How to change window manager in text mode? (half solved)

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ds2dys · #1 Post by **ds2dys** » Sat 11 Sep 2010, 20:04

Hi.

I'm using Lucid Puppy 5.1.1 and installed XFCE (forgot which one, but it was a .pet package, 4.6.1) yesterday. I had used the IceWM but after I swithed to XFCE, only the mouse pointer 'X' appeared.

I wonder if there is any way to change back to IceWM or JWM. I have searched the forum but I couldn't find any similar case.

Please help!

Thank you in advance.

UPDATE:
It seems the way how I updated the LuPu 5.1 to 5.1.1 caused the problem. I have the Grub4DOS for multi-booting for Puppy and WinXP. I had LuPu 5.1.0 before and I just simply replaced the lupu-510.sfs with the lupu-511.sfs and the Puppy automatically updated from my pupsave when I booted the computer. It processed smoothly and then I installed the XFCE4 and this problem happened.
Yesterday, I deleted the pupsave file and booted from fresh lupu-511.sfs and installed XFCE without any problem. But I'm not quite sure if this was the real only problem, so I added 'half solved' to the title.

I hope this helps someone.

Thanks for all advices.

pemasu · #2 Post by **pemasu** » Sat 11 Sep 2010, 21:00

Go to console state. Type xwin jwm or xwin icewm. It should work. There is no way to delete double posts. Just ignore it and type for example double post. That`s the way most inform it.

ds2dys · #3 Post by **ds2dys** » Sat 11 Sep 2010, 21:54

Thank you for your answer, pemasu. I tried 'xwin jwm' and 'xwin icewm' already, but none of them worked. Somehow it seems some configuration file got corrupted but I don't know how to fix it. Is there any way to revert the window manager configuration back to default setting?

Thanks.

#4 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 11 Sep 2010, 22:10

At the command prompt (console state) type xorgwizard.
Then xwin ...... , maybe it will work.

ds2dys · #5 Post by **ds2dys** » Sat 11 Sep 2010, 22:27

Thank you Beem, but I have already tried that too with no success. I don't want to loose my data and settings. There must be some way to revert the window manager back to previous one or default jwm, isn't there?

I have been going back and forth between Puppy and WinXP to write this post and check responses this whole afternoon.

Hopefully someone could help me.

Thanks.

#6 Post by **BÃ©Ã¨m** » Sat 11 Sep 2010, 22:30

You don't say what type of install you have and how you operate.

ds2dys · #7 Post by **ds2dys** » Sun 12 Sep 2010, 00:44

I had been using Lucid Puppy 5.1.0 before upgrading to 5.1.1 a couple of days ago. I have not many installations. I have SeaMonkey 2.0.7, Wine, Eagle CAD and IceWM. I can reinstall everything from clean Puppy by erasing saved file but I have some important emails stored in SeaMonkey which were already deleted from the POP3 email servers and that's why I want to get back to the previous 'working' window manager so that I can keep my email box.

It was my fault I forgot to backup my saved file before playing with another WM.

James C · #8 Post by **James C** » Sun 12 Sep 2010, 01:08

At the prompt try entering "xwin startxfce4"(without the quotes).
It might at least get you into a working wm.
I'm running xfce on my 5.1.1 install and entered that to get xfce started.
HTH.

ds2dys · #9 Post by **ds2dys** » Sun 12 Sep 2010, 02:03

I will try that right now. Hope I can reply in Puppy.

Thank you all for help.

smil99 · #10 Post by **smil99** » Sun 12 Sep 2010, 13:12

Hello ds2dys,
I remember encountering a similar situation some time ago. I think what happens is that the xfce pet tries to be the default WM and in the process wipes off some important lines in '/root/.xinitrc' (or overwrites it entirely) and that makes it impossible for other WMs like JWM or icewm to work properly. Probably, the creator of the pet at that point in time only thought of how to REPLACE JWM and/or icewm with xfce and not how to live alongside with them.
Anyway, what I did was to boot from a puppy CD that I had already burnt and start the computer with the 'puppy pfix=ram' option. This gave me access to the installed puppy and I was able to retrieve all important data before formatting and doing a fresh install.

Hope this helps,

Cheers.

ds2dys · #11 Post by **ds2dys** » Sun 12 Sep 2010, 15:09

Thank you, smil99, for your explanation.
My computer has both WinXP and Puppy. They are not installed in separate partitions but I use the Grub4DOS which means I have no installed Puppy but it's the same as USB booted Puppy and I have a pupsave file which I should've backed up before installing XFCE but I didn't.

Therefore, even if I can boot from a CD or a USB, I can't access to the pupsave file to retrieve my data.

But as in your reply, I thought I could probably overwrite the somehow corrupted .xinitrc with a fresh .xinitrc which I could copy from the USB booted environment. So I tried to copy the .xinitrc and pasted in the directory /root but it didn't work. I opened the suspicious .xinitrc using vi and compared lines with the fresh one but I couldn't find any difference.

Maybe some other file(s) should be replaced with fresh one(s).
I hope someone can let me know which file(s) they are.

Thank you for all of your help.
I love Puppy and this community where so many people try to help other Puppy loving novice.

ds2dys · #12 Post by **ds2dys** » Mon 13 Sep 2010, 13:59

I gave up, but I could find my backup pupsave file in other partition I made a month ago and my Puppy got back to normal except for some data lost.

I'm yelling at myself: Back up first!!!!!!!!!!!!

Have a good day all Puppy lovers!

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How to change window manager in text mode? (half solved)

How to change window manager in text mode? (half solved)