Re: Build breakage on netbsd-5, now Results of new NetBSD-5.1_STABLE

[Steven Bellovin <smb%cs.columbia.edu@localhost>]

On Jan 31, 2011, at 5:08 39AM, Thomas Mueller wrote:

>>> So you can choose the quit option from the window manager's menu, or if
>>> it isn't there, you can just kill it. You're operating without a wm
>>> then, which is a bit awkward - avoid having too many windows when you do
>>> it. If they overlap you can't change them. Then you can just start a new
>>> wm from an xterm prompt.
> 
>> A number of window managers have explicit mechanisms for invoking others.
>> At one point, I had this as a submenu item in my .twmrc file:
> 
>> Menu "exitwm"
>> {
>        "fvwm"          f.startwm "fvwm"
>        "wmaker"        f.startwm "wmaker"
>        "pwm"           f.startwm "pwm"
>        "twm"           f.startwm "twm"
>        "xfce4wm"       f.startwm "xfwm4"
>        ""              f.nop
>        "Exit"          f.quit
>> }
> 
> 
>>               --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb
> 
> How do I kill a window manager currently running, when such is not in the 
> menu?
> 
> killall -9 twm # or whatever window manager is involved?

Yes, but depending on your setup that might exit X.
> 
> I have done killall -9 seamonkey-bin when (Mozilla) Seamonkey became frozen.
> 
> Some window managers, but not all, have menu options to start another window 
> manager, including sometimes window managers that are not installed on the 
> computer, or nonworking window managers.
> 
> Is f.startwm part of twm, and could I create such a thing for a window 
> manager that has no such facility?

startwm is part of twm.  I know that fvwm has a similar facility which I can 
look up.  I don't know about other window managers.
> 
> Problem in my case is that after I exit X, text console is all dark: I never 
> saw anything like that in Linux or FreeBSD.
> 
> 
> Tom
> 


                --Steve Bellovin, http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~smb