FvwmAmetista uses OpenGL. It is strongly recommended to use it with a 3D capable video card and an X server which takes advantage of it.
Under an usual (3D accelerated) X session start Xwnc on a free display:
Xwnc -ac -geometry widthxheight :a_free_display
which gives for example:
Xwnc -ac -geometry 1024x768 :1If you do not want to use the -ac option (disable access control restrictions) and if you never run an X server on the Xwnc display, you should use xauth to create an entry in the ~/.Xauthority file. Type "xauth list" to see if you have such entry. Something like:
co=`hostname`":the_free_dpy MIT-MAGIC-COOKIE-1 "`mcookie`; xauth add $coshould create one.
Xwnc listen for WNC connections on a TCP port and accept, by default, all connections. If you have a vnc password file (~/.vnc/passwd, you can create one with vncpasswd) you can use the Xwnc "-rfbauth" option to specify this file. Then, Xwnc will ask for a password.
Type "Xwnc -help" for the full list of the Xwnc options. If you run your regular X server at depth 16, I recommend to use "-depth 16" as an option. In any case this option speed up metisse and saves memory. By default Xwnc runs at depth 24.
Then start fvwm and FvwmAmetista:
metisse-start-fvwm -wd :the_Xwnc_display [-wp password]The -wd option is needed only if the Xwnc display is not :1.
The first time you run metisse-start-fvwm, it creates a new directory .fvwm-metisse in your $HOME and install some configuration files in this directory. The .fvwm2rc file should not be edited. You may have to edit some of these configurations files to feet your need and to develop simple experimentation. See the next section, read the head of ametistarc and see the fvwm man page as well as the FVWM modules man pages.
You can pass options to FvwmAmetista and fvwm via metisse-start-fvwm:
metisse-start-fvwm [ options ] -- [FvwmAmetista options] -- [fvwm options]Some useful FvwmAmetista options:
Do not forget that Metisse is an experimental software!
First, just try it. There is a menu "Ametista Config" which allows to setup some parameters (e.g., move transparency), to enter special mode (e.g., auto scale), to change the windows look, to change the colours and to setup the panels.
For more customization you need to edit some text files. To setup the applications you want to play with, edit applications (the programs menu and the functions which are used by the panels to start applications). If you are not happy with the fonts, edit fonts. If you want more (or less) than 4 desks, edit desks. To change the menus look and feel, edit menustyles. To change the root and the window operations menu, edit menus. If you want to change the backgrounds, edit background. For global feel or specific window look and feel, edit styles. It is not recommended to edit ametistarc, try to edit extra first. It is not so easy to edit modules (the panels definitions). After you have edited a file just restart (or read the appropriate file(s) and run the appropriate fvwm function(s) if you know what you do).
For colours copy colours/Cyan_Grey_Gradient.theme to colours/your_colors_theme.theme, then reload the current colours theme (so that your_colors_theme appear in the ametista config menu). Then, edit colours/your_colors_theme.theme and apply the changes by selecting your_colors_theme in the config menu. For window look and the window buttons copy window/Vectors.theme to window/your_window_theme.theme then reload the current window theme and edit window/your_window_theme.theme and (re)load via the config menu (take a look at the others window theme and use the functions in bindings-functions). Note that the best place to add images (in users space) is ~/.fvwm-metisse/images as it is in the fvwm image path.
The default Mouse and Key bindings follow. For customization, try first to edit bindings-functions and if needed edit bindings. The main problem with bindings is that some bindings can be intercepted by your regular window manager and that if you define a binding this binding will not be passed to the applications which are displayed in FvwmAmetista (pause). For example, if you press "Atl-Tab" when you use FvwmAmetista, "the window list" menu of your running window manager (or desktop) pop up and not the fvwm FvwmAmetista window list. This is the reason why FvwmAmetista uses (for some bindings) complex modifiers sequence (mainly Atl-Shift and Ctl-Shift). This can be not enough, you may have to configure your running window manager and FvwmAmetista so that there is no bindings interferences (this concerns, mainly, key bindings and some special mouse bindings with modifier(s)). For changing the modifiers used by fvwm with FvwmAmetista edit the first section of bindings-functions. An other solution is to run FvwmAmetista without any window manager (and then you can simplify the bindings).
Root Mouse Bindings:
Window Buttons Bindings:
Window Title Bindings:
Window Borders Bindings:
Key Bindings: