35.2.2. Window Managers

Window managers are X client programs which are either part of a desktop environment or, in some cases, stand-alone. Their primary purpose is to control the way graphical windows are positioned, resized, or moved. Window managers also control title bars, window focus behavior, and user-specified key and mouse button bindings.

Four window managers are included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux:

To run any of the aforementioned window managers, you will first need to boot into Runlevel 3. For instructions on how to do this, refer to Section 18.1, “Runlevels”.

Once you are logged in to Runlevel 3, you will be presented with a terminal prompt, not a graphical environment. To start a window manager, type xinit -e <path-to-window-manager> at the prompt.

<path-to-window-manager> is the location of the window manager binary file. The binary file can be located by typing which window-manager-name, where window-manager-name is the name of the window manager you want to run.

For example:

~]# which twm
/usr/bin/twm
~]# xinit -e /usr/bin/twm

The first command above returns the absolute path to the twm window manager, the second command starts twm.

To exit a window manager, close the last window or press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. Once you have exited the window manager, you can log back into Runlevel 5 by typing startx at the prompt.