SYNOPSIS

None

DESCRIPTION

In this HOWTO I will show you how to setup FVWM-Crystal desktop with ROX-Filer file manager, so they are working smoothly.

What is ROX-Filer?

(From the ROX-Filer manual) ROX-Filer is a graphical file manger for the X Window System. Its user interface is based on the RISC OS filer and it supports similar features such as application directories and drag-and-drop loading and saving of files. The filer can also act as a pinboard, allowing you to pin frequently used files onto the desktop background.

Homepage: http://rox.sourceforge.net

In Crystal, while you can utilize an application-based work system (open an application and from it’s menu open a document), ROX-Filer will let you use also document-based work style (open a document file in selected application), of course after a little customization of Filer’s settings.

How to make ROX-Filer work with FVWM-Crystal?

Install ROX-Filer. I assume that executable is called rox. If name is different, change it accordingly or make a symlink to /usr/local/bin/rox.

In FVWM-Crystal you can select a desktop manager to use. This option is located in: Diamond ⇒ Preferences ⇒ Desktop manager. Select ROX-Filer. Crystal will ask you to logout and start again your X session - you can do it right away or later, if you wish.

If everything was correctly installed, FVWM-Crystal should run with gray background and Home icon in the upper-left corner of the screen (that’s ROX’s pinboard). Now click on the background and from the menu select ROX-Filer ⇒ Options. Go to Iconified windows and turn off Show iconified windows option. Now go to Compatibility section and turn on Pass all backdrop mouse clicks to window manager option. This way you will be able to open terminal windows using RMB on the desktop. ROX-Filer menu can be still accessed by clicling with RMB on the icons. You can now change ROX’s options at will.

You can change desktop wallpaper using the Crystal’s menu system.

Known issues:

  • window thumbnails aren’t transparent, probably because FVWM doesn’t use ROX’s pinboard as the source of transparency for it’s icons?

  • Icon selected on the desktop stays selected; that’s because ROX-Filer sends all mouse button clicks to the window manager. If you don’t want a selected icon on the desktop all the time, open a directory or launch a file from your desktop.

AUTHORS

Documentation written by Maciej Delmanowski <harnir@berlios.de> and ported to asciidoc by Dominique Michel <dominique_libre@users.sourceforge.net>

COPYRIGHT

FVWM-Crystal and all the scripts and other files coming with the distribution are subject to the GNU General Public License (GPL). Please refer to the COPYING file that came with FVWM-Crystal for details.

BUGS

Bug reports can be sent to the fvwm-crystal-users mailing list at https://mail.gna.org/listinfo/fvwm-crystal-users/.