Arch Linux

r00

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA

Registered: 2007-10-28

Posts: 21

Lightweight WMs and AWN

I've seen tons of people using this combination in the screen shot threads but I have a couple questions pertaining to light weight window managers such as *box, xfce, icewm, etc and using Avant Window Navigator. Now I'm pretty sure you have to use a compositor such as compiz / fusion or beryl. Wouldn't a compositor kill resources eliminating the whole point of using these WMs  or am I wrong here?

I guess my second question would be installing AWN. Would would the best compositor be? I've tried installing compiz with no luck at all. I'm running Arch on my HP nc2400 laptop that has uses the i810 intel driver. I keep getting the infamous:

compiz.real: GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap is missing
compiz.real: Failed to manage screen: 0
compiz.real: No managable screens found on display :1.0

Is anyone on these forums running compiz or any other compositor successfully on an i810 driver?

peets

Member

From: Montreal

Registered: 2007-01-11

Posts: 936

Website

Re: Lightweight WMs and AWN

I don't know about AWN.

I have run compiz on the i810 intel driver.

Make sure you've followed the instructions in the "composite" article on the wiki. You may also want to check out the one about compiz.

After that, the simplest way I found to start compiz (I had compiz-fusion-git) is to have a ~/.xinitrc file that looks something like this:

compiz ccp&
exec urxvt
#or exec xterm
#or exec some panel or menu or something

and calling "startx".

Compiz is a window manager, not just a compositor. The only compositor that is separate from window managers that I know of is xcompmgr, which was meant as a "proof-of-concept" compositor. I think this compositor-wm mixup is frustrating (compiz sucks at managing windows).

Anyway, if you're already under X, you can try the command

compiz --replace ccp

If you're under GNOME I think you can just call

fusion-icon

Afterwards you will want to run the compiz config settings manager:

ccsm

Last edited by peets (2007-11-05 00:12:36)

r00

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA

Registered: 2007-10-28

Posts: 21

Re: Lightweight WMs and AWN

Thanks for the info peets. I'm still a little confused though. Does this mean I don't have to run Compiz to get AWN running? Or should I be using xcompmgr instead?

r00

Member

From: Philadelphia, PA

Registered: 2007-10-28

Posts: 21

Re: Lightweight WMs and AWN

Wow... after installing xcompmgr, shadows and AWN worked just like that!

Thanks a lot peets!

Xilon

Member

Registered: 2007-01-01

Posts: 243

Re: Lightweight WMs and AWN

Just to be clear, compiz is a WM, not just a compositing manager. You cannot use two WMs at the same time on the same DISPLAY. xcompmgr is the only standalone compositing manager I know of, and it works almost perefctly with AWN.