Window manager

This page was written by Pluto and imported with their permission when LinuxMCE branched off in February, 2007. In general any information should apply to LinuxMCE. However, this page should be edited to reflect changes to LinuxMCE and remove old references to Pluto.

Icewm notes

Almost all user interaction was disabled.

We use only 2 desktops:

   desktop 1 is the normal desktop, and should be always selected
   desktop 2 is the desktop used for hidding windows that should not appear

Icewm supports 7 layers. We use only 3 layers for windows:

   OnTop, Normal, Below.

If 2 windows are on the same layer, then the last activeted one is over the other.

Keys for testing and debugging

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Pointer_Button1

   hold key and drag to move the window under cursor

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Pointer_Button3

   hold key and drag to resize the window under cursor

Alt+Ctrl+Shift+Del

   press R to restart icewm

   If the icewm configuration is changed, icewm need to be restarted.
   It will keep the windows on the same position and the same desktop.

Alt+Ctrl+Shift+Esc

   show the window list

   In the window list, arrow keys allow to select a window, Enter to
   activate that window.
   Activating a window will activate it's desktop, too.

Debugging and testing

If one wants to do some debugging, like showing the taskbar or the window border, go to the end of ~/.icewm/preferences and uncomment those lines.

   Press Ctrl-Alt-Shift-Del and R (Restart)
   to load the new configuration in Icewm

Icewm Taskbar

After the taskbar is activated in ~/.icewm/preferences:

- the lower-right button (>) will hide it

- the lower-right button (<) will show it again

- the taskbar is on the "OnTop" layer, so it may be below other windows

- right-click on a task will bring up a menu, used to control that app

- some items in the task menu are marked with a symbol

-- this mark show the current application status

- some items in the task-menu are deactivated

-- because the application does not support that action

-- or because that action was deactivated in icewm config files

-- or because that action is not available right now (i.e. cannot be maximized twice)

Configuration

icewm.cfg is the pluto-config-directory for icewm ~/.icewm is the one known by icewm

Copy ( or make a symbolic link to ) it in the user's $HOME directory i.e.: cp -a icewm.cfg ~/.icewm

Icewm-session will launch the window manager and all programs needed by Icewm. It should be started after X11, instead of icewm.

Original Document

http://svn.plutohome.com/pluto/trunk/src/utilities/linux/window_manager/wm_icewm/ICEWM_CONFIG.txt