Window manager

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 activated one is over the other.

   hold key and drag to move the window under cursor

   hold key and drag to resize the window under cursor

   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.

   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.

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

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)

icewm.cfg is the LinuxMCE-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.