Other (Window Maker) Could not exec WPrefs

There are multiple options for correcting this problem. Method 3 requires you to use more disk space for the sake of a single program 'openapp' and its support files, and it also requires more set-up than I would expect, but it does make it easier to open other GNUstep applications such as x11/terminal.app (Terminal.app) and deskutils/gworkspace (GWorkspace.app) using the command line.

  • Method 1—install a symlink to the WPrefs binary in some directory in your PATH
    (good if you have to reinstall from scratch and want to use the default WMRootMenu file)
    Code:
    $ echo "$PATH" | tr ':' '\n' | grep "$HOME"    # $HOME/bin is in my PATH for example
    /home/memr/bin
    $ ln -sv /usr/local/GNUstep/Applications/WPrefs.app/WPrefs $HOME/bin
    /home/memr/bin/WPrefs -> /usr/local/GNUstep/Applications/WPrefs.app/WPrefs
  • Method 2—use the full path to the WPrefs binary in $HOME/GNUstep/Defaults/WMRootMenu
    (solves the immediate problem)
    Code:
    ("Configure Window Maker", EXEC, "/usr/local/GNUstep/Applications/WPrefs.app/WPrefs"),
  • Method 3—get 'openapp' to work with WPrefs.app
    (much more work and disk space than necessary if you just want WPrefs.app to work, but it has its benefits)
    1. Install devel/gnustep-make
    2. Install a symlink to /usr/local/GNUstep/System/Tools/openapp in a directory in your PATH; I have $HOME/bin in my PATH for example, so my symlink is installed as $HOME/bin/openapp
    3. The 'openapp' utility does not look in /usr/local/GNUstep/Applications for applications, so it still won't find WPrefs.app at this point. However, it does look in $HOME/GNUstep/Applications, so you can create the directory $HOME/GNUstep/Applications and symlink $HOME/GNUstep/Applications/WPrefs.app to point at /usr/local/GNUstep/Applications/WPrefs.app
    4. Change the "Configure Window Maker" entry in $HOME/GNUstep/Defaults/WMRootMenu to execute openapp WPrefs
 
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