16. Installing Window Maker

I choose to install Window Maker as the Window Manager. This is because I've used WindowMaker for quite a while now and I'm very satisfied with it. As usual, you don't have to do what I'm doing; install whatever you want. As you might know, you can install several Window Managers simultaneously and choose which one to start by specifying it in the $HOME/.xinitrc (or $HOME/.xsession in case you decide to use xdm) file.

16.1 Preparing the system for the Window Maker installation

Installing libPropList

• Unpack the libPropList archive
• Configure the package by running configure
• Compile the package by running make
• Install the package by running make install

Installing libXpm

• Unpack the libXpm archive
• Prepare the compilation by running xmkmf; make Makefiles; make includes; make depend

Ignore the warning about not being able to find the X11/xpm.h file from make depend.

• Compile the package by running make

The compilation process will abort because the X11/xpm.h file cannot be found. So we install this file now and then recompile.

• Go to the lib directory
• Install the libraries and header files by running make install
• Go to the top level directory and recompile the package by running make
• Install the rest of the package by running make install

Installing libpng

• Unpack the libpng archive
• Compile the package by running make -f scripts/makefile.lnx
• Install the package by running make -f scripts/makefile.lnx install

Installing libtiff

• Unpack the libtiff archive
• Configure the package by running configure
• Compile the package by running make
• Install the package by running make install

Installing libjpeg

• Unpack the libjpeg archive
• Configure the package by running configure --enable-shared --enable-static
• Compile the library by running make libjpg.la
• Compile the tools and install the package by running make install

Installing libungif

• Unpack the libungif archive
• Configure the package by running configure
• Compile the package by running make
• Install the package by running make install

Installing WindowMaker

• Unpack the WindowMaker archive
• Configure the package by running configure
• Compile the package by running make
• Install the package by running make install

16.2 Updating dynamic loader cache

• Update the dynamic loader cache by running ldconfig

16.3 Configuring WindowMaker

Every user who wishes to use WindowMaker has to run the wmaker.inst script before he or she can use it. This script will copy the necessary files into the user's home directory and modify the $HOME/.xinitrc file (or create it if it's not there yet).

• Setup WindowMaker for yourself by running wmaker.inst

16.4 Testing WindowMaker

• Start the X server and see if the WindowMaker Window Manager starts properly by running startx