Things to change and where to change them
The magic of dotfiles:
dotfiles (files that start with a .) are the config files. These ones are sitting in your home directory. Do ls -a to see what's there.
initial desktop layout:
.xsession (or maybe .xinitrc)
- each command executed if login on X console
- see the man pages for lots of options (e.g., man xterm)
- last line starts window manager, not in the background!
- examples (try them on the command line):
- xclock -digital -update 1 -bg black -fg white -geometry 190x32-0-0 &
- xterm -sb -T `hostname` -n `hostname` -geometry 80x50+10+170 &
- xsetroot -solid gray25 &
global defaults in .Xdefaults (may need to run xrdb -merge $HOME/.Xdefaults)
window manager configuration: .fvwm2rc
- lots of configuration options...we'll just cover a few
- examples:
- number of virtual desktops: DeskTopSize 1x1
- number of Pager columns: *FvwmPagerColumns 2
- focus-follows-mouse or ClickToFocus: Style "*" SloppyFocus
- mouse button 1, in Window, with Meta (Alt) key held down: Mouse 1 W M Move-or-Raise
- Ctrl-Esc anywhere gives WindowList: Key Escape A C WindowList
- a good man page (but long...man fvwm2)
- web page with examples: www.fvwm.org
shell configuration:
.cshrc for tcsh users,
.bashrc for bash users
- example variables, such as prompt:
- CSHRC: set prompt = '%m[%~]%% '
- BASHRC: PS1='\h[\W]\$ '
- example aliases (user-defined commands):
- CSHRC: alias mp4 "mpage -4 \!* | lp"
- CSHRC: alias land enscript -2rhGj
- BASHRC: alias land='enscript -2rhGj'
- BASHRC: function mp4 { mpage -4f $1 | lp; }
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