Certainly. The big secret is the missing dependency that Arslan S. mentioned: libgtop.
I should explain that I'm on MicroCore 2.10, which has no such package. I took a little time out to learn how to complete a build environment, and then I compiled it myself using libgtop.2.26.1.tar.bz2 taken from
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/libgtop/2.26/Then I simply added metacity and all its stated dependencies. For those of you on TinyCore 3.x, I think there's already a libgtop extension, yes? So you shouldn't need to compile.
With everything installed, I ran the following as the superuser (or you can just use sudo):
update-gconf-database register /usr/local/etc/gconf/schemas/metacity.schemas
Then as the regular user, I did:
export GCONF_CONFIG_SOURCE=""
gconftool-2 --makefile-install-rule /usr/local/etc/gconf/schemas/metacity.schemas
Install the metacity theme of your choice. I will use Atlanta as an example. To make metacity use my theme, I run:
gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/theme Atlanta
At this point I'm ready to fire it up. I usually have done all of the above from within Xorg, running something simple like flwm. I kill flwm and run:
metacity --sm-disable
in its place. Et voilĂ .
A few notes: as I'm still experimenting, I haven't tried to make anything persist yet, so the few times that I've tried this I only did what I have outlined above, always from scratch. I haven't tried to add it to filetool.lst or anything like that. Anybody who does so, please expand on this thread.
Metacity cannot set the cursor for the root window. Since I am in X with another wm already running and then switch, the cursor is set for me by the previous wm. If you start metacity "cold", you need a utility like xsetroot to set the cursor:
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
will work for most X-11 cursor themes. If you have a scalable cursor, you do the following. Let's say you want it really big, 48 for example. Add the following line to .Xdefaults file in your home directory:
Xcursor*size: 48
Then run this command:
gconftool-2 --type integer --set /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/cursor_size 48
(If you already have metacity running at this point, you may need to restart it for the cursor size change to "take".)
Metacity is only a wm and nothing else; no panel, no launcher, no menu. So I use TinyCore's wbar and populate it to suit me, and I'm very pleased. But for those seeking a little more, you will need to experiment with a panel or other solution of your choice.
Happy New Year!
[EDIT:] OK, I found that sometimes Metacity does set the cursor for the root window. But on my system it's not consistent, and I can't work out why. So I'll let my comment about xsetroot stand for the occasions when you may need it.