[TAG] icewm light weight desktop

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 06:56:53PM +0530, Jpydeep Bakshi wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> I am totally shifted to icewm and I am a newbie on this icewm. that's why I am 
> asking some questions, may be very basic to you all but I don't have much 
> knowledge about it.
> 1) is it possible to get a customised menu where I'll have some very 
> frequently accessed entries like sylpheed-claws, mplayer etc and nothing 
> else ?
 
You can grab a copy of /etc/X11/icewm/menu, place it in your ~/.icewm
directory, and modify it however you see fit. The standard syntax
becomes obvious when you look at the file itself.

> 2) how to create shortcuts on desktop ?
 
Thomas already mentioned that you're suffering from a bit of confusion
in this regard. You don't "create shortcuts on desktop"; you run an
application that allows you to create clickable icons linked to
applications. My favorite is "coolicon", which is available as a
standard Debian package; it does not come with particularly exciting
icons - but you can use any XPM image as an icon, and it's very
flexible, powerful, and lightweight.

You can also create clickable links on the IceWM toolbar - here's my
~/.icewm/toolbar file as an example:

---------------------------------------------------------------------
prog "BackFlip" "xv.xpm" bkgr
prog "Lock screen" "lock_16x16.xpm" xlock -random
prog "CD Player" "dvd_unmount_16x16.xpm" grip --small
prog "Mix" "music_32ndnote_16x16.xpm" /usr/bin/tkmixer
prog "Firefox" "mozilla_16x16.xpm" /usr/bin/firefox
prog "JPilot" "pda_black_16x16.xpm" /usr/bin/jpilot
# prog "Liferea" "rebuild_16x16.xpm" /usr/local/bin/liferea
prog "Snap" "camera_16x16.xpm" /usr/local/bin/snap
prog "Cell-up" "randr_16x16.xpm" /usr/local/bin/cell-up
---------------------------------------------------------------------

The first string after "prog" is the 'hover label' for the icon, the
second one is the 16x16 XPM image to be used, and the third one is the
program to execute. Simple and easy.

Furthermore, IceWM allows you to associate programs with other toolbar
entities (the mail notification icon, the CPU activity icon, the clock,
etc.) See the "preferences" file - same locations as the "menu" file -
and search for the word 'Command' (the variables will be MailCommand,
ClockCommand, etc.)

> 3) how to add wallpaper ?

You can use "icewmbg", or just use the standard X commands (i.e., "xsetbg").

> 4) can I add application-button, applet to panel which I could do in KDE ?

I think you're asking about toolbar buttons - which I've answered above.


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *