How to Lauch and Autostart Applications and Commands in Window Maker

Window Maker (WM) is a lightweight windows manager that can be used with Linux distributions such as Ubuntu Linux. I covered how to install Window Maker in Ubuntu in a previous article. When you first start using Window Maker it is very bare looking, and launching programs may not be obvious at first. Even less obvious is how to get your programs and services to start up when you start Window Maker after logging in. All of this isn't hard to do, but isn't well documented for beginners to Window Maker.

Launching and Managing Programs:

If you come from another window manager such as GNOME or KDE, you don't have to worry. All your GNOME, KDE, and xFce application will run fine. You can find your applications by right-clicking on the desktop and scrolling through the categories to find all installed applications (that WM knows about.) The categories you stored applications in GNOME or KDE are going to be different in WM however.

When you start a program an icon will appear at the bottom of the screen to represent it. If you minimize a window it will shrink down to an icon on the dock as well. If you want an icon to stay permanently on your screen after it is closed drag it either to the dock on the right or attacked to the clip in the upper-left corner. When you switch between workspaces the programs and applets on the dock on the right will stay on all spaces and the ones attached to the clip will only appear on their original workspace unless you right-click them and select "Omnipresent." The clip can also be set to collapse all icons attached to it. To launch a program, simply double click on it. To edit the command that it runs or its icon right-click the icon and select settings.

Auto-starting Programs and Commands with Window Maker:

Auto-starting programs, services, and commands is important to many people to save time every time they turn on their computer. Auto-starting some things, such as programs, are easy, while starting some other things are not obvious unless you know how to do it.

The easiest way to start all programs and services that were running at shutdown is when exiting Window Maker to check the "Save workspace state." Some people like all their old programs restarting up again when they turn their computer on again, but this isn't for everyone.

To autostart an application that is either in the dock or attached to the clip, right click it, select settings, and check "Start when Window Maker is started." Now each time you start up Window Maker this program will start automatically.

Starting services, general commands, and programs without an icon is a different matter. To do this you need to edit an autostart file. Open up your terminal and type in the following. If you don't have gedit then replace it with nano or your text editor of choice. ~ represents home. In the case of problems, try replacing this with the full address.

sudo gedit ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/autostart

Unless you edited this file before, it will likely be blank because it hasn't existed before. This is where you should enter any commands that you want to start when Window Maker starts. It is also a good idea to end the line (or put between commands on one line) the & symbol. In my experiences Window Maker does not start well without it. If you forget and Window Maker freezes when you start up you'll need to go in with another Window Manager or use nano in the terminal to fix it. If you use the docker applet with Window Maker to show GNOME or KDE status icons such as for the Network Manager or Gnome Power Manager, this is where they go. An example for starting the Network Manager Applet for Gnome and the Power Manager is bellow:

nm-applet &
gnome-power-manager &

Do this for any commands you want to startup automatically. In the case of these gnome services, if you have docker start up automatically by right-clicking it, selecting settings, and checking "Start when Window Maker is Started," then these gnome services will start all on their own you boot into Window Maker.

One last think to do is to make autostart executable. This involves changing the permissions. An easy way to allow Read/Write/Execute is to use the following command. It is important this script is executable! If it isn't done, then your commands will not start.

chmod 777 ~/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/autostart

Next time you restart your computer your commands in autostart and your applications you checked to start up should all begin automatically.