starting xmonad

Question

I'm completely new to xmonad but I'd like to start using it to boost my productivity.

This is the guide I've been using (I'm using Apple OS X Snow Leopard) http://xmonad.org/tour.html#start

So far I've managed to install Haskell-Platform, Cabal, dMenu, and xmonad (using cabal install).

When I attempt to run xmonad from the terminal I run into this error:

SDGL0990Z464C:~ cflynn$ echo $PATH
/Users/cflynn/.cabal/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/X11/bin
SDGL0990Z464C:~ cflynn$ xmonad
/Users/cflynn/.xmonad/xmonad-i386-darwin: executeFile: does not exist (No such file or directory)
X Error of failed request:  BadAccess (attempt to access private resource denied)
  Major opcode of failed request:  2 (X_ChangeWindowAttributes)
  Serial number of failed request:  7
  Current serial number in output stream:  8

Can anyone explain what this means? Thanks!

Answer 1

Does the file /Users/cflynn/.xmonad/xmonad-i386-darwin exist? It sounds like it does not. You will need to compile your xmonad config and put the resulting executable at that location.

Answer 2

Skip to the bottom of this page - http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Using_xmonad_on_Apple_OSX

Add the contents to .xinitrc rather than starting it at the terminal.