Re: Problems with clean install of fvwm
On Fri 23 Feb 2018 at 09:12:04 (-0600), Richard Owlett wrote:
> On 02/23/2018 05:46 AM, Richard Owlett wrote:
> >History
> >I run MATE, but to paraphrase a restaurant - "I want Debian MyWay" ;)
> >It was suggested that I wanted what KDE calls "activities".
> >It looked promising. I installed it. It suffers from featuritis.
> >fvwm-crystal was also suggested. When installed it was in some
> >sense "cleaner" but still too busy. Launched fvwm which had been
> >installed by the fvwm-crystal package.
> >
> >The problem
> >It had "inherited" configuration items from fvwm-crystal. The web
> >pages I had read spoke of a default 1st run display. I could not
> >figure out how to get that to appear.
> >
> >Having adequate space available I used netinst to do a base
> >command line only install to a new partition. It was followed by
> >doing "apt-get install fvwm".
> >
> >I rebooted expecting a minimal fvwm display. I got a command line.
>
> To clarify I got a console command line (Whole screen is one window
> with no graphical ornaments !)
>
> >I found that though a "/home/richard/.fvwm" directory had been
> >created, it was empty. I couldn't find copies of what files should
> >have been there on initial first run. Only instructions/examples
> >for adding this or that doodad.
> >
>
> It was suggested that
> >So to get you kick-started,
> >just create a file named "config" in your /home/richard/.fvwm
> >consisting of this one line:
> >
> > Read /usr/share/fvwm/default-config/config
> That did not solve my problem.
>
> I copied the file at
> http://www.einval.com/~steve/debian/fvwm2rc.example to
> /home/richard/.fvwm2rc .
> I then executed `fvwm2 -f "FvwmM4 .fvwm2rc"'
> The result was " [fvwm][main] <<ERROR>> can't open display
>
> Reasoning by analogy with use of startx I had tried "fvwm" at the
> command line and received "can't open display".
>
> I tried issuing "startx" itself and received "command not found".
>
> When I had initially done "apt-get install fvwm", should some
> portion of the Xsystem been installed?
It sounds to me as if you're misinterpreting the concept of Debian's
dependencies. The idea is that when you install package A (which
needs library B) and run it, the call to library B doesn't point
into outer space but into an installed library.
It doesn't mean that if you install a package designed to run on
X that apt will immediately install all the packages required for
a functional X system.
So what fvwm does is to run, look around, then say "I don't see
anything upon which I could usefully perform, so it gives up
in good order after saying why.
Cheers,
David.
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