While trying to startup 'fvwm-crystal', using 'startx'. X gives an error similar to 'can't find fvwm2' or 'can't find /usr/bin/fvwm2'. I couldn't find a log that had the exact response, but the point is there is no executable 'fvwm2'. A simple solution is 'cd /usr/bin; ln -s fvwm fvwm2', I tested this and it works Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. emerge fvwm fvwm-crystal 2. edit ~/.xinitrc add line 'exec fvwm-crystal' 3. execute startx Actual Results: X does not start Expected Results: X should load fvwm-crystal wm. Relevant programs installed x11-themes/fvwm-crystal Installed versions: 3.0.5-r1(01:44:35 PM 10/31/2009) x11-themes/fvwm-themes Installed versions: 0.7.0(07:14:30 PM 10/30/2009)(-gnome) x11-themes/fvwm_icons Installed versions: 1.0(07:21:59 PM 10/30/2009) x11-wm/fvwm Installed versions: 2.5.28(06:52:00 PM 10/30/2009)(gtk nls perl png readline svg truetype -bidi -debug -doc -gtk2-perl -imlib -lock -netpbm -rplay -stroke -tk -vanilla -xinerama) ****************************************** emerge --info Portage 2.1.6.13 (default/linux/amd64/10.0/desktop, gcc-4.3.4, glibc-2.9_p200812 01-r2, 2.6.31 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.31-x86_64-Intel-R-_Pentium-R-_D_CPU_3.00GHz-with-gentoo- 1.12.11.1 Timestamp of tree: Sat, 31 Oct 2009 00:30:01 +0000 ccache version 2.4 [enabled] app-shells/bash: 4.0_p28 dev-java/java-config: 2.1.9-r1 dev-lang/python: 2.6.2-r1 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r7 dev-util/cmake: 2.6.4 sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.6-r2 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.63-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.4_p6, 1.7.9-r1, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r3 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.6a virtual/os-headers: 2.6.27-r2 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /opt/boxee/UserData" CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/ fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /et c/udev/rules.d" CXXFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="ccache distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfpe rms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch" GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/ distributions/gentoo" LANG="en_US" LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1" LINGUAS="en" MAKEOPTS="-j2" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/" PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclu de=/local --exclude=/packages" PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage" SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage" USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa amd64 berkdb branding bzip2 cairo cdr cli consoleki t cracklib crypt dbus dri dts dvd dvdr emboss encode evo exif fam firefox flac f ortran gdbm gif gstreamer gtk hal iconv imap ipv6 isdnlog java jpeg ldap libnoti fy mad matroska mikmod mmx modules mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap multilib ncurses nls npt l nptlonly ogg opengl openmp pam pcre pdf perl plotutils png postscript ppds ppp d python qt3support qt4 quicktime readline reflection scanner sdl session spell spl sse sse2 ssl startup-notification svg sysfs tcpd thunar tiff truetype unicod e usb vim-syntax vim-with-x vorbis wmf x264 xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALS A_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens137 0 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb- audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="a ctions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_fil e authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user auto index cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter fi le_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_al ias" CAMERAS="canon ptp2" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse" KER NEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxor b ncurses text" LINGUAS="en" LIRC_DEVICES="serial" SANE_BACKENDS="hp" USERLAND=" GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel vesa fbdev radeon" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PO RTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
In my humble opinion, the bug is in crystal. In the fvwm Changelog you see this: 2002-04-11 Mikhael Goikhman <migo@homemail.com> * **: renamed fvwm2 executable to fvwm, fvwm2 man page to fvwm; documentation updated They've had seven and a half year to fix it. So, the solution is not to create random symlinks, but to fix fvwm-crystal to run fvwm instead of fvwm2. I took a quick look and it seems to be fixed in crystal 3.0.6, however just changing the last line of the fvwm-crystal script will work ok if you don't want to go ~arch.
Closing since Comment #1 says this is fixed in 3.0.6 which is now stable.
