An OpenBSD desktop using WindowMaker

       289 words, 2 minutes

Since I started using *N?X, I’ve regularly used WindowMaker. I’ve always liked the look and feel, the dock system and the dockapps. It may look a bit oldish nowadays. And that’s enough to try to change this. So here it is, a 2019 flavored WindowMaker Desktop, running on OpenBSD 6.4/amd64.

First thing to do is to install the binary packages ; wm* are only required to achieve the final look. That’s easy:

# pkg_add windowmaker wmcalclock wminfo wmmon

Then, as your normal user, run the initialization program:

# wmaker.inst
Installing WindowMaker 0.95.8 for current user...
Creating /home/jca/GNUstep user directory
Copying defaults database...
(...)
Now the .xinitrc, .Xclients or .xsession script must be updated so that it  \
  calls wmaker when you start an X session.
Type the name of the file that must be changed (normally .xinitrc).
If the file already exists, it will be backed up with a .old.Feb15.17:58:18 \
  extension
If you want to edit it by hand, hit -C now.
^C
Installation Finished

Next thing to do is telling Xenodm to start WindowMaker when you log in. If you use startx(1) rather than xenodm(1), replace .xsession by .xinitrc in the following paragraph:

# echo 'exec /usr/local/bin/wmaker' >> ~/.xsession

You can now log in and enjoy WindowMaker. After a few customization, it’ll look pretty “up-to-date”.

This configuration uses the Nord color-scheme , the Adapta-Nokto-Eta GTK theme and the Moblin Unofficial Icons icon set . I did remove applications icons. I just don’t need them on the bottom of the screen as I heavily use “F11” to pop-up the windows list. To be able to do that and keep the dockapps, I tweaked my ~/GNUstep/Defaults/WMWindowAttributes and created a ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/Themes/Nord.themed/style .

And here it is, the NeXT OpenBSD Desktop!

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