JWM

jwm is a very lightweight window manager. It does a few things very well and leaves the rest to you. If you are tight on memory and CPU - this may work better for you. No dbus, hald, cups, or pulseaudio required but you can add these as needed for other packages.

The downside is some hand configuration is required. Knowing XML syntax helps.

You must complete all the prerequisites in the Prerequisites page before proceeding.

These instructions will install jwm.

Log in as ordinary and run the following commands which install jwm and modify the .xinitrc configuration file to automatically run jwm when X is started.

$ su -
(enter root password)
# pkg install xorg jwm xlockmore xfontsel
(drop out of root)
# exit
$ echo 'exec jwm' >> ~/.xinitrc

Make a copy of the default menu file. You can find it under /usr/local/etc.

$ cp /usr/local/etc/system.jwmrc ~/.jwmrc

The example menu shipped with jwm assumes you have firefox, audacity, pidgin, and gimp installed. These menu selections won't do anything if the aforementioned apps aren't installed. Treat them as examples to edited to suit your own needs.

You may want to instead use the example menu attached to this page.

< snip >

Be careful when editing. It is XML so all the usual “well formed” XML formatting rules apply.

The menu provided here includes an option to edit the menu file in your favorite edit. After saving your changes, the “Restart” option re-loads the menu file to pick up your changes. Do keep a backup in case you make a mess.

$ startx

To see the menu, click the left mouse button.

< screenshot of menu >

As you customize your machine with more apps, you can hand edit the .jwmrc menu file to add menu selections to quickly run those apps.

Configuration bits to get icons to appear in the menu.

Probably the next thing you will want to do is install a browser. There are so many. Pick the one you know best. You can install these from an xterm window in your X windows session. You don't need to exit your X session.

$ su -
(enter the root password)
# pkg install firefox
# pkg install chromium
# pkg install iridium
# pkg install midori

You may want to look at installing and configuring 'doas' or 'sudo' in place of 'su' for these types of chores.

Oh but wait! Technically you have a working X environment but there's no acceleration. Let's fix that now. Exit your X-session (left mouse click anywhere on the desktop and select “Exit”) and then skip ahead to Acceleration.