In order to use fvwm2 as your window manager, you must change your .xinitrc or .xsession appropriately and add a line similar to the following: exec ${PREFIX}/bin/fvwm2 Icons have been installed into ${PREFIX}/share/pixmaps/fvwm, and a system wide configuration has been put in ${PREFIX}/share/fvwm/system.fvwm2rc. To use your own configuration, copy ${PREFIX}/share/fvwm/system.fvwm2rc to ~/.fvwm2rc and edit it as appropriate.