree86 installation did you run:

sudo rm -rf /usr/X11R6 /etc/X11 /Applications/XDarwin.app


Cheers...

my ~/.xinitrc:

# Window Maker default X session startup script

PATH="$PATH:/sw/bin"

# If you login from xdm, uncomment this to make error messages appear
# in the console window.
#
# tail -f /Users/travis/.xsession-errors > /dev/console &

exec wmaker


I did install windowmaker (it's in /sw/bin), and twm exists in /usr/X11R6/bin. I also ran wmaker.inst, which is why my ~/.xinitrc looks like it does.

I was already calling /sw/bin/init.sh in my ~/.bashrc file (which is called by ~/.profile). All those directories appear in my path, so I know that's working right.

When I deleted the other installations, I did remove the entire directories with root access. Fink wouldn't install on top of an old installation, so I had to remove it before it would go any further. I just moved the old XDarwin.app to the trash though. One thing that was strange, the new installation of XDarwin didn't appear as an application in the Finder. It had the .app extension, but it showed up as a folder. If I navigated to the actual file (XDarwin/Contents/MacOS), it didn't have the right files in it, nor would it launch if I tried to click on it. It was just a document. I ended up putting the one that I had trashed back in /Applications to replace it, and it started launching again. It's the same version, so it should be okay, right?


thanks for your help!


tar

I get a permission denied...

[bahamut:~] root# ~/.xinitrc
/private/var/root/.xinitrc: Permission denied.

any ideas?

where i opened my home directory, i saw a 'GNUstep' folder I i remember correctly, it' something to do with the windowmaker right?

tar,

Do you have the April Dev Tools installed ?


Cheers...

sao -

I do have the April Developer tools installed. I just downloaded and installed it a few days ago. Did I shoot myself in the foot by doing so?


tar

oh yeah.... sao, i forgot one thing. I'm always logged in as root. Is there anything wrong with that? I feel like i'v done something wring by making all my installations in root

Bahamutz,


Forget about the xinitrc file in /private/etc/X11/xinit. !!!


If you don't answer correctly, I can't help you.


Did you run:

wmaker.inst in terminal ?

Yes or no.

If you did, this should have put you a .xinitrc (invisible file) in your home directory, same as tar tells us in the post above.

And in this xinitrc file, which you can open with pico, you will then see the following:


Do you have this ?


Cheers...