INSTALL

icewm 1.2.9 (2003-06-22)

1. Requirements

    - libxpm (comes with XFree86, but isn't bundled with all 
      commercial X servers -- like XSun)
      OR
    - Imlib (for wider image support)

    - C++ compiler (tested: gcc 2.8.1, gcc 2.95.3, gcc 3.0)
    - GNU make or BSD make (very minor tweaks required for other make 
      variants)

  Optional:

    - XFreeType (for antialiasing, comes with XFree86 4.x)
    - gnome-libs 1.x (for gnome menu support)
    - sgml2html (part of sgml-tools package) only needed if you explicitly
      wish to _rebuild_ HTML documentation. the tarball already contains a 
      HTML version of the manual

2. Compiling

    - 'cd icewm-$version'
    - Run './autogen.sh' when fetched from CVS.
    - Run './configure --help' to see available options.
    - Run './configure' possibly with options
    - If needed: customize sysdep.inc for your platform.
    - If needed: customize install.inc with correct installation directories.

    Please send me any changes that you may need to make.
  
    - Type 'make' to build it.
    
    PS: When reporting problems with the 'configure' script append the
        'config.log' file generated by the failing 'configure' run
        please.

3. Installing

    Default installation path is '/usr/local'. You can change it by using
    configure switches like '--prefix''. You have to rebuild
    everything (make clean; make) after changing the paths.

    - Type 'make install' as root user to install. (make -n install to
    verify things first if you are not sure).

3.a Configuring XFreeType

    XFreeType is XFree86's effort to overcome traditional X11's broken
    font system adding fancy features like antialiasing. XFreeType supports 
    most font formats supported by XFree86's traditional font services 
    including TrueType, Type1 and bitmap fonts. To achieve best results 
    you should add all your font directories to '/etc/XftConfig' or 
    '$HOME/.xftconfig' by using the 'dir' statement. You should also ensure
    that XFreeType can supply a font comparable with Adobe's Helvetica since 
    icewm uses it as default font and a lot of themes written for icewm
    depend on it. If you don't have such a font sufficent for XFreeType 
    you could add an alias definition pointing on 'Nimbus Sans L' to your 
    XFreeType configuration file:

	match any family == "helvetica" edit family += "Nimbus Sans L";

    Another nice feature of XFreeType you could enable - especially
    on LCD screens - is sub-pixel decimation since it improves rendering 
    quality dramatically. Simply add the following line to your X 
    resources (~/.Xdefaults):

        Xft.rgba: rgb

4. Starting icewm

    Make sure the icewm executables are located on $PATH, otherwise
    it will not be possible to restart the window manager.

    Normally, icewm should be started from ~/.Xclients file. This will
    work the same for 'startx' and 'xdm' logins. The file must have execute
    permissions (chmod a+x ~/.Xclients).

    An example of ~/.Xclients file would be:

    >>> cut here >>> ----- > ----- > ----- > ----- > ----- > ----- > ----- >

	# set mouse speed
	xset m 5 2

	# start xterm by default
	xterm &

        icewmtray &

	# silently check if icewm is in your $PATH and start icewm when found
	# or a red colored xterm when not found or execution of icewm fails
	which icewm >/dev/null 2>&1 && exec icewm || exec xterm -bg red

    <<< cut here <<< ----- < ----- < ----- < ----- < ----- < ----- < ----- <

    Another good candidate for launching X clients is ~/.xinitrc 
    if the maintainers of your OS have odd ideas about how to initialize X.
    As last resort you could ask your OS to run a shell script containing
    all the apps you want to fireup instead of running icewm's binary directly:
    Simply insert a line saying "#!/bin/sh" in front of the script listed
    above and set the executable flags of your new script.