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Begin Update I discovered XORG has a feature where all running apps can access all keypresses so that nifty AppImage calculator you downloaded can see the sudo pw you enter as well as the credentials to financial accounts. Consequently I chose to give up on XORG related installations. Fortunately, wayland appears to offer a path around your calculator knowing your sudo pw. Another problem for me is I'm currently using windows and VirtualBox for experimenting with Linux. VirtualBox has a problem with wayland desktop environments/windows managers which don't use xwayland. I've tested both sway and labwc wayland windows managers and they both quickly become unresponsive when ran from a VM on my notebook. From what I've found I'm left with a couple wayland options which are the opposite of where I started - GNOME and KDE. My next steps are to strip away all the unnecessary components within KDE, then GNOME, and compare size and function.

For those OK with XORG this is what I used to install IceWM on a Debian base. I was very happy with the install.

sudo apt-get update --fix-missing sudo apt install xorg lxpolkit slim icewm arandr pulseaudio volumeicon-alsa

~/.icewm/ needs to have a file named startup to start lxpolkit otherwise you can't run apps requiring root access from the IceWM menu.

#!/bin/bash
[ -x ~/.icewm/restart ] && source ~/.icewm/restart & 
lxpolkit

End Update

I'd like to build the lightest Linux system I can that is based upon Debian or Debian variant, and IceWM or lighter window manager.

Are there any window managers lighter than IceWM?

Are there any guides/videos on installing IceWM on Ubuntu?

I found Run IceWM in Ubuntu minimal installation?. This got me going down a good path but I encountered problems with some menu items. For instance, shutdown and restart would not work - no error given. Also the gparted menu would not start but like shutdown and restart would run from the cmd line.

Pretty much just looking for a desktop which includes a customizable menu from which I can open applications into windows on the desktop, switch between the applications, and share data between the applications.

CloisteredNeuron
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  • You are aware the lightest systems usually have the more difficult configuration (ie. no easy GUI click boxes; you edit the config files yourself with a text editor). For some even the menu itself isn't provided (you add it yourself if needed; thus can choose what menu you add weighing up cost/features yourself). To install icewm you need only use sudo apt install icewm on deb based Ubuntu products. – guiverc May 25 '24 at 00:55
  • Agreed it’s not simple. I was hoping to find a tutorial/video/blog that goes into locating/editing/moving the config files controlling IceWM and whatever config files required to allow elevated permission functions such as reboot/shutdown and gparted/synaptic to run from the IceWM menu. If installing IceWM on a Linux installation with no GUI, additional components are required in addition to IceWM. – CloisteredNeuron May 25 '24 at 03:05
  • For instance, I needed to install a display manager. I chose SLIM. In my link above several xorg packages are listed but I found simply installing xorg worked. Beyond that you have several components like arandr/network-manager/pulseaudio/volumeicon-alsa/etc and all the file manager/editors/terminals/browsers and such. Definitely not a straight-forward task. But in the end you have a lovely light weight OS. – CloisteredNeuron May 25 '24 at 03:05
  • Hi karel. I think fluxbox is used by antiX. In antiX it seemed IceWM was the lightest weight option. But fluxbox could be interesting. As it turns out I've had to give up on this as I need wayland support due to XORG sharing keystrokes with all apps. If you're interested in installing fluxbox, one thing I've learned is you'll need the package lxpolkit to handle the account escalation when a user tries to run a root app like gparted or Synaptic package manager. The fluxbox example did not include that. – CloisteredNeuron Jun 10 '24 at 06:17

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