tips for fluxbox [Part 1]

[jlowe]

I start all my programs in ~/.xinitrc, so I have the line

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conky &

in there.

Still not sure why nothing in the .fluxbox/startup file will work, but adding it to .xinitrc worked fine. Thanks for your help.

[dswissmiss]

Hi guys, two quick questions.
Is there any way to get menu icons larger than 14x14 pixels?
and do you know of any documentation for the fluxbox init file?

Thanx
Dswissmiss

Edit: http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Howto ... _init_file answers my second question

[Massimo B.]

Hi there, I am just starting with fluxbox and I love it.
So far no one did answer to this: Which window manager do fluxbox people like? xdm has no grafical pleasure at all, but do I need kdm or gdm? I tried to emerge entrance but there are too much dependenies of ~x86.

[southpaw]

Hello there paoleela,
I will mention that the reason nobody answered your question (I know this sounds laim) is because I think you're referring to a "Display Manager" not a window manager. Fluxbox is a window manager, GDM, KDM, and XDM is a display manager . I know it sounds ridiculous, but you would be surprised how many anal people out there might avoid answering a like that over a simple mistake . Anyway, imho, I would go with GDM and I'll tell you why. First of all XDM as you know, is pretty laim, Entrance is too much of a pain in the ass and personally I don't think it's worth the trouble. GDM and KDM are both pretty much the same, similar appearance, similar look, and there both easy to set up. I myself prefer GDM over KDM, it has a lot more options and it is very easy to set up .

[Massimo B.]

Thanks for the explanation. Actually I mixed up window and displaymanager. I will go for gdm then, I know it already, but thought there would be a fluxbox solution.

[southpaw]

No, problem.
Yeah, I've used all 4 of them at one time or another and I always come back to GDM. It seems to have the most options and it's easy to setup, plus there's tons of themes you can use .

[thaswiftness]

I still don't see whats wrong with XDM

Example 1
Example 2

[Massimo B.]

Looks good, so how do you custumize your xdm?

konqueror is able to be used in fluxbox? But I need a lot of kde libs for that?
I used to use konqueror because of its good integration in kde. So beside that what's a good browser in fluxbox? Maybe back to firefox, so I don't need to install all the konqueror dependencies?
The fluxbox channel told me that the dependencies thing is a gentoo disadvantage, but I think emerge knows what is necessary.

[southpaw]

Hey swiftness,
please allow me to clarify myself. I never actually said that there was anything wrong with XDM. I feel it's a matter of preference and although I said "XDM is laim", I basically mean that for me it's pretty limited. I like having a choice of different window managers to choose from. My main WM is Fluxbox, but I like to experiment with other WM such as FVWM, and AKAIK, XDM only allows you to log in to one window manager. So, I'll rephrase my earlier statement by saying that if you only want to be able to graphically login to one set WM, then XDM is the way to go, otherwise it's pretty laim . Just Kidding .

...Btw, nice pic's, did you do those yourself or did download them from somewhere?

[i92guboj]

If you dont like xdm and dont want so much dependencies I would suggest you to take a look into qingy. It has also some interesting features. For example, since it works in framebuffer, outside X, you will be able to select if you want to start with any of the installed window managers (flux, fvwm, wmaker.....) or in plain console, thru a nice list that you can point with your mouse since version 0.6, if that is what worries you

It is themeable, you can configure the graphics and fonts, you can put a screensaver, etc. And it is in portage. It is fast and much lighter than any x based solution, while looking very good. I particularly like the fact that you can choose if you want to boot x or console, whitout having to choose that in the grub or lilo config via a runlelel, because if I end my X session and dont need X anymore, I dont have a silly display manager sucking up resources, I just exit X, and from qingy I re-login in the console. Very practical.

[southpaw]

Now then paoleela,
Although Konquerer is probably the most versatile browser that I know of I like Firefox. Like you mentioned, KDE is a little overloaded with dependancies and what not. When I first got into Linux about a year ago KDE was the only Desktop Environment that I used with whatever Distro I tried (Gentoo, Slackware, Mandrake, Debian). Although, KDE comes with a lot of great apps' and such, I realized that KDE is more for people who don't like to fuss with tweaking config files or scripts, you know turnkey type of system.
However, I am not cut from the same cloth, and I just can't seem to leave anything alone, which of course is why I have FVWM as an experimental alternate to Flux (for those of you who have or are currently using FVWM, you know what I mean ). Anyway, ever since I first started using Flux I haven't been able to find another window manager that I like better and believe me I've had my share of WMs (KDE or Kwin, Openbox, Blackbox, Window Maker, AfterStep, GNOME, E16, E17, IceWM, and of course Fluxbox). Yeah I know it's alot, but I figured what the hell, why not try out as many different ones as I can to see which one I'll like the best, but I always kept coming back to good old Flux. Fluxbox & Firefox is my preference, anyone else care to chime in ???

[southpaw]

Have any of you guys used the app "iconbox" for launching programs??

If so, do you like it, is it worth checking out???

[thaswiftness]

I can't take credit for those XDM backgrounds, just configured xdm to use them along with the text/login box/clock/etc. Theres a good thread in DT&T for xdm, but youre right. XDM is pretty bare bones. About switching between WM/DE's, I have xdm look at my ~/.xinitrc , so if i need to switch from fluxbox, I'll edit that. For me, thats fine since I don't change wm's that often and definately dont plan on installing KDE/Gnome

As for Konqueror, its a pretty good browser. I think Firefox is a fine replacement tho. And for a graphical file browser I use ROX. I wish it handled samba shares like Konqueror tho.

I personally use idesk to launch programs. I havent heard or seen "iconbox" I used to use an adesklet called modubar when I was using enlightenment dr 16. I can show you pictures of both if interested.

[southpaw]

Sure .

[thaswiftness]

Fluxbox w/ Idesk and ROX
Enlightenment dr16 w/ adesklets modubar at the top

[beatryder]

Southpaw: I agree with you that fluxbox is a great WM, I used for 6 months out of the 14 I have been using linux, and 5/7 that I have been using gentoo(I used gnome for a couple on FC2 when I started, blech). As for your comment about KDE being for people who want a turnkey system I would have only partially agree with you. I agree that it can be for those people, but I my self am a 'tweaker' and have been using KDE for about 2 months now and I love it every bit as much as I love fluxbox. KDE allows me to tweak every bit as much of my WM experience as flux does.

[Bjerrk]

If you dont like xdm and dont want so much dependencies I would suggest you to take a look into qingy.

That certainly sounds very attractive.. I'll go emerge that one right away.

[southpaw]

Oh yeah beatryder,
I agree that KDE has the potential to be awsome and you can tweak the hell out of it. I just meant, for instance, if you were someone who just switched from M$Windows(like many of us have ), Desktop Environments such as KDE, GNOME, or even XFCE are pretty much ready to roll right out of the box (a.k.a. Turnkey) without having to do much of anything else, save for post installation configuration, which you know is provided via graphical installation wizard . I just feel that many of the applications that come with KDE are never used by the average user, except for out of curiousity. Now I have heard of people installing a "Lite" version of KDE, which probably doesn't come with as much excess baggage, but I myself have never tried it.

[5a\/ag3]

I am trying to execute from the menu using the aterm and transparency to load emacs

I know from the aterm line I can do a emacs -nw however this fails in the fluxbox menu. any thoughts? thanks

[thaswiftness]

did you try

aterm -e emacs -nw

?

[i92guboj]

If you dont like xdm and dont want so much dependencies I would suggest you to take a look into qingy.

That certainly sounds very attractive.. I'll go emerge that one right away.

I highly recommend that The hardest thing you might get into is to properly set the framebuffer, if you run into trouble there is a big thread around here called something like "an awesome app called qingy" or something like that, in these same forums. So, if you run into problems search for that.

If works very well with small environments cause it just substitutes getty in the console, instead of needing a heavy x xdm-like manager just to login (appart of having the capability to choose if you want to start x or not). It is very light in resouces and can easily change between different wm's or de's with no problem at all.

[LinuxBlues]

Here's another tip:

I missed sound events in fluxbox, it's really easy to add them to the menu, but I don't have "Launch a program" sounds, I consider them annoying, well, no need to explain it:
{program && aplay /usr/share/sounds/file.wav}

I have them for window and workspace events (~/.fluxbox/keys)

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Mod4 F1 :MacroCmd {Workspace 1} {ExecCommand aplay /usr/share/sounds/kjazz/change_virtualDesktop.wav}
(...)
Mod4 Down :MacroCmd {Minimize} {ExecCommand aplay /usr/share/sounds/kjazz/minimize.wav}
Mod4 Up :MacroCmd {Maximize} {ExecCommand aplay /usr/share/sounds/kjazz/maximize.wav}
(...)
Control k :MacroCmd {KillWindow} {ExecCommand aplay /usr/share/sounds/kjazz/serious_error.wav}

Systemsounds

Thanks to Zan in #fluxbox for the :MacroCmd idea.

[5a\/ag3]

did you try

aterm -e emacs -nw

?

that did the trick thanks man.

[sargek]

Here is a tidbit I found usefull.
Using...

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bsetbg -f /wallpaper.png

...as described in ~/.fluxbox/startup doesn't work very well if your wallpaper is larger or smaller than your desktop resolution. One solution is to use another app to render the desktop image such as feh.

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emerge feh

Edit your ~/.fluxbox/init and change 'session.screen0.rootCommand:' to

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session.screen0.rootCommand:    feh --bg-scale /path/to/wallpaper.png

Or to tile wallpaper this works

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session.screen0.rootCommand:    feh --bg-tile /path/to/wallpaper.png

There are probably other options. I don't know.
Don't forget to comment out the bsetbg line in ~/.fluxbox/startup before using this method.
Restart fluxbox for changes to take effect.

Have fun

Another cool wallpaper tidbit: Fluxbox (0.9.14) has a menu option that lists the contents of a given directory, effectively giving you a list of wallpaper in a menu. Example:

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[submenu] (Wallpaper)
      [wallpapers] (/home/paul/wallpaper) {feh --bg-scale}
[end]

To set a wallpaper, just right-click on the root window, navigate to the Fluxbox wallpaper menu and select one.

Then in ~/.xinitrc, I run this:

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eval `cat ~/.fehbg`

Which reads ~/.fehbg and sets the wallpaper to the last used wallpaper.

[Yuusou]

too lazy to check if it was posted already but, my fav trick in fluxbox when I used Slackware, was to start kicker while in fluxbox and put fluxbox's menu at the top of the screen. Looked rather nice actually XD