IceWM - How start programs when booting

English Applications
1

I am with an old machine with only 2 gb ram
To solve the crashes and slowness I’m using IceWM and it works relatively well
I would like to know how to do two things:
1-How do I start programs together with the boot
2-How do I put icons on the desktop
Please, every idea is welcome.

2

I can’t help with putting icons on the desktop. I don’t like desktop clutter so I haven’t tried.

But, otherwise, here’s what I do:
I create a directory “.icewm” (under my home directory).

I have a file there, named “preferences”. I copied that from “/etc/icewm” and then make the changes that I wanted. Hmm, at present I see “preferences.yast2” in “/etc/icewm” rather than just “preferences”.

The only change I made is because I want the panel to auto-hide. If you don’t want to make any changes, best to not copy the file and use the defaults.

I also have a file “focus_mode” with the single line “FocusMode=2” which does the equivalent of “Sloppy Focus” (in Gnome) or “Focus Follows Mouse”.

And then I have a file “startup” which is a script that is run during startup. It starts programs. It’s a bash/sh script. I start an “xterm” with the line

xterm &

and you do need that “&” at the end of that line (to run in background).

On my laptop, I also start an authentication agent (either the Gnome one or the KDE one seems to be okay). And then I start “nm-applet” for setting up WiFi connections. It’s because of “nm-applet” that I start the authentication agent.

I should be clear, however – I normally use KDE. The Icewm setup is a fallback for when I have a special need to use it.

3

If you really want to run a script/program after boot, and not after logging in, you could use a cron job. As root create a crontab entry (“crontab -e”) with “@reboot” as the time.
man 5 crontab

4

Thanks for your reply

I understand that I should create the files “focus_mode” and “startup” under “/home/sergio/.icewm/” diretory
But not works, Need I create .sh files?

And all windows I open I can not close them … they do not have the “x” to click

5

OK
In the “startup” file I added the line “#!/ bin/sh” and did “chmod + x”
Now it works
But I still do not understand how to make the icons “X” to close windows

6

I am seeing an X to close windows.

Have you changed the theme? I am using the default theme. Possibly you switched to a theme that doesn’t do those window features.

7

I found this code to open applications in certain workspaces, after login.
Programs open, but workspaces do not look right
Would anyone know how to solve this problem?

  #!/bin/bash
wmctrl -n 6

firefox &
thunderbird &
xterm &
/usr/bin/netbeans --locale en &
sleep 15

umctrl -r netbeans -t 0
wmctrl -r firefox -t 2
wmctrl -r thunderbird -t 4 
wmctrl -r xterm -t 1  

#focus on xterm
wmctrl -a xterm

And I still do not understand how to make the icons “X” to close windows

8

But where does this change on “thema”
The file “/home/sergio/.icewm/preferences” does not have this item

9

…now I found…is into the file theme

Thank you