2 Installation Instructions for WindowMaker
8 (ie: I've heard someone has compiled it on...)
10 - Intel/Linux RedHat 4.2 (primary platform)
11 - Intel/Linux other distributions
12 - Sparc/Linux RedHat 5.1
14 - Alpha/Linux RedHat 5.1
16 - Solaris 2.5.1, 2.5.2
23 - AIX 4.1.4 / IBM PowerPC
24 - DEC Alpha/Digital UNIX 4.x
27 Patches to make it work on other platforms are welcome.
33 The following software is required to use WindowMaker
36 WindowMaker can be compiled in older versions of X, like X11R5
37 (Solaris) or X11R4 (OpenWindows) but it will not work 100% correctly.
38 In such servers there will not be application icons and you'll have
39 trouble using the dock.
42 If you will build WindowMaker, make sure you have gcc and the X header files
43 installed. Specially for newbie Linux users: you must install all X development
44 packages and the gcc suite. Otherwise you won't be able to build any X program,
45 including WindowMaker.
51 These libraries are not required to make WindowMaker work, but they
52 are supported in case you want to use them. Version numbers are those
53 that I have (and therefore, guraranteed to work), but other versions
54 might work too. Tell me if you made wmaker work with some library
55 with a version older than the stated here.
59 Older versions may not work!!!
60 Available at ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/X/
62 There is builtin support for XPM files, but it will not
63 load images in some uncommon encodings.
65 - libpng 0.96 or newer and zlib
66 For PNG image support.
68 - libtiff 3.4 or newer
69 For TIFF image support.
70 You can get it at ftp://ftp.sgi.com/graphics/tiff
73 For JPEG image support
75 - libgif 2.2 or libungif
79 If you want to use translated messages, you will need GNU gettext.
80 Other versions of gettext are not compatible and will not work.
81 Get the GNU version from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu
83 Most of these can be get from ftp.uu.net/pub/graphics
89 These options can be passed to the configure script to enable/disable
90 some WindowMaker features. Example:
92 ./configure --enable-kanji
94 will configure WindowMaker with kanji characters support compiled in.
97 --disable-xpm disables use of the XPM library even if it is available on
100 --disable-png disables use of PNG library
102 --disable-tiff disable use of TIFF library
104 --disable-gif disable use of GIF library
106 --disable-jpeg disable use of JPEG library
108 --disable-shape disables shaped windows (for oclock, xeyes etc.)
110 --enable-debug adds extra debugging information. Do not use it
111 unless you're debugging WindowMaker.
113 --enable-kanji support to display Kanji characters, Korean, Chinese
114 and other languagues that require special characters.
116 --enable-single-icon enables the collapsing of all appicons of the
117 WM_CLASS+WM_INSTANCE into a single one. This feature is not
118 supported at all by the developers. If you have some trouble with it,
119 contact it's author: Christopher Seawood <cls@seawood.org>
122 PLATFORM SPECIFIC NOTES:
123 ========================
124 - SCO Unix - run configure like
125 CFLAGS="-belf -DANSICPP" ./configure
128 If you have gcc installed, after running configure, edit
129 src/config.h and change the #define CPP_PATH line to
130 #define CPP_PATH "gcc -E -x c"
131 Sun's cpp lacks some features needed by WindowMaker and it can
132 cause problems when parsing the config files.
135 Make sure you don't have the LANG and LINGUAS environment variables
136 set to en_RN. Also, make sure you have /usr/local/bin in your
137 PATH environment variable, as for some mysterious reason the folks
138 at RedHat did not include it in the default configuration files
142 You will need to have the latest version of Xpmac. Older versions
143 seem to have bugs that cause the system to hang.
146 If you want JPEG and TIFF support, make sure you have libtiff-dev
147 and libjpeg-dev installed.
149 - MetroX (unknown version)
150 MetroX has a bug that corrupts pixmaps that are set as window
151 backgrounds. If you use MetroX and has weird problems with
152 textures, do not use textures in titlebars. Or use a different
159 Unpack WindowMaker-data.tar.gz and move the pixmaps directory in it
160 to /usr/local/share/pixmaps
162 You can get the file at ftp://ftp.windowmaker.org. This file is not strictly
163 necessary, but contains some additional nice icons and other things.
166 autoconf and automake
167 ---------------------
169 autoconf and automake are not required, but if you have them installed,
170 make sure you have autoconf 2.12 and automake 1.3 or newer. If you have
171 an older version, disable them by temporarily renaming them to something
172 else or uninstalling them from your system.
178 Note: You only need to build libPropList if you don't have it installed
181 libPropList is included with the distribution, so you don't
182 need to download it anywhere (some people have asked me this...)
183 But if you already have libPropList installed on you system you
184 can skip this step, since configure will detect that and use the
185 installed version first if available.
187 To build libPropList, simply type the following at the shell prompt:
189 gunzip -c libPropList.tar.gz | tar xf -
194 then, login as root and type:
201 If this is the first time you're building WindowMaker, you can
207 then, login as root and type:
211 or if you want to strip the binaries from debugging symbols and make them
212 smaller, you can instead type:
216 This will build and install WindowMaker with default parameters.
218 If you want to customize some compile-time options, you can do the
221 1. (optional) Look at the CONFIGURE OPTIONS section above for the
222 options available. Also run:
226 to get a complete listing of other options that are available.
228 Note that the WPrefs.app installation path is configured
229 in a different way. Look at WPrefs/README for information.
231 2. Run configure with the options you want. For example, if you
232 want to use the --enable-kanji option, type:
234 ./configure --enable-kanji
236 3. (optional) Edit src/wconfig.h with your favorite text editor
237 and browse through it for some options you might want to change.
239 4. Compile WindowMaker. Just type:
243 5. Login as root (if you can't do that, read the "I don't have the
244 root password :-(" section) and install WindowMaker in your system.
249 User specific configuration
250 ---------------------------
252 These instructions do not need to be followed when upgrading WindowMaker
253 from an older version, unless stated differently in the NEWS file.
255 Every user on your system that wishes to run WindowMaker must do the
258 1. Install WindowMaker configuration files in your home directory.
262 wmaker.inst will install WindowMaker configuration files and will
263 setup X to automatically launch WindowMaker at startup.
265 That's it! The configuration file where you can edit your preferences
266 is $HOME/GNUstep/Defaults/WindowMaker.
267 The $HOME/GNUstep/Defaults/WMWindowAttributes file is where you assign
268 icons to applications and edit some other attributes for windows. This can
269 be also edited from the "Attributes Panel". To access it, click the titlebar
270 of the window with the Right mouse button and select "Attributes...".
272 The $HOME/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/menu file is the definition of
273 the root menu. Edit it according to the applications you have installed.
275 Read the User Guide for a more in depth explanation of WindowMaker.
276 The User Guide is avaiable at http://windowmaker.org
278 You might want to take a look at the FAQ too.
281 I don't have the root password :(
282 ---------------------------------
284 If you can't get superuser privileges (can't be root) you can install
285 wmaker in your own home directory. For that, supply the --prefix option
286 when running configure in step 2 of building WindowMaker . Example:
288 ./configure --prefix=/home/jshmoe
290 If you use national language support, you must also supply the --with-nlsdir
293 ./configure --prefix=/home/jshmoe --with-nlsdir=/home/jshmoe/lib/locale
295 Then make /home/jshmoe/bin be included in your search path and run
302 If you are upgrading from an older version of WindowMaker:
304 1. Configure and build WindowMaker as always
305 2. Install WindowMaker (but do not run wmaker.inst)
306 3. Read the NEWS file and update your configuration files,
312 When you have some trouble during configuration (while running configure),
313 like not being able to use a graphic format library you think you have
314 installed, look at the config.log file for clues of the problem.
317 == When I try to start X after installing wmaker, I get this:
318 exec: wmaker: not found
320 You probably are using a brain-damaged distribution. Add /usr/local/bin
321 into your path environment variable (editing .cshrc or .profile)
323 == Error during build of libPropList
325 make: *** No rule to make target `libPropList.a.c', needed by
326 `libPropList.a.o'. Stop.
328 Make sure the autoconf and automake versions you have installed are at
333 If you are using the RPM's that come with RedHat 4.x, don't use them.
334 It is broken. Uninstall the RPM and reinstall a fresh package from
336 You can get them from ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu or any mirror.
338 == configure doesn't detect libtiff, or other graphic libraries.
340 Delete config.cache, then rerun configure adding the following options to
341 configure (among the other options you use):
342 --with-gfx-libs="-L/usr/local/lib"
343 --with-gfx-incs="-I/usr/local/include -I/usr/local/include/tiff"
344 Put the paths where your graphic libs and their corresponding header files are
345 located. You can put multiple paths in any of these options, as the example
346 of --with-gfx-incs shows. Just put a space between them.
349 == configure doesn't detect libXpm.
351 * Check if you have a symbolic link from libXpm.so.4.9 to libXpm.so
354 == Segmentation fault on startup
356 * Check if the version of libXPM you have is at least 4.7
358 * Check if you have an updated version of ~/GNUstep/Defaults/WindowMaker
360 If you're not sure, try renaming ~/GNUstep to ~/GNUtmp and then run wmaker.inst
362 == "...: your machine is misconfigured. gethostname() returned (none)"
364 * the hostname of your machine is set to something invalid, that starts
365 with a parenthesis. Do a man hostname for info about how to set it.
368 == The root menu contains only 2 entries. ("XTerm" and "Exit...")
370 * WindowMaker is not finding cpp (the C preprocessor). If your cpp is
371 not located in /lib/cpp, edit src/config.h and correct the path in
375 LOCALES/INTERNATIONALIZATION
376 ============================
378 WindowMaker has national language support.
379 To enable national language support, you must compile
380 WindowMaker with some additional parameters.
382 0 - You must have the GNU gettext package installed. It can be
383 obtained at ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/gettext-nnn.tar.gz
385 Steps 1 to 3 can be skipped if you use the Install script.
387 1 - You have to select the languages you want to support. Set the
388 LINGUAS to the list of locales you want. English is always
391 setenv LINGUAS "pt ja de"
396 export LINGUAS;LINGUAS="pt ja de"
399 The list of supported locales can be found in po/README.
400 English is the default language.
402 Read po/README if you wish to translate and maintain locale files
405 2 - Additionally, if your language uses multi-byte characters, such
406 as Japanese or Korean, you must supply the --enable-kanji flag to configure.
408 3 - Configure, build and install WindowMaker normally.
410 4 - To select a particular locale at runtime you must set the LANG
411 environment variable to the locale you want. For example, if you want to set
412 the portuguese locale, you must run
420 in Bourne sh and similars
422 Note: If you have the LC_CTYPE environment variable set, you must
423 unset it before running wmaker.
425 For menu definition files, WindowMaker searches for them in the
426 following order (for brazilian portuguese, in this case):
433 5 - If you chose a language that uses multi-byte characters, you must
434 configure the fonts appropriately. Read the manual page for XCreateFontSet
435 to have more details about it. You must change the ~/G/D/WindowMaker file
436 for fonts used in titlebars, menus and other things. For fonts used in
437 dialog windows, change ~/G/D/WMGLOBAL. Note that at the moment you can only
438 supply a single font in WMGLOBAL. The %d in the font names must not be
441 For example, you can specify the following in ~/G/D/WindowMaker:
443 WindowTitleFont = "-*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-12-*,-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-14-*";
444 MenuTitleFont = "-*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-12-*,-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-14-*";
445 MenuTextFont = "-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-12-*,-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-14-*";
446 IconTitleFont = "-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-8-*,-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-12-*";
447 ClipTitleFont = "-*-helvetica-bold-r-normal-*-10-*,-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-12-*";
448 DisplayFont = "-*-helvetica-medium-r-normal-*-12-*,-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-12-*";
450 and in ~/G/D/WMGLOBAL:
452 SystemFont = "-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*";
453 BoldSystemFont = "-*-*-medium-r-normal-*-%d-*-*-*-*-*-*-*";