2. Getting and installing AfterStep

2.1 Where do I get AfterStep?

The main AfterStep resources on the net are below.

• WWW Page

  The official WWW page is at http://www.afterstep.org

  Alas, it is way too old; but as of this writing is being updated by a new Web team.

• FTP Site

  The FTP site, ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/pub/, is the best place to get AfterStep. It also supports uploads: ftp://ftp.afterstep.org/incoming/. A link to the FTP site is provided from the Web site.

• Other Resources:

  There are also some useful things to be found on the following two pages. The first is the current, official AfterStep Customization Page; go to it if you're looking for really useful stuff. The second is rather out of date, but still nice-looking, and possibly useful:

  AfterStep Customization Page

  Kiwi's Page

2.2 What is the latest version of AfterStep?

The latest public version is 1.4.5, released on April 1998. In Summer 1998, version 2.0 should be available.

2.3 I've compiled AfterStep for my system but every time I try to use it I receive the message: Cannot open display. What should I do?

AfterStep is an X window manager and cannot be run from the terminal. It must be run through X. The easiest way to do that is to either create or edit your own .xinitrc file (which contains a list of the programs you wish to load upon startup) and add the line exec afterstep to the end. This last exec'd line is significant in that it says to shut down X when that program is terminated. Now that you have that file, simply startup X in your customary manner, most likely startx or xinit. Now you're off and running. Good luck!

2.4 How can I install AfterStep without being root?

This is fairly easy. You will have to install all the files under your home directory. The usual recommendation is to use the same directories as suggested in the installation procedure, but replacing /usr/local by your home directory. For example, if you home directory is /home/blah you would use directories like /home/blah/bin, /home/blah/etc, /home/blah/lib, etc.

Compile AfterStep following the manual installation procedure until the install step. Then, do the following (make sure to create the destination directories first if they don't exist. All the source paths are relative to the AfterStep source directory):

1. Copy afterstep/afterstep to $HOME/bin/.
2. Copy modules/*/(binaries) to $HOME/bin/.
3. Copy apps/*/(binaries) to $HOME/bin/.
4. Copy GNUstep/ to $HOME/.
5. Edit $HOME/GNUstep/Library/AfterStep/base.* to reflect the above paths in the lines starting with ModulePath and PixmapPath.
6. Put $HOME/bin in your path.

You should be set. Feel free to modify this procedure according to your particular needs or the particular setup of your machine/account.