Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Implementing Window Manager Customizations

If you edit your .fvwm2rc file, simply restart fvwm2 to have the changes implemented. In most environments, there will be a menu item that restarts the window manager. The vanilla setup we started with offers the item Exit Fvwm on the Root menu. If you select that item, you’ll get a submenu titled Really Quit Fvwm? that contains several entries, including Restart Fvwm. When you select Restart Fvwm, your configuration changes should be implemented. A slower but just as effective way is to quit the X session and start it again (presuming your session startup file includes fvwm2).

A Quick Tour of the fvwm2 Environment

In any desktop environment with multiple virtual screens/pages, you can work on only a single screenful at a time. But fvwm2 makes it easy to run applications on different pages, move applications between pages, and switch the view between pages. If you refer to a particular window all the time, you can even arrange for it to appear on every page of every desktop. (We’ll come back to this concept of “sticky” windows.) And you’re not limited to viewing a page proper or keeping a window entirely on a single page.

Figure 19-1 shows an example of a typical fvwm2 environment. Notice the long horizontal box in the bottom right corner of the figure. This box is the FvwmButtons module (also called the button bar ). FvwmButtons is generally used to house a number of tools and applications to which the user needs frequent access. Often ...