switching windows manager from GNOME to IceWM

[Peter Garrett]

On Wed, 19 Apr 2006 23:20:25 -0500
"Michael V. De Palatis" <mdepalatis at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:

> On Thu, Apr 20, 2006 at 11:10:21AM +0800, toylet wrote:
> > I don't boot into GUI mode, but console only and then fire up the X using
> > startx.
> > What should I do to make startx call icewm not gnome?
> 
> You need to edit your ~/.xinitrc file. An example is located here (
> http://www.strath.ac.uk/CC/Courses/oldXC/subsection3_9_3.html
> ). Basically, it's just a file where you tell startx to load programs
> in order. Nothing too complex.
> 
> There is also a .xsession file, and I'm not entirely clear on the
> difference between the two, but the way I understand it, the .xsession
> file is read by an X login manager (XDM, GDM, etc.) if you tell it to
> run the "default" session, whereas startx checks for .xinitrc. I could
> be way off on that, though, so don't get mad if I'm wrong.

As I understnd it, yes, the ~/.xsession file is read as the "Default"
session in gdm. 

"startx" will also read the .xsession file though. So I think .xsession is
probably a better choice than .xinitrc on Ubuntu ( but either will work).

Of course, if you add entries manually in /usr/share/xsessions, you can
point the "Exec" line anywhere you like. Personally, I like to have a
startup script in my $HOME dir to make editing it quick and easy, at least
for some WMs. For instance, on my laptop I have Enlightenment installed,
just for fun, so I made a ~/.xsession.enlightenment startup script for it
with a few tweaks that I wanted, and
pointed my /usr/share/xsessions/enlightenment.desktop file at that. 

I'm the only user on that machine, so I can do what I like :) The script
could just as well be in /usr/local/bin , for instance, but then it would
require sudo to edit it, and I felt lazy ;-)

Peter


-- 

Linux User #343161