multwindow mode problem

[Ralf Habacker]

On Thursday 13 January 2005 08:41, Okko Willeboordse wrote:
> David Strozzi <dstrozzi <at> MIT.EDU> writes:
> > Hi,
> >
> > First, KDE for cygwin is extremely helpful!  Many thanks to its creators.
> >
> > I installed KDE 3.1.4 today, upgrading from 3.1.1.  I could run KDe
> > 'normally' via
> >
> > startx &
> >
> > but not in 'multiwindow' (all windows just normal windoze windows)
> >
> > start -multiwindow &
> >
> > I get an error, identical to one in a post from February by Trevor
> > (http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-cygwin&m=107769264302613&w=2), where
> > the KDE
> > desktop 'takes up' the whole screen except the windows taskbar, and I
> > can't get any windoze windows to come to the foreground.
> >
> > So, I wiped cygwin off my hard drive, made a fresh install, and
> > multiwindow worked fine.  For several times.
> >
> > Then, I started 'full' KDE with startx &, and now the same problem occurs
> > with multiwindow!
> >
> > Following Ralf's suggestion to Trevor, I looked to see if the process
> > kwin is running after KDE is done, and it is.  I kill it, and multiwindow
> > works fine, new kde progs start as windoze windows, etc.
> >
> > But, why does kwin start?  When I run KDE with startx &, is that
> > modifying some initialization file?
>
> Can it be that the behavior of ksmserver has changed?
> Have a look in  /opt/kde3/bin/startkde. When in multiwindow mode, ksmserver
> is started with '--windowmanager unknown'. Obviously 'unknown' is not a
> valid window manager. The current version of ksmserver then starts kwin. If
> you change the following line of /opt/kde3/bin/startkde:
> KDEWM="unknown" # dummy name to avoid loading of a window manager
> into:
> KDEWM="wm" # dummy name to avoid loading of a window manager
> then kwin is not loaded and multiwindow seems to work, although I don't
> know the implications of running ksmserver with --windowmanager wm.
>
I don't think that there are any implications as 'unknown' indicates a not 
present windowmanager like 'wm'. I'm only wondering, why using another non 
existent name could work. :-) 

Ralf