Re: GNUstep app fails on Ubuntu 16

[Andreas Höschler]

Hi Johannes,

I have done

apt-get install wdm
apt-get install wmaker
reboot

on a fresh Ubuntu (server) install but did not get any graphical login!? :-(

it might be that wdm is a little too old to have a good configuration packaged. Trying to add xorg is a good idea of course. I had good results using lightdm under Debian. Installing GNUstep should be as easy as

sudo apt install wmaker lightdm gnustep gnustep-devel
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM (same should apply for Ubuntu)

This should pull in all of the required dependencies. But as of 16.04 the gnustep packages are quite old probably.

I failed to get wmaker running. However, since NSComboBox does not work under WindowMaker anyway I gave up on this. The following sequence of commands gave me working graphical login screen without the unity bulk-load.

apt install xfce4 lightdm

dpkg-reconfigure lightdm

The problem with LightDM in Ubuntu repository is that it’s configured for Unity, the old default Ubuntu desktop environment. So, now, let’s config LightDM for Xfce.

rm /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-unity-greeter.conf

pico /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/50-xfce-greeter.conf

[SeatDefaults]

greeter-session=unity-greeter

user-session=xfce

reboot 

This works like a charm. I haven't tested GNUstep apps under this Window Manager yet though. I hope NSComboBox will work (under unity it does, under wmaker it does not)

Best wishes,

 Andreas