====== Working with the IceWM Windows Manager ======

The Asus Eee comes with a dormant window manager called [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icewm|IceWM]].  (A window manager is a graphical user interface that controls placement and appearance of windows within an operating system).  By simply editing a text file, one can gain access to a world of window and taskbar settings, and can also enable a Start Menu.  This document will focus primarily on activating the Start Menu, but later on we will add how-to's for other settings.


===== Enabling the IceWM Start Menu in Easy Mode =====

{{startmenu.jpg?200|The IceWM Start Menu can be enabled in Easy Mode}}

<sub>It would be great if someone could assist me with a redirect from the old version of this page to this version.  I believe [[http://wiki.splitbrain.org/plugin:page_redirector|this site]] has a necessary plugin and further details.</sub>



==== Copying and editing preferences file in Terminal ====

This will involve creating a folder in your /home/user directory and copying an existing preferences text file over to that new directory.  This preferences file contains many, many interesting settings but for now we will simply focus on enabling the Start Menu.

1. Open your Terminal using the keyboard combination **Ctrl-Alt-T**.

2.((there are together 6 files inside the folder, you are advised to copy them all for more enhancement to the menu, cp **/etc/X11/icewm/*.* /home/user/.icewm**
)) Type the following commands, as shown in the screenshot below.

<code>
/home/user> mkdir ~/.icewm
/home/user> cp /etc/X11/icewm/preferences /home/user/.icewm
</code>

3. Now, from here you can simply edit the file and be done with it if you happen to know how, but if you are new to using the command line you might wish to verify that the file was actually copied.  Then, assuming you navigate to the new directory first as shown below, you would enter the command **nano preferences**.

<code>
/home/user> cd .icewm
/home/user> ls
/home/user> nano preferences
</code>

{{howto:startmenu_help1_terminal.jpg|}}

4. Now you should be looking at your newly copied [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Icewm|IceWM]] preferences file in [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nano_%28text_editor%29|Nano]].

{{howto:startmenu_help2_nano.jpg|}}

5. Using the cursor key, navigate to the line containing "TaskBarShowStartMenu" and change the zero to a 1 as shown below.

{{howto:startmenu_help3_nano2.jpg|}}

6. Now you can hit the Ctrl-X key combination, press "Y" to save, then press <enter> to save the name as 'preferences'.

{{howto:startmenu_help3_nano3.jpg|}}

7. That's it!  Now you can press the key combination **Ctrl-Alt-Backspace** to restart X (restarting your Eee is unnecessary) and you will see a Start Menu.

{{howto:startmenu_help4_desktop.jpg|}}





==== Copying and editing preferences file in File Manager ====

1. Open the **Work Tab**

2. Open File Manager

3. Click "View", "Show Hidden Files"

4. Click "View, "Show All File Systems"

5. In the left-hand pane, click "My Home" and create a hidden folder entitled **.icewm**

6. In the left-hand pane, navigate from "All File Systems" to **/etc/X11/icewm**

7. In the right-hand pane, click **Ctrl-A** to select all files

8. Click **Ctrl-C** to copy to the clipboard

9. In the left-hand pane, select **My Home**, .icewm and click **Ctrl-V** to paste from the clipboard

10. Right click on the file named "preferences" and choose "Open With..." -> Text Editor.

{{http://865gv.kornhill.hk/eeepc/snapshot34.png|}}

{{http://865gv.kornhill.hk/eeepc/snapshot35.png|}}

11. Find the line "TaskBarShowStartMenu", change the value from 0 to 1.

{{http://865gv.kornhill.hk/eeepc/snapshot36.png|}}

{{http://865gv.kornhill.hk/eeepc/snapshot37.png|}}

12. Save the file and press the key-combination **Ctrl-Alt-Backspace** to restart X (restarting your Eee is unnecessary).

===== Changing the time format to AM/PM =====

1. In the same **preferences** file discussed above, scroll down to the section titled "Clock Time Format" and look at the **TimeFormat** value as shown below.

{{howto:startmenu_help5_ampm_b.jpg|}}

2. Change the **TimeFormat** to read as follows

<code>
TimeFormat="%I:%M %p"
</code>

{{howto:startmenu_help6_ampm_b.jpg|}}

3. Now save your changes and restart X (or restart your Eee if you wish).

<sub>This article is under development.</sub>
















===== Setting Up a More Useful Start Menu =====
File to edit is **menu** in /home/user/.icewm

**#** - anything after # in the line is comment

**prog** - is what will appear in your menu

**separator** - is line between groups

**menu** - group folder

**restart** - Restarting another window manager 

**menufile** - special entry which house the shortcut names you placed in the toolbar

**menuprog** - ?

Some sample program entry :

format : prog "title" icon_name program_executable options

Games
<code>
prog "Potato Guy" ktuberling ktuberling -caption "Potato Guy"
</code>

Utility
<code>
prog "Control Panel" konqueror konqueror
prog "File Manager" Icon XandrosFileManager
prog "File Manager (Root)" Icon kdesu "XandrosFileManager --caption 'File Manager (ROOT)' --icon xfm_root"
prog "Text Editor" kwrite kwrite
prog "Screen Shot" ksnapshot ksnapshot
prog "Remote Desktop" krdc krdc
prog "Synaptic Package" synaptic kdesu synaptic 
</code> 
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===== IceWM Menu Templates =====

[[doc:icewmstartmenutemplates|Here are some sample templates]] to consider adopting.  Simply copy and paste as needed.   <sup>//(Thank you, [[http://forum.eeeuser.com/profile.php?id=1158|alanking]]!)//</sup>


===== Quick buttons In The Toolbar ======
<sub>This article is under development.</sub>

\\
<sub>Kudos to [[http://forum.eeeuser.com/profile.php?id=730|o2smartphone]] who published his findings in [[http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=808|this discussion thread]] on the forum, as well as other contributors in that thread.
\\
\\
If you have some time, please contribute to this article by adding screenshots.</sub>