Using apt to install X windows and a light window manager

[ajberry]

I am working on a PII 200 MHZ w/ 96 MB RAM. This box is going to function as a firewall most likely, running Red Hat 9.

I just did a fresh install and didn't add any window managers cos I thought I would prefer to just ssh in (it will be headless) and use the CLI.

Now, i think I want to use SSH to tunnel VNC. I need to add a window manager before I do this, ssh is already setup.


I also installed apt, but I don't know how I would use it to install X and a light window manager like ICEwm? ANy other recommendations on a very light window manager?

[Void Main]

blackbox is an excellent lightweight window manager (as is IceWM). There is a blackbox rpm in the FreshRPMS repository so you should be able to just type:

# apt-get install blackbox

and it should install all of the required RPMS as well (X, fonts, etc). I don't believe IceWM is in the FreshRPMS repository but you can force install the IceWM RPM and then use apt to install all of the required packages. It would go something like this:

Download all the latest IceWM files from here then:

# rpm -Uvh icewm*.rpm --nodeps
# apt-get -f install

That last command will figure out what required packages are missing, download them, then install them.

[ajberry]

apt-get install blackbox

that worked, but I can't find any XF86Config file.

I tried locate XF86Config and didn't find anything.

I can't remember the name of the configurator either, something like xf86config or close to that.

I am loving apt for the moment. IF you could point me to that utility that would be great. Thanks for the great tips and tutorials and for all the added assitance. I noticed in one of you posts you mentioned you are running ddclient, any chance a tip on that is coming? I tried several months ago to do that and gave up. I am a lot more proficient in linux than I was then, so I may dive back in here in a few days. Trying to get the firewall up first though. Sorry, </rant>..

[Void Main]

Your XF86Config file would be in /etc/X11 assuming you have run a configurator. If you had configured X during install then Anaconda would have been the configurator. Since you didn't set it up at install time you will probably want to use the redhat-config-xfree86 command. If you don't have that command installed then:

# apt-get install redhat-config-xfree86

Hopefully that'll get you going. If not the Red Hat manuals say that you can also do an "Upgrade Install" and select X and KDE/GNOME environments if you did not install them initially. That's cheating. :)

Feel free to start another thread on ddclient and I'll tell you how I have mine set up.

[ajberry]

Thanks, I am trying that now. I found the python script that generates the file during the installl and ran python <scriptname> and that dumped a blank XF86Config file in the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/ directory. Then I started to wirte my my own file.

This seems a lot easier.

That seemed to work, but it throws the following:

WARNING: You have chosen Fvwm2 as your window manager, but your installation does not appear to be functional. The executable /usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm2 was not found on your system.

RESUMING with TWM
/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients: line 68: xclock: command not found
/etc/X11/xinit/Xclients: line 76: exec: twm: command not found

waiting for X server to shut down

[Void Main]

The XF86Config file (and the redhat-config-xfree86 and other utilities that generate that file) is only for the basic configuration of "X" itself. It has nothing to do with window managers or window manager configuration. You apparently have startup scripts configured to use fvwm2 as your default window manager (which you do not have installed) and as a last resort twm is usually installed as the lowest common denominator window manager (which you may also not have installed). To get the ugly old twm you can:

# apt-get install XFree86-tools
# apt-get install XFree86-twm

[ajberry]

How do I know what the apt repository is calling the packages? That seems to be more than half the battle at the moment.

twm is installed and working. How would I configure X to use blackbox instead?

I'll have to dig up the documentation I used for OpenBSD and KDE, i assume it will be relatively the same.

Thanks again for the fast response.

[Void Main]

You should be able to do a "switchdesk blackbox", unless of course you don't have switchdesk installed:

# apt-get install switchdesk

In case you haven't noticed, installing X after the fact without doing an "Upgrade Installation" can be a little bit of a pain, unless you are very familiar with X. The advantage is you can install the minimum amount of stuff you need rather than all of the stuff Red Hat installs during installation. I never install X on servers but I always install X during install on workstations. I have installed after the fact but this is what you will go through.

You might also want to install a graphical login manager such as gdm:

# apt-get install gdm

Then put your system in runlevel 5 to get the graphical login.

[ajberry]

Okay, blackbox is running. I created an .xinitrc file in /root with the following:

#!/bin/sh
/usr/bin/blackbox

Now I just need to swith the default run-level to 5 from 3. Thanks again for all the help.

I had never seen blackbox until now, it seems to run very well on lesser power systems.

[Void Main]

Yeah, blackbox is a nice little window manager and runs very well in a minimal environment. Have fun...

[ajberry]

Is there a quick and dirty way to find out what the apt repository is naming packages?

I am trying to do the vnc forwarding now and need to grab the vncserver packages.

[Calum]

re: what packages is apt using:

you should find all the packages that apt has downloaded in /var/cache/apt/archives (or similar) i think, does this answer the question?

[Tux]

You need to 'apt-get install vnc-server'.
A quick look at freshrpms.net lists all the packages in the repository and you could also have used synaptic to search for it if this were a more powerful PC.

[ajberry]

Thanks, I found that after googling I needed vnc-server instead of vncserver. I was thinking it would be nice if you could get close to it, it finds it for you. Which, after some more digging, I found this,

apt-cache: searches the package management system (for Debian) when you can't remember the exact package name.
-----Typical usage: # apt-cache search foo

[Calum]

i agree with tux, do "apt-get synaptic" and then run "synaptic" from an xterm for a nice GUI to the apt program.