Member Avatar for steven woodman

Its mr. question/linux noob, I am now wondering about windows managers: were to find them and how to install. Since every question ive asked in these forums have been answered quickly there no reason to stop.

Thanks in advance.
SW

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A short practical primer that ties together points from the thread and fills in missing steps.

KDE is a full desktop environment that brings its own panels, services and settings; a window manager (WM) only handles window placement, decorations and minimal session behavior. As clarified, multiple environments and WMs can coexist — they are chosen at the graphical login, not the boot menu — so installing another WM won’t require reinstalling the OS. ’s Synaptic tip is useful for browsing packages and descriptions before installing.

To try a WM safely: install the WM package (avoid the full “desktop” meta-package if a light session is the goal), then confirm the display manager has a session file. Look for available sessions with:

ls /usr/share/xsessions

A quick, low-risk way to test a WM from a text console is to create a minimal ~/.xinitrc that execs the WM and run startx. Example (replace with the chosen WM’s session command):

#!/bin/sh
exec fluxbox

To make a session selectable or the per-user default, either pick it from the login manager’s Session menu or create a ~/.dmrc entry like:

[Desktop]
Session=Fluxbox

Troubleshooting notes: if a new session fails or shows a black screen, switch to a VT (Ctrl+Alt+F1), inspect ~/.xsession-errors and /var/log/Xorg.0.log for clues, and test with a fresh user account to rule out bad user config. For Fluxbox specifically, configs live in ~/.fluxbox (init, menu, keys, startup) as and mentioned — simple edits there change behavior without a GUI. Avoid installing multiple full desktop meta-packages at once; mixing background services and applets can produce duplicated panels and surprises.

Recommended Answers

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Member Avatar for jbennet

If its (whatever)-buntu or another debian-based linux distribution, you can install the desktops using apt-get

e.g

apt-get update
apt-get install kde

alternatively, on *buntu you can get the whole desktops and associated apps. E.g to add a full KDE desktop to ubuntu, try

apt-get update
apt-get install kubuntu-desktop
Member Avatar for steven woodman

i am using kubuntu with kde but from what ive heard there could be better windows managers and you can have more then one installed which you can choose from on boot up. is the true?

sw

Member Avatar for jbennet

you can choose from on boot up

no thats for different operating systems. e.g i can have vista, redhat and ubuntu

What you can do however is, say you want the GNOME desktop, just insall ubuntu-desktop, and then at the login manager, click session and choose GNOM/KDE/whatever as your desktop

Member Avatar for steven woodman

Got ya! i thought it was boot must have misunderstood. so if say i wanted to use gnome i just use the apt-get method?

Member Avatar for jbennet

yeah to get KNOME on kubuntu just try

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome

Member Avatar for linux

Or, go into Synaptics (System>Administration>Synaptics Package Manager) and install whatever you want.

KDE, GNOME, Fluxbox (don't even try), Blackbox (again), Openbox (again), IceWM (windows lookalike), etc.

Member Avatar for jbennet

fluxbox is nice if you want a mac-type interface suitable for slower pcs

Member Avatar for lio04

Yeah, Fluxbox is so fine, but many settings is only in configuration file.

Fluxbox is very configurable, that is good.

Member Avatar for jbennet

Yeah, Fluxbox is so fine, but many settings is only in configuration file.

dreamlinux comes with a nice interface for it, dont know if its available seperately or not

Member Avatar for vl4kn0

I'm using fluxbox right now and I'm glad for that. It's very easy to use and configuration is not very difficult. On google are many manuals how to configure fluxbox.

Member Avatar for steven woodman

Thanks all, this forum has helped me a lot. Plus it got me on my way with apt-get and i am now becoming more comfortable with command line.

SW

Member Avatar for jbennet

heres a tip btw, if the gui ever crashes really really badly - hit control-alt-backspace. You will lose any unsaved work but avaoid a reboot.

Member Avatar for steven woodman

thanks, but that was learned a while ago and has come in handy i might add. A friend of mine, who lives in another province, has been using linux for ten years, much to my suprise, and he has been giving me lessons.

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