Create a menu in ~/.xinitrc

[VirtualLinuxUser]

Hi. I've searched the Internet and can't find what I'm looking for (although close to it).

At the moment, I'm running my system to start on runlevel 3 (multiple users, no gui).

When I run X (startx), my system runs GNOME.

I've got multiple window managers installed and I'd like a menu to choose between them when I run startx.

if I run startx, a menu such as the following should come up :

1) minimal (Run X with three xterms and twm)
2) openbox || icewm || fvwm (not necessarily with menus, etc)
3) GNOME (Full GNOME desktop with panels, menus, etc. ; what currently happens when I run startx)

Choice : _

I would then type '1' for a minimal environment, '2' for openbox, '3' for the full graphical GNOME desktop with panels, menus, etc.

How do I edit the following code to get the user's choice? Also, is this the correct way to go about it without passing the path to the WM to startx? :

echo -en " 1.\tMinimal (twm)\n 2.\topenbox \n 3.\tGNOME (full desktop)\n"
echo "Choose a window manager"
$choi = {userChoice}

if [[ $choi == "1" ]]
then # minimal - 3 xterms and twm
  # xterm -geometry & # xterm 1, with geometry args changable (manual edit)
  # xterm -geometry & # xterm 2, with geometry args changeable (manual edit)
  # xterm -geometry -login & # xterm 3, also with geometry args changeable (manual edit)
  exec /usr/bin/twm # can be changed to another WM, such as mwm
elif [[ $choi == "2" ]] # openbox ; can be changed out for icewm or fvwm
	exec openbox # openbox-session (?) ; not necessarily with menus, panels, etc. Will I need the full LXDE setup?
else
  exec gnome-session # start full GNOME desktop (panels, menus, background, etc. ; default)
fi

[mendieta]

Hmmm...
I don't know if this answers completely your question but here's my 2 cents.

$ xinit /path/to/wm

should work (works for me at least). Also, you can do

$ xinit /usr/bin/xterm -- :0
$ xinit /usr/bin/icewm -- :1

to start each wm in a different tty (don't know if the terminology is correct).
In this case, Ctrl-Alt-F7 will show xterm, and Ctrl-Alt-F8 will show icewm.
Don't know if this should work in every distro (I use Arch).
Hope this helps
Best,
Marcelo