Running Linux, Third Edition

The fvwm Window Manager

Your choice of window manager determines, to a large extent, the look and feel of your X environment. Many window managers also provide menus, which allow you to start other X applications using the mouse, and a virtual desktop, which increases your overall desktop space considerably.

fvwm is a virtual desktop window manager used by many Linux users. It is based partially on the code for twm, a classic window manager included with the MIT X11 distribution. However, fvwm has been trimmed down and requires about half the memory used by twm—welcome news for Linux systems with 8 MB or less of physical RAM. fvwm provides many features not available in other window managers, and for this reason (as well as the fact it was developed specifically for Linux), we are covering it here.

Unlike twm and some other window managers, fvwm undergoes constant development. This means that some of the features described here may not be present in the same form in newer versions of the software. Refer to the manual page for fvwm to verify that the features presented here are available. We will cover Version 2 of fvwm here.

Among the features offered by fvwm are:

• A simple virtual desktop, which provides a pager (an overall birds-eye view of the desktop) and automatic desktop scrolling when the pointer reaches the screen boundary.

• A keyboard equivalent for almost every mouse-based feature; this is helpful when using X on laptops without a mouse or trackball, or for people with ...