Installation of Multiple Window Managers

[tonyB]

I did say I'm a noob. But I can admit when I mess up. First, only half of the problem is resolved as dwm still is not behaving. But I don't care about it nearly as much as awesome wm.
At the bottom of the rc.lua I put a comment and the code for the script-
-- Autorun some apps
awful.spawn.with_shell("~/.config/awesome/autorun.sh")
Whoops! The script is named autostart.sh, yep. Laugh and point. I do deserve after taking up so much forum real estate. I can only guess that after I wrote the "Autorun some apps" comment I had autorun on autotype in my brain. I don't know how I missed that again after even looking at it several times, but I think that my eyes got crossed as the offending Autorun comment was right there to anchor me. I have also changed the comment to Autostart some apps. Also, when dwm was doing seemingly the same thing, I assumed it was some mystical startup process that I was not initiated in. I think that I may have mild dyslexia.
It really helps to sleep on it and approach it again with a fresh and not frustrated brain.

Oh, and with the initial .profile sourcing of ~/.local/bin utterly failing, I think that helped in my assumption that the startup is broken.. Really that should be fixed.

[anticapitalista]

~/.local/bin doesn't exist on MX. You have to create it.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Oh, and with the initial .profile sourcing of ~/.local/bin utterly failing, I think that helped in my assumption that the startup is broken.. Really that should be fixed.

~/.profile isn't read when logging it via LightDM, you'll have to either source it in ~/.xsessionrc or drop LightDM and run with a console login instead.

EDIT: and you don't need to patch dwm, just create your own .desktop file in /usr/share/xsessions/ that calls a custom startup script for dwm in it's Exec= line.

I use this:

Code: Select all

# /usr/share/xsessions/dwm.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Dwm
Comment=Dynamic window manager
Exec=dwm-session
Icon=dwm
Type=XSession

With this at /usr/local/bin/dwm-session:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
xset s 300 -dpms b off
if [ -f "${HOME}/Pictures/wallpaper.png" ]
then
   hsetroot -cover "${HOME}/Pictures/wallpaper.png"
else 
   xsetroot -solid "#101112"
fi
slstatus &
exec dwm

But note that the Debian dwm package also provides /usr/share/xsessions/dwm.desktop and so will conflict.

[tonyB]

@ Head_on_a_Stick
Hey thanks that works great. I must admit I am still a bit lost on what the .desktop files can do. I'm 3 months in to linux and the amount of info one needs is enormous. That and I am more interested in learning actual coding. My first try dropped me info a default session and I'm like oh yeah.. I did forget something obvious.. sudo cmod 755 /usr/local/bin/dwm-session then it worked just fine. I will just use this for the autostart. Plus I can use this tip for other various sessions I'm sure. Great! Also I don't use the package managers build for dwm but one I am slowly working on. I did install the one from the PM but only to copy the .desktop file and icon because as I said I don't know much about them. Then I uninstall, put the .desktop file back in .xsessions and build from source. And it won't conflict as I just now copied it over with your good advice. As for uninstalling LightDM, I have experimented with that on a VM and got some strange results when I do a snapshot and try to install it again. In a VM of course. Or one time it would get stuck just loading. I think it seems to be pretty tied into the MX installer functions unless I am mistaken. I don't want to mess with all of that. The MX installer and snapshots and remastercc are why I love MX. Quite simply the best linux tools on the internet I say.

@ anticapitalista
I could create ~/.local/bin all day long and .profile still won't read it. The only thing I have found to work
export PATH="$PATH:$(du "$HOME/.local/bin/" | cut -f2 | tr '\n' ':' | sed 's/:*$//')"
in the .xsessionrc that is not there by default. Yet the .profile is with a message that say its not read if you have a .bash_profile or .bash_login. Well I don't and still does not read the thing. So its broken. Needs fixing or remove the thing as its misleading. Or add a line that say it needs to be sourced elsewhere if you use LightDM cause you are as you just installed MX, for new users. Like me. So back to the .xsessionrc and
[ -f ~/.profile ] && . ~/.profile