Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version svn-20070421

Chapter 27. Window Managers

Metacity-2.14.5

Introduction to Metacity

The Metacity package contains a window manager. This is useful for organizing and displaying windows.

Package Information

Metacity Dependencies

Required

GTK+-2.10.11 and XML::Parser-2.34

Optional

startup-notification-0.9 (recommended if you are installing GNOME-2), GConf-2.14.0 (recommended if you are installing GNOME-2), intltool-0.35.5, and libXcomposite*

* libXcomposite can optionally be used, but here's what the Metacity package maintainer has to say about it in the configure script if the package is found: “Not building compositing manager by default now, must enable explicitly to get it. And it doesn't work, so don't bother unless you want to hack on it...”

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/metacity

Installation of Metacity

Metacity will look for an X Render pkg-config file. If you use XFree86 as your X Window system, ensure this file exists (/usr/X11R6/lib/pkgconfig/xrender.pc).

Install Metacity by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr \
            --libexecdir=/usr/lib/metacity \
            --sysconfdir=/etc &&
make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Now, as the root user: 

make install &&
install -v -m755 -d /usr/share/doc/metacity-2.14.5 &&
install -v -m644 README rationales.txt doc/*.txt \
    /usr/share/doc/metacity-2.14.5

Command Explanations

--with-gconf-schema-file-dir=/etc/gnome/2.14.3/gconf/schemas: Use this option if you are installing Metacity for a GNOME-2 installation.

Configuring Metacity

Configuration Information

To automatically start the Metacity window manager when you issue the startx command, append to (or create) .xinitrc using the command below (not required if you are installing Metacity for a GNOME-2 installation). Ensure you backup your current ~/.xinitrc before proceeding: 

cat >> ~/.xinitrc << "EOF"
xterm &
exec metacity
EOF

Contents

Installed Programs: metacity, metacity-message, metacity-theme-viewer and metacity-window-demo
Installed Library: libmetacity-private.{so,a}
Installed Directories: /usr/include/metacity-1, /usr/lib/metacity, /usr/share/doc/metacity-2.14.5, /usr/share/gnome/wm-properties, /usr/share/metacity and /usr/share/themes/{AgingGorilla,Atlanta,Bright,Crux,Esco,Metabox,Simple}

Short Descriptions

metacity

is a window manager used mainly by GNOME.

metacity-theme-viewer

allows you to preview any installed Metacity theme. When designing a new Metacity theme, you can use metacity-theme-viewer to measure the performance of a window frame option, and to preview the option.

metacity-window-demo

demonstrates various kinds of windows that window managers and window manager themes should handle.

Last updated on 2007-04-04 21:42:53 +0200