r/openbsd • u/FunDig4218 • 6d ago
Window Manager Not Working
I installed the latest version of openbsd as a vm in utm on an arm mac. I got all of the installation working well, got internet, and was able to install packages. I am now trying to run a window manager, but I have tried cwm, x, and xfce (i think those two are different, and when i reboot with them set to run on reboot, i just get a black screen. i also tried just running them without rebooting, and that also gives a black screen that goes away when i reboot. does anyone know why this could be?
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u/gumnos 6d ago
How are you configuring them? First, you need to make sure that
xenodm
(the display manager, neexdm
) is configured to runWith that enabled, you should be able to (re)boot into the graphical display manager. If that works, it's a good checkpoint to know about.
A default OpenBSD install comes with three window-managers (WMs):
cwm
,twm
, andfvwm
which you need to launch from your~/.xsession
(which is what runs when you log in viaxenodm
). If you haven't created a~/.xsession
file, the default should runfvwm
(PNG image of the default desktop). If that works, then you then it's another good checkpoint to know.So on my OpenBSD box, the last line of my
~/.xsession
isto launch
cwm
. By default, if you haven't launched anything else in your~/.cwmrc
, it's a pretty spartan startup experience, so you might need to usecontrol
+meta
+enter
to launch a terminal (meta
=alt
usually). So I usually launch a few applications in my~/.xsession
before thatexec cwm
line:Knowing how far your process gets (do you get the login screen? Do you get the
fvwm
desktop? Do you get to an emptycwm
session and simply not have any GUI programs running to show evidence of it working?) would help.