(Previously replied to author, not to list; sorry for the duplicate)
My xmonad source is here: /root/xmonad/xmonad-0.5 I did this for root (entered as root): runhaskell Setup configure runhaskell Setup build runhaskell Setup install The executable and xmonad.hs are here: /root/.xmonad
I did this for username (entered as root): runhaskell Setup configure --user --prefix=/home/username runhaskell Setup build runhaskell Setup install --user The executable and xmonad.hs are here: /home/username/.xmonad
I'm a noob, but I think that "(entered as root)" in that last block might be your problem. When you do the instructions that contain --user, something gets registered in the _current user's_ ghc-pkg database. The "current user" in that case was root, not 'username' as it should be. If you have root access, I think you don't need the --user suffix ever, you can install xmonad on a system level. (Don't confuse this with installing for the user "root" which is what you seemed to be trying to do in the first block of steps.) I don't know much about this as I haven't done it, and there might be tricky things you should do so as not to tread on the toes of your package manager. The --user instructions are valuable if you want to install xmonad for a single user without ever needing root access. This is what I suggest you do, so you can leave your system software to your package manager and easily blow away your custom-compiled software if it breaks in hairy way that you can't figure out. Finally: maybe it's debatable, but you shouldn't be logging into X and running window managers, etc., as root.