AfterStep 1.8 FAQ <author>Charlie Schmidt (<tt/ishamael@themes.org/) <date> 14 January 2000 <abstract> This is the AfterStep version 1.8 FAQ. Copyright © 1996-2000, Frank Fejes, Jonathan B. Leffert, Kragen Sittler, Diego Zamboni, Guyhelm Aznar, Andrew Sullivan, Sasha Vasko, Andrew Ferguson, and Charlie Schmidt. Freely redistributable under the terms of the LDP license, Version 2, January 1998. </abstract> <toc> <sect>General Information <sect1>About this Document. This document is an ever growing set of questions, statements, ideas and complaints about AfterStep version 1.8. You can get this FAQ at the following locations: <itemize> <item><url url="http://afterstep.davidv.net/"> <item><url url="http://www.afterstep.org/FAQ/"> <item><url url="ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/FAQ/"> <item><url url="http://www.linuxdoc.org/"> (may be outdated) <item><url url="http://www.tigr.net/afterstep/faq/"> (thanks to Albert Dorofeev <tt/tigr@tigr.net/) </itemize> The rest of this document assumes you are running AfterStep 1.8, there is no more information pertaining to AfterStep 1.6. If you are running a version of AfterStep prior to version 1.8, this document will suggests only one thing: upgrade. <sect1>What is AfterStep? AfterStep is a window manager for the X Window System (hereafter referred to as X). It was started to emulate the look and feel of NeXTSTEP(tm), but has evolved into something that while still being able to emulate NeXT, can do much much more. Without using much memory or cpu time, AfterStep provides all the features one could want in a window manager. <sect1>What is AfterStep's history? The following is taken from the AfterStep man page (<url url="http://www.afterstep.org/man/stable/afterstep.html">) <tscreen><verb> AfterStep is a continuation of the BowMan window manager which was originally put together by Bo Yang. BowMan was based on the fvwm window manager, written by Robert Nation. Fvwm was based on code from twm. And so on.... It is designed not only to emulate some of the look and feel of the NEXTSTEP(tm) user interface, but also to add useful, requested, and neat features. The changes which comprise AfterStep's personality were originally part of BowMan development, but due to a desire to move past SIM- PLE EMULATION and into a niche as its OWN valuable window manager, the previous designers decided to change the pro- ject name and move on. </verb></tscreen> <sect1>Fine, what if I'm not running AfterStep 1.8? Is there a FAQ for me? Yes. There should be a version of the AfterStep 1.6 FAQ available anywhere this document is located. If you are using a version earlier than 1.6, it is strongly suggested you upgrade. <sect1>What is X? What are these "window managers" ? "X" is shorthand for The X Window System. It is a basis for building graphical user interfaces for UNIX (it is available for non-UNIX systems, but wasn't designed to be as such). "X" is not the interface itself, just a foundation for one. For more information, check <url url="http://www.x.org">. A window manager is a program that manages your windows during your X session. AfterStep is one of many available <url url="http://www.plig.org/xwinman/" name="window managers">. <sect1>What are AfterStep's main features? <itemize> <item> The Wharf. Similar to NeXTSTEP's(tm) Dock, it allows applications to be Swallowed, shortcuts with icons, and many other things. <item> The Pager. Shows a miniature view of the Afterstep desktops, you can move between them, and move windows around in the Pager as though it were a miniature desktop. <item> The WinList. A list of all the windows, clicking on the items can show that window, destroy it, shade it, or anything you might want. <item> NeXTSTEP(tm) like look, feel, icons, and menus. <item> Very configurable. Almost anything can be changed. </itemize> <sect1>Is AfterStep 1.8 GNOME and/or KDE compliant? As of version 1.7.59 AfterStep has been GNOME compliant through the Gnome module. It is not perfect yet, but near-100% compliance is on the way. AfterStep works fine with KDE. It may not be "compliant" per se, but the desktop icons KDE provides, and most of its other features work with AfterStep almost perfectly. <sect1>Can I run it in Microsoft Windows(tm)? Not unless you get an X server. Take a look at <url url="http://www.rahul.net/kenton/xsites.html#XMicrosoft"> for more information on how to set one up. Or, you could use an AfterStep like program named "LiteSTEP" to give your Windows 9x interface an appearance quite similar to AfterStep. You can get more information about LiteSTEP at <url url="http://www.litestep.net">. Note: please do note send LiteSTEP related questions to the AfterStep mailing list, the AfterStep developers, or the maintainers of this FAQ, they cannot help you. <sect1>Who develops AfterStep? Many people. Take a look at <url url="http://www.afterstep.org/Team.shtml"> for a list of current developers. Read the TEAM file distributed with AfterStep for a list of all contributors. <sect1>AfterStep is awesome! How can I help? Send us money. Seriously though, if you can help write AfterStep, or feel you can help the effort elsewhere, do so. Hang out on irc (#afterstep, efnet), participate on the mailing lists, suggest ideas, help code, etc etc. <sect1>Who writes this FAQ? The file is maintained by Charlie Schmidt (<tt/ishamael@themes.org/), with help from #afterstep, the developers, the mailing list, and anyone who finds a problem. The initial version of the FAQ was written by Frank Fejes (<tt/frank@ssax.com/) and Jonathan B. Leffert (<tt/j-leffert@uchicago.edu/). Major additions were made by Kragen Sittler (<tt/kragen@tcsi.com/). Diego Zamboni (<tt/zamboni@cs.purdue.edu/) maintained the file until Guylhem Aznar (<tt/guylhem@oeil.qc.ca/) took over development and the FAQ with the release of AfterStep 1.4. Andrew Sullivan (<tt/asullivan@spring.ca/) took over the FAQ after Guylhem left the development of AfterStep to pursue other things (he now runs the linuxdoc system). The AfterStep version 1.6 FAQ has major parts written by Tomas Duewiger (<tt/td@music-satellite.de/), Sasha Vasko (<tt/sashav@sprintmail.com/) and Andrew Ferguson (<tt/andrew@owsla.cjb.net/). Naturally, the FAQ is prepared in co-operation with the program developers, but any errors or omissions are now Charlie Schmidt's responsibility, so you should contact him to compalin. Please do not complain to the AfterStep developers that the FAQ has problems. They do not maintain it. Please note that it is likely to contain several errors, since the maintainers are only human, and the rapid pace of development often obsoletes facts quickly. <sect>Resources <sect1>Where can I find AfterStep resources, or help? <itemize> <item>WWW Page The official AfterStep web page is at <url url="http://www.afterstep.org/">. This web site is under the excellent administration of David Mihm (<tt/webmaster@afterstep.org/), and is kindly hosted by the generous people at <url url="http://www.wgs.com" name="WorkGroup Solutions, Inc">. <item>FTP site The FTP site, <url url="ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/">, is the best place to get AfterStep. It also supports uploads (of asapps, documentation, themes, etc) at <url url="ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/incoming/">. Please read the instructions about uploads before asking why your upload is not immediately available. <item>AfterStep applets The applets (asapps) that go with AfterStep are distributed separately. The applet distribution is maintained by Albert Dorofeev, (<tt/tigr@tigr.net/). You can find the applets at <url url="http://www.tigr.net/afterstep/as-apps/">. <item>Man pages. AfterStep is lucky to have David Mihm (<tt/webmaster@afterstep.org/) as its man page author. These simple pages tell you in clear consice words how to do what with AfterStep. Please read the relevent man page before asking a question. Also note that the Pager man page is 'man Pager' (note the capitalization). The man pages can be read online at <url url="http://www.afterstep.org/man/stable/">. <item>#afterstep There is also #afterstep on EFnet IRC servers. If you need an irc client, try looking at <url url="http://irc.themes.org">. If you need an irc server, try irc.cdc.net, irc.mo.net, irc.txdirect.net, and <url url="http://www.efnet.net/stats/servers.html">. You can also view, but not participate in, #afterstep conversation at <url url="http://the-site.loonybin.net/~DrFloyd/dialog.html">. </itemize> <sect1>What are the AfterStep mailing lists, and where are their archives? There are two AfterStep mailing lists. as-users, and as-devel. <itemize> <item>as-users. as-users is the general AfterStep mailing list, open to all AfterStep questions, concerns and ideas (NO LiteSTEP, Window Maker, some-x-app questions unless it really does pertain to AfterStep, please). A subscription can be obtained by emailing <tt/majordomo@afterstep.org/ with the content of "subscribe as-users". <item>as-devel. as-devel is the development AfterStep mailing list. It is geared toward development questions, ideas and complaints. Subscribe by emailing <tt/majordomo@crystaltokyo.com/ with the content of "subscribe as-devel". </itemize> The mailing list archives can be read at <url url="http://www.tigr.net/afterstep/mail/">. <sect>Getting and Installing AfterStep 1.8 <sect1>Where can I get AfterStep 1.8? You can download AfterStep 1.8 at any of the following locations: <itemize> <item><url url="http://www.afterstep.org/Download.shtml"> <item><url url="ftp://ftp.digex.net/pub/X11/window-managers/afterstep/stable/"> <item><url url="ftp://ftp-jcsu.jesus.cam.ac.uk/pub/afterstep/stable/"> <item><url url="ftp://ftp.linux.co.za/pub/windowmanagers/afterstep/stable/"> </itemize> A more complete list of AfterStep download locations and mirrors is available at <url url="http://www.afterstep.org/Mirrors.shtml">. <sect1>What do I need to compile and install AfterStep? Because AfterStep is an X application, you need to have X installed, and the X development libraries (note, in this case "development" means libraries need to compile things with X, not development level code). You'll also need a C compiler, and image libraries. <itemize> <item><url url="ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/libs/X/!INDEX.html" name="libXpm"> <item><url url="http://www.cdrom.com/pub/png/pngcode.html" name="libpng"> <item><url url="ftp://ftp.uu.net/graphics/jpeg/" name="jpeg libraries"> </itemize> It is suggested you have at least the xpm libraries, if not all image types. Because AfterStep comes with all of its images in xpm format, if you do not compile with libXpm, many of the default looks will appear broken or lacking in images. Save yourself the trouble of converting images, install libXpm. <sect1>Can I install AfterStep without being root? Yes, before compiling AfterStep, do this: <enum> <item>mkdir &tilde/bin <item>mkdir -p &tilde/man/man1 <item>./configure --prefix &tilde/ </enum> Then follow the normal install directions, allowing you to <tt/make install/ without being root. <sect1>How do I upgrade AfterStep? The trick here is your &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/ directory. Move it somewhere else (&tilde/GNUstep.backup for example). Now start AfterStep, it will create a new &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/ directory, and the correct directories under that. You can now move your old config back in. Note: This does not mean simply copying over the new &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/ directory with the backed up one. Just make sure you don't copy over the new non-configurable directory. This directory is not to be moved, edited, linked to /dev/null, or anything of the sort! <sect1>What's up with all these compile errors? Most likely, you don't have all the libraries AfterStep is looking for, such as libXpm, libpng, or jpeg libraries. Make sure you have the X devel package (should have come with your operating system, if not, check <url url="http://www.xfree86.org">), and any image libraries you want. <sect1>What's up with this error about sgmltools? This FAQ is maintained in SGML, according to the Linuxdoc DTD; a version of the FAQ is included with every distribution of AfterStep. In order to make the SGML readable, a program called sgml2html (part of <url url="http://www.sgmltools.org" name="sgmltools">) converts it to HTML. Because many people don't have sgmltools, and don't want to bother installing them, and because AfterStep looks for sgmltools when creating the Makefiles, there are bound to be minor errors. As a result, the HTML version is also shipped with the distribution. The SGML is still incuded with AfterStep, so that users can make the FAQ in text, dvi, and PostScript formats, just use the sgmltools package to translate the SGML into whatever you please. <sect1>What if I don't want to compile AfterStep, can I get a binary package, like rpm? Yes. <url url="http://www.afterstep.org/Download.shtml"> has a wide variety of binary packages available for download, including rpm, deb, and packages for other varients of Linux and Unix. Please keep in mind that many of these packages install AfterStep into /usr/ instead of /usr/local/, where compiling would install it. If you choose to install a package, please locate your global AfterStep directory if you plan to configure AfterStep. <sect1>How do I install AfterStep on SGI or SCO? The problem with compiling on these systems was tracked down and reported by Benjamin J. Tracy (<tt/tracy@wsicorp.com/) and John Koch (<tt/JKOCH1@Tandy.com/). The ordering of the libraries in the link command is wrong. Just make sure that the AfterStep library appears before the -lX11 argument on the link command line in the Makefile. <sect1>How do I install AfterStep on MacOS X? It's apparently a pain. The following was sent by Sarwat Khan (<tt/sarwat@interlog.com/) to the mailing list: <tscreen><verb> As a side note, installing AS on MOSXS was a royal pain in the butt (I really had nothing better to do, and I was wondering what it would take to get it done). It's not AS's fault. I guess the biggest proble m I had was because MOSXS uses Frameworks for a lot of stuff, not your standard .o or .a libraries. So I didn't have to use -ljpeg, I had to use -framework OmniJPEG. Also, maX doesn't put the X11 stuff in the usual places, it puts them in /Local/Library/Xnext/XR6.4/[usr,bin,X11,whatever]. I was able to get around that ok using configure, but then instead of using -lX11, I had to use "-F/L/L/Xnext/blah -framework X11", since he's made a bunch of libraries frameworks instead (which is ok, but getting AS's stuff to work with it was a pain in the ass). Also, he didn't include the X11 headers (?!), so I had to collect them from several places (what I downloaded from ftp.x.org was incomplete) and merge them in order to get all the headers. A few sources included 'malloc.h'. That's not kept in /usr/include (or wherever), it's in /System/Library/Frameworks/System.framework/bsd/src/). Yay. Usually you use ProjectBuilder to build tools and it handles the dumb details for you. </verb></tscreen> <sect1>How do I install AfterStep on a system with CDE? The following are instructions provided by Matthew R. Hamilton (<tt/panic@primary.net/): <tscreen><verb> The system wide default files for CDE configuration are located in /usr/dt/config and Sun recommends that if any personal customizations are to be done that they be placed under the /etc/dt/config directory (which does not exist by default). The first an most important file in adding new desktops to the system is located in /usr/dt/config/<LANGUAGE>/Xresources.d/. It is here that you will see a file called Xresources.ow (this is the entry for OpenWindows). It must start with Xresources and can have any meaningful extension. For myself I called the AfterStep file Xresources.step. There are four key resources used by dtlogin that go in this file. They are as follows: Dtlogin*altDtName -----> This is the name of the new desktop Dtlogin*altDtKey -----> This is what window manager to run Dtlogin*altDtStart -----> This is the configuration script Dtlogin*altDtLogo -----> This is the logo that appears in the dtlogin window and is a 237x237 XPM file located in /usr/dt/appconfig/icons/C/ (If that is not correct just do a find on the logo in the .ow file in the /usr/dt directory. NOTE: These files have an extension of .pm not.xpm, don't ask me why but that is the way Sun does it. Now the configuration file indicated in the Xresources.step file is located in /usr/dt/config. I stuck to Sun's naming convention and called mine Xsession.step. You can just copy the Xsession.ow to Xsession.step and customize it. There are three areas that I modified. The first was the environment variable SDT_ALT_SESSION and had it point to /usr/dt/config/Xsession.step2. You can also customize the hello message via either the DTDSPMSG or SDT_ALT_HELLO environment variables. The Xsession.step2 file is next called and is where the .Xinitrc file is run from. You can just copy the Xsession.ow2 file to Xsession.step2 and modify it to just run the .xinitrc file from the user's home directory or run a system wide .xinitrc file. On Solaris 2.5 the default .Xinitrc file is located in /usr/openwin/lib/Xinitrc while on Solars 2.6 it is in /usr/dt/config/Xinitrc. There are two other things you can modify in CDE. There is a directory /usr/dt/config/images. In that directory there are about 5 Sun raster images. The one that is of interest here is Solaris.im8. This is the image that displays the Welcome to Solaris in different languages. It is a 549x515 image and if you place any raster image of similar proportions in its place, it will be displayed instead of the one with the multi lingual welcome message. I would of course recommend keeping a backup of the original and just making symlinks to the images you want. Finally the file /usr/dt/config/<LANG>/Xresources contains some basic resources for the dtlogin window. You can change the messages displayed. I will leave that up to you as an exercise to figure out what the strings are and to have fun customizing your CDE desktops. </verb></tscreen> <sect>Problems After Installing <sect1>I keep getting this "Cannot open display" error when I run AfterStep, what gives? Don't try to run AfterStep as a command from the console. Since it is a window manager you need to start it with X (or from X). The easiest way to do this is <tscreen><code>echo "exec afterstep" > &tilde/.xinitrc</code></tscreen> There are other ways to do this, incuding just starting an aterm in .xinitrc, and running afterstep from the terminal, xdm start scripts, and various other techniques. <sect1>Why isn't my alt key working in emacs anymore? Because AfterStep stole it. The default feel AfterStep comes with uses the alt key in addition to other key combinations to do various tasks, such as minimize windows, bring up the startmenu, and switch desktops. Edit your feel file and remove the references to the alt key, or use the supplied feel.ICCCM. feel.ICCCM has no key combination bindings, and thus emacs will work fine. <sect1>I use RedHat Linux, and my startmenu changes keep disappearing, why? RedHat, in an attempt to make your system easier to use, has a utility "wmconfig." What it is supposed to do is serve menus for all window managers, so that you can have the same startmenu in every window manager. However, since many people like to just use one window manager, or don't want to edit their menus via wmconfig, there are a variety of solutions presented: David Mihm (<tt/webmaster@afterstep.org/), suggests you simply avoid wmconfig this way: <tscreen><code> echo "exec afterstep" > &tilde/.xinitrc echo "exec afterstep" > &tilde/.xsession chmod 700 &tilde/.xsession </code></tscreen> Matteo Lunardi (<tt/matteo.lunardi@usa.net/) has offered a work-around in some versions. In the xinit-1.4.2.noarch.rpm, he edited the file /etc/X11/xinit/XClients: <tscreen><code> if [ -f $HOME/.wm_style ] ; then WMSTYLE=Cat $HOME/.wm_style case "$WMSTYLE" in Afterstep*|AfterStep*) # we have to start up afterstep if [ -x /usr/X11R6/bin/afterstep -a -f /usr/share/afterstep/wmconfig.conf ] ; then # if [ ! -d $HOME/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep ]; then mkdir -p $HOME/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep wmconfig --output=afterstep --directories \ /usr/share/afterstep/wmconfig.conf 2>/dev/null # fi env > "$HOME"/Xrootenv.0 # if this works, we stop here eval "exec /usr/X11R6/bin/afterstep" > "$HOME"/.AfterStep-errors 2>&1 fi </code></tscreen> In this case the change was to add comment marks ("#") to the "if" lines. Apparently it also works to add the comment marks to the "mkdir" and "wmconfig" lines. Chris Wood (<tt/chris@hillwood93.freeserve.co.uk/), suggests that you can actually use wmconfig to make things easier for yourself. (Keep in mind that the information here is in no way a complete wmconfig guide, and that the man pages or RedHat's documentation is a much better source of information) So, if you wanted a menu item, "Mail", containing both mutt and elm, you would add two files: <tscreen><code> &tilde/.wmconfig/mutt &tilde/.wmconfig/elm </code></tscreen> The file "mutt" would contain the following: <tscreen><code> mutt name "Mutt" mutt description "Mutt email client" mutt group Mail mutt exec "xterm -e mutt &" </code></tscreen> The file "elm" would be similar: <tscreen><code> elm name "Elm" elm description "Elm email client" elm group Mail elm exec "xterm -e elm &" </code></tscreen> <sect1>How do I report a bug or suggest a new feature? Tell someone. Email the as-devel list, <tt/bugs@afterstep.org/, jump on irc, whatever. Just make the issue known to the maintainers. If it is a bug, someone will get to fixing it. If it is an idea for a new feature, keep in mind that the developers may not want to add it for a variety of reasons. It may be difficult to add, and not worth the work, such as "shaped titlebars" (which will never happen), or it may not be a good idea in their eyes. At any rate, they key is to tell other people of your problems and ideas. <sect>AfterStep Configuration <sect1>Where are the AfterStep configuration files? There are two places AfterStep configuration files could be. The global directory is usually /usr/local/share/afterstep/ (unless you installed from a binary package, or specified a different place). All configuration files should be here, and really shouldn't be edited. The preferred method for changing your configuration is copying the file you wish to change to &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/, the personal configuration file directory. When AfterStep starts, it first reads &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep for files, and those that it does not find, it reads from /usr/local/share/afterstep. <sect1>Explain what all these configuration files do. The following is a list of all the AfterStep configuration files, and their purpose: <itemize> <item>Gnome - used to configure the Gnome module, man Gnome for more information. <item>animate - animation settings. Animations take place when you iconify things <item>asetroot - used to configure the asetroot module. This module controls the background for AfterStep, man asetroot for more information. <item>asmail - used to configure the asmail applet. You can download the asmail applet and other AfterStep applets at <url url="http://www.tigr.net/afterstep/as-apps">. <item>audio - used to configure the Audio module that supplies AfterStep with sound effects for certain events. <item>autoexec - defines what is run when AfterStep starts and restarts. <item>base.xxbpp - tells AfterStep where to look for its modules (ModulePath), pixmaps (PixmapPath), scripts and cursors. It also tells pager its size and dimensions. <item>clean - configures the Clean module. Clean reduces clutter on your screen by Iconifying or Deleting windows after a certain period of inactivity. <item>compatibility - read if AfterStep is run with -f .steprc. <item>database - a list of applications and their attributes. You can tell AfterStep what icon they should iconify to, if the window has a title bar or not, if it has a vertical title bar, etc. <item>feel.name - defines how AfterStep acts. <item>forms - all the AfterStep forms. <item>ident - configure the Ident module. Useful for finding window information. <item>look.name - defines how AfterStep looks. <item>pager - for configuring the Pager module. <item>scroll - for configuring the Scroll module. <item>wharf - Wharf module config file. <item>winlist - WinList module config file. <item>zharf - Zharf module configuration file. </itemize> A more in-depth explanation of these files can be found in the <url url="http://www.afterstep.org/man/stable/" name="man pages">. <sect1>What is this .steprc everyone keeps talking about? .steprc was the old AfterStep configuration file. In eariler versions you put all your configuration (look, feel, Wharf, Pager, startmenu, etc) into the .steprc, and it was read when AfterStep started. This style has been abandoned for the split file directory structure configuration style. The current style makes it easier to configure AfterStep, and apply themes. <sect1>How do I add things to my startmenu? Add entries in the start/ directory structure in your AfterStep configuration directory. To add an entry for Pine in an xterm, for example, you would create a file 'pine' in the correct directory, and put: <tscreen><code> Exec "Pine" exec xterm -e pine </code></tscreen> in it. Then update your startmenu, and there should be an entry "Pine" <sect1>How do I remove some of these titlebar buttons? Edit your look file. The TitleButton tags tell AfterStep which images to use for which titlebar buttons. The syntax is: <tscreen><code>TitleButton button_number unclicked_image clicked_image</code></tscreen> Where the button number is from 1-10: [1][3][5][7][9] (title) [10][8][6][4][2]. <sect1>How do I change what happens when I click on a certain titlebar button? Edit your feel file. The Mouse actions section defines what happens when you click on certain things in AfterStep. <tscreen><code>Mouse mouse_button_number titlebar_button_number context action</code></tscreen> is the syntax. <sect1>How do I remove the titlebar from a window? You'll need to find the WM_CLASS of the window. AfterStep provides a tool "Ident" for finding out information about all the windows. Run Ident, and click on the window you need information on. The Class: item is the WM_CLASS. Next edit your database file. You should add an entry like this: <tscreen><code>Style "WM_CLASS" NoTitle</code></tscreen> The database file also changes other attributes, such as VerticalTitle, NoBorder, Sticky and others. Consult the AfterStep man page (man afterstep) for more information. <sect1>I don't want window focus to follow the mouse, how do I change it so it acts like Microsoft Windows(tm)? Take a look at the feel.ClickToFocus. Using this feel, you have to click on the window to give it focus, just like in Microsoft Windows(tm). If you already have a feel you like, and just want to add this feature, look through your feel file for "Raise" and "Focus" stuff, and compare the settings to those in feel.ClickToFocus. <sect1>What are these MyStyles I keep hearing about? MyStyles are a new development in AfterStep configuration. Using MyStyles, all look related information (module looks, windows, icons, etc) can be put in the look file. What MyStyles provide is the ability to define a group of settings for a particular configuration option. For example, a MyStyle defining the look of a focused window can define it's font, pixmap, text color, text style, and let another MyStyle define the look of an unfocused window. Because the two MyStyles are separate, you can have focused and unfocused windows that look completly different, very easily. <sect1>How do I get applications to iconify to a different place? The IconBox setting in the look file. It uses standard X geometry to define a rectangle of the screen to put icons. <sect1>Suddenly, some windows stay on top of everything else, why? With the default feel, and many others, double-clicking on a window titlebar toggles a window's always-on-top state. Double-click again to remove it. If you want to remove this feature, locate the lines in your feel file that look similar to this (there may be several of them): <tscreen><code> ToggleLayer "DoubleClick 0 1" </code></tscreen> and comment them out, or change them. It is also possible that you have inadvertently changed your feel. Predictably enough, different feel files define functions such as this differently. Take a look at the supplied feel files to get an idea of their differences, and perhaps identify what feel you may unknowningly be using. Also, on many systems, using <url url="http://www.winehq.com" name="wine"> seems to interfere with the feel of AfterStep. Reselecting the feel file from the startmenu appears to fix this problem. <sect1>Is there a graphical configuration program for AfterStep? If you are using 1.6, yes. However, since 1.6 is outdated, it is suggested you upgrade. Andrew Ferguson (<tt/andrew@owsla.cjb.net/) is developing a new ascp to use AfterStep's native configuration parser. There will be a new 1.8 release once this project is completed. Email him, or check the 1.9 tree to use developmental ascp (please note development. It will not compile, nor work at this point in time.) <sect>GNOME <sect1>What is GNOME, and why should I use it? The GNOME project is a lot of things. The following is taken from the GNOME FAQ, <url url="http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq/html/x37.html"> <tscreen><verb> GNOME is the GUI desktop of the GNU Project. To quote from the original announcement from comp.os.linux.announce, GNOME is intended to be "a free and complete set of user friendly applications and desktop tools, similar to CDE and KDE but based entirely on free software." I, your lowly FAQ maintainer, like to explain GNOME as everything that's expected in a modern programming environment. In this respect, it is approximately equivalent to CDE, Win32, NextStep, or KDE. The big difference is that, unlike any of the above-mentioned examples, every single component of GNOME is Free Software. Not only that, but GNOME is extremely customizable compared to most desktop environments. If all of this seems ambitious, that's because it is! Read on to find out more! </verb></tscreen> The entire GNOME FAQ can be read online at <url url="http://www.gnome.org/gnomefaq/html/index.html">. <sect1>Why do window managers have to be GNOME compliant? They don't have to be. Many popular window managers are not GNOME compliant, but because GNOME will probably be prevalent on *NIX desktops some day in the future, window managers wishing to provide as many features to users as possible should be GNOME compliant. It must be noted that GNOME compliancy is always changing, and is not finalized whatsoever. Because of the pace of GNOME development, what worked one day, may not work the next. AfterStep is not 100% compliant, in fact, no window manager is. Some aspects of compliancy with GNOME cannot be implemented in AfterStep, because the window manager is much more powerful, virtual desktops and Pager, for example. Some window managers do a better job of compliancy than others. AfterStep attempts to be compliant in as many regards at it can, but perfection is not possible. If you are looking for a window manager that can run with GNOME almost all the time, and do it well, AfterStep is a good choice. If you want something that will cooperate with GNOME to the point of being GNOME, try something else. <sect1>How do I get AfterStep to be GNOME compliant? The following are my (<tt/ishamael@themes.org/) experiences with getting GNOME and AfterStep running together like any other window manager. If you have any suggestions or other ways to do this, please email me. While in your current window manager (be it AfterStep or another): Set the WINDOW_MANAGER variable to "afterstep" (in bash this can be done with 'export WINDOW_MANAGER="afterstep"' you should put this in your bashrc file.) Run "gnomecc" and go to the "Window Manager" section. "Add" <itemize> <item>Name: AfterStep <item>Command: afterstep <item>Configuration Command: xterm </itemize> AfterStep is session managed, so check the box. At this point, save the settings, and close gnomecc (you might want to start it again and check it to make sure the addition is there). You will also need to make a small change to the gnome-wm script (usually at /usr/bin/gnome-wm or /usr/local/bin/gnome-wm). The line that reads: <code>exec $WINDOW_MANAGER $*</code> change to: <code>exec $WINDOW_MANAGER</code> Now, you should close X down, and put "gnome-session" in your .xinitrc (or however you start X), and start it up again. If all goes well, AfterStep and GNOME will start. Also please make sure you are using the Gnome AfterStep module, and a GNOME compliant feel (such as feel.GNOME). <sect>Graphics issues <sect1>Why do Swallowed apps and icons keep disappearing from the Wharf? You're probably running at 8 bits per pixel, or 256 colors. If you run out of colors, some applications can't run, or don't appear correctly. Either run at a higher color depth, or reduce colors elsewhere. There is an excellent set of low color icons (21 colors total) at <url url="http://the-labs.com/AfterStep/Icons/">. <sect1>Why are the Netscape buttons deformed? Why does Netscape get its own colormap? Again, this is probably an issue with 8bpp, either reduce colors elsewhere, or sacrifice resolution for color depth (run at a lower resolution with more colors). <sect1>How do I create an icon with a transparent pixel? The Gimp (<url url="http://www.gimp.org/">) supports transparency in images, you could easily modify an existing pixmap to be transparent, or make a new image. You could also edit a .xpm file with a normal text editor, and make part of it transparent (hint, the color for transparency is "none"). <sect1>Why are PNGs and JPEGs darker when they get loaded into AfterStep? Try setting your $SCREEN_GAMMA to something like 2.2 (export SCREEN_GAMMA=2.2) from the shell you start AS (or put it in your .xinitrc) and stop X, then start it again. <sect1>Why doesn't some program work in 16bpp? Several (although decreasingly many) 8bpp programs don't work on displays without a PseudoColor visual available. Several PC X servers don't support PseudoColor visuals on displays running in TrueColor mode. You should buy an SGI. Or run two simultaneous X servers, if you're on Linux. Note for SGI users willing to play with their bpp : One has to tweak the arguments to X in /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xservers. The following worked for Tim Buller (<tt/buller@math.ukans.edu/) <tscreen><verb> :0 secure /usr/bin/X11/X -bs -c -nobitscale -visid 0x34 </verb></tscreen> Where Visual ID 0x34 (reported by xdpyinfo) is: <tscreen><verb> visual: visual id: 0x34 class: TrueColor depth: 24 planes available colormap entries: 256 per subfield red, green, blue masks: 0xff, 0xff00, 0xff0000 significant bits in color specification: 8 bits </verb></tscreen> <sect1>How do I change the background in AfterStep? Using asetroot, the AfterStep desktop background management module. asetroot sets images to the background, but can also modify them before doing so. It is compliant with "transparent" terminals, such as aterm or Eterm, and with AfterStep transparency effects. The simplest way to set a new background, is to place the image in the backgrounds/ directory of an AfterStep configuration directory (&tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/, usually), and update the startmenu. The new image should be selectable from the startmenu under start->Desktop->Pictures. You can select it, and asetroot will tile it as the background. <sect1>How can I make the background centered, instead of tiled? Because asetroot can modify an image, or display it different ways, centering a background is a simple task. Edit your "asetroot" configuration file, and put: <tscreen><code> MyBackground "back0" Use 0 "&tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/non-configurable/0_background" Pad 4 black Align 4 ~MyBackground *asetrootDeskBack 0 "back0" </code></tscreen> This will center the image, and pad the other unused space with black. More information about changing how the image is displayed can be read in the asetroot man page. <sect1>Why do some applications not have icons? Application icons are set in the "database" configuration file. Since the developers don't use every application ever made, obviously they can't provide settings for icons for all of them. What is provided are settings for commonly used programs. Add your own for your applications by looking at the provided examples. <sect1>What is this transparent terminal I keep seeing? Probably aterm if you're looking at AfterStep screenshots, or Eterm. Both aterm and Eterm emulate transparency by aligning the background pixmap correctly in their own backgrounds.Thus making it seem like the desktop background is showing through. aterm can be downloaded at <url url="http://members.xoom.com/sashav/aterm/"> or <url url="ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/apps/aterm/">, Eterm can be downloaded wherever you can find <url url="http://www.enlightenment.org" name="Enlightenment">. aterm is preferred, as it was developed with AfterStep in mind, and uses considerably less resources than Eterm. <sect1>How come some pixmaps look messed up when I set them as the aterm background? The image you're setting to the background probably isn't indexed, Benjamin Tovar (<tt/al707198@academ01.ccm.itesm.mx/) informs me: <tscreen><verb> advise to index the colors of the xpm. Unless you are an eagle, you wont notice much difference if you index the images (with the Index: Optimal Palette, in Gimp for example) for instance with 64 levels. With this, the time from when you call xiterm and appears reduces very much, and allows the use of "complex" images in xiterm. If the image is not that complex, also you can try to index with very few levels and obtain an "optimal" speed. </verb></tscreen> <sect>AfterStep Modules <sect1>What are AfterStep modules? AfterStep modules are programs that work with AfterStep, but aren't required by the window manager. Commonly seen modules are the Wharf, Pager, WinList, and asetroot. <sect1>How can I get multiple Wharfs or Pagers? This procedure is outlined in depth at <url url="http://www.tigr.net/afterstep/doc/MultiWharf-HOWTO.txt">. Briefly: Make a symbolic link from the Wharf binary to a new MyWharf. Edit your "wharf" configuration file so that it has *MyWharf tags similar to existing *Wharf tags. Make sure you edit the "autoexec" file if you want this new MyWharf to start with AfterStep. Also be sure to edit the "database" file so that there is a MyWharf Style exactly like the existing Wharf Style. You can create multiple Pagers in a similar fashion. <sect1>Why can't I find the man page for Wharf? Spell it "Wharf" not "wharf" Similarly the "Pager", "WinList" and "afterstep" man pages [the key here is capitalization]. <sect1>What is the difference between Wharf and Zharf? The Wharf module can use pixmaps for buttons, the Zharf module can only use text. <sect1>How do I change the Pager's size? There are really two questions here. Do you want to change the number of desks or views? Or do you want to change the physical geometry of Pager? In the "base.xxbpp" file, look at DeskTopSize. This defines the number of columns of views by the number of rows (2x2 would give you 4 views in a square). In the "pager" file, edit the *PagerGeometry tag (standard X geometry). <sect1>Is it possible for an application to wait for the background to get loaded? <tscreen><verb> I put the rt [root tail] command as the last one to be executed in autoexec. So far, so good, it executes last. But when my background is loaded it covers the tailed text, until another message appears in the file. Is it possible for rt to wait for the background to get loaded? </verb></tscreen> It is possible. The background is displayed by the asetroot module. So, you should wait for asetroot to start before running any root window/background dependent applications (like rt or Eterm). Add the following line to your autoexec file (or check that it's there): <tscreen><code> Module "I" asetroot 0 3 Wait "I" asetroot </code></tscreen> The "Wait" line must precede the startup lines for the relevant applications (in our example, rt). By default, the "Wait" line will cause AfterStep to wait for asetroot to load all of its backgrounds for all desks. <sect1>How can I get rid of the desk name in my Pager? Set *PagerDecoration NoDeskLabel in the "pager" configuration file. <sect1>How do I start an application on a specific desk or page? This is defined in the "database" configuration file. There are three paramaters one can use. <itemize> <item>StartsOnDesk desk_number This one will specify the desk number that applications with this tay will start on. Don't forget that desks are numbered starting with 0. <item>VeiwportX x_coord You can use this one to start an application on a specific page of a desk. The value should be the x coordinate of the page, relative to the top-left corner of the desk. For instance, with a screen size of 1024x768, the argument value would be "1024" in order to open an application on the second column of pages. <item>ViewportY y_coord This does the same thing as ViewportX, but in the Y axis. </itemize> <sect>Themes <sect1>What is a "theme"? Simply put, a theme is a group of configuration settings and images that when used together looks good. Themes are pre-made, complete settings for your window manager. AfterStep themes are new feature of the window manager, and since 1.7.160, are completly implemented. <sect1>Where can I find AfterStep themes? <itemize> <item><url url="http://as.themes.org/"> <item><url url="ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/themes/"> </itemize> Both of these locations allow users to download a variety of themes, and upload their own. <sect1>How do I install an AfterStep theme? It is very easy to install a theme. Simply download the theme.tar.gz file and put it in &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/themes/, update your startmenu, and select the theme from the start->Desktop->Theme menu. <sect1>How do I make an AfterStep theme? Edit your look file, pager, wharf, and winlist configurations so that it all looks good. Make some images to go with it, and select Create Theme from the menu. The new theme.tar.gz will appear in &tilde/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/. <sect1>Where can I get help on themes? Read the documentation provided on <url url="http://as.themes.org/">, if you still have a question, email the mailing list or as@themes.org. <sect>Miscellany <sect1>What is this "shade" thing? Shade is a window feature that many prefer to iconifying. Instead of minimizing a window into an icon, it scrolls the window contents up into the titlebar. It is nice because you do not have to define an icon for the window in the "database" file, and many find it easier to keep track of windows if they still appear in the middle of the screen. <sect1>How do I use Microsoft Windows(tm) TrueType fonts in AfterStep? This isn't really an AfterStep issue, rather an X question. Download and install a TrueType font server, such as <url url="ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/X11/fonts/" name="xfstt">. Many distributions are now shipping with some sort of TrueType font server. Consult your documentation to use this feature of your distribution. </article>