fluxbox as WM for KDE?

whitt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2020 Posts: 131

so while poking around and trying to get latte-dock or donky-dock, conky-dock, whatever that other one is, i decided to do something i will probably regret and just installed KDE.

it's come a long way - it's not bad. i like to say i use fluxbox because it's quick, but really it's because i'm a dinosaur and i've just never gotten used to anything else. i've been using this text configured interface forever, and am now considering using fluxbox with KDE / plasma. it seems like the problems i've had are that plasma requires an absolute ton of stuff running in the background in order for KDE apps to work correctly... OK - so i'm looking for a way to use fluxbox as my WM while running KDE.

my goal is to keep the functionality and control of fluxbox, with the utility of all the plasma / KDE bloat. i'm especially interested in keeping my ~/fluxbox/menu as a desktop popup menu when i click on the desktop, as well as fluxbox's WM control of placement, transparency, decorations, etc...

is that even possible? i've found some older writeups about configuring KDE to start with another WM, but i haven't had any luck - it seems like if i start plasma, i get all of KDE and fluxbox doesn't even start...

am i fighting a lost cause?

xhakerek · n00b Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 54 Location: Korolówka

whitt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2020 Posts: 131

so when i startx i'll lauch KDE using the dbus-launch startplasma xinitrc? i just run startx on login, i don't use a manager to log in.

i'll check this out tomorrow - thanks for the pointer, i hadn't seen this.

xhakerek · n00b Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 54 Location: Korolówka

If you do start X and then start plasma, try adding KDEWM environment variable:

whitt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2020 Posts: 131

huh...

so in my searching, i found the Arch instructions telling me to create a custom systemd service. i see if i had kept reading, it would have also told me i could use KDEWM. let me see what happens...

whitt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2020 Posts: 131

well that was a bust... i got KDE to start but it was still intercepting mouse clicks. `ps aux|grep flux` showed fluxbox running, but i couldn't use any of my key bindings, and windows had no borders / controls. if i clicked on an icon, the KDE / plasma app wouldn't launch.

what i tried: ~/.xinitrc

whitt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2020 Posts: 131

interesting updates...

when reading the Arch wiki, i had masked the plasma-kwin_x11 service and set up a custom wm service. after unmasking plasma-kwin and masking the custom service, i get full KDE functionality using the above setup, but no fluxbox...

there was an odd in-between phase where i had broken KDE functionality (tray was in the wrong place, window decorations weren't rendered and couldn't be moved) but i could tell fluxbox started - windows were auto launched, and i could scroll through my desktop. however KDE was still taking over mouse clicks and everything was ... not working correctly.

so anyway - still poking at this w/ little success. any pointers welcomed.

GDH-gentoo · Posted: Mon Jan 23, 2023 9:48 pm Post subject:

whitt · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 28 Dec 2020 Posts: 131

well... none of that helped, but thanks for trying!

i'm actually enjoying KDE - it's not too bad. i really miss my context menus, but i might find an alternative... i'll play with KDE for a bit more before abandoning fluxbox if i do, but it seems possible at this point.