Tags: #windowmaker #linux
I wanted to study Window Maker source code and change a few things. To do that, I need to compile it from source and change ligthdm to use my custom compiled version.
Unfortunately, there is not much documentation about compiling Window Maker from source, so I am adding it here so others (and myself in the future) can reuse this.
Start by installing deb packages needed to compile Window Maker
# Build tools
sudo apt-get install build-essential \
autoconf automake libtool gettext git
# Base libraries
sudo apt-get install libx11-dev libsm-dev \
libpango1.0-dev libbsd-dev
# Image libraries
sudo apt-get install libxft-dev libfontconfig-dev libfreetype6-dev \
libxpm-dev libjpeg-dev libpng-dev libtiff-dev libgif-dev libwebp-dev \
# Imagemagick library support
sudo apt-get install libmagickwand-dev
Let's create the alternative installation directory
sudo mkdir -p /opt/wmaker
# Optionally, change ownership to your user to simplify later changes
sudo chown $(id -u):$(id -g) /opt/wmaker
git clone https://repo.or.cz/wmaker-crm.git
cd wmaker-crm
./configure --prefix=/opt/wmaker \
--enable-modelock \
--enable-pango
make -j $(nproc)
# add sudo if you didn't change /opt/wmaker ownership
make install
# or if you don't want debug symbols (results are 5MiB binaries)
make install-strip
And last, let's create a custom session file to select our custom Window Maker
Edit with your favorite text editor:
sudo edit /usr/share/xsessions/wmaker-custom.desktop
Add the following content:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Window Maker Custom
Comment=Use Window Maker from /opt/wmaker
Exec=/opt/wmaker/bin/wmaker
Icon=wmaker
Type=XSession
Restart with:
sudo /etc/init.d/lightdm restart
# or
sudo systemctl restart lightdm.service
That's all. Now you can enjoy your own compiled version of Window Maker