Installing Fluxbox in Gentoo

Message

funboy.ch · Post by **funboy.ch** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:05 pm

Hi folks, I'm really new to linux and well, I have been trying out a few things but I am a bit confused with what gentoo is, what X-session is, and then what KDE, fluxbox, gnome, etc are.

I understand that I need the basic linux kernel insalled, ie gentoo? With that, X is installed..correct? Now do I need KDE or gnome or GDM installed to install fluxbox?

Thanks for any links or tips on where I can someone get a overview of all of this...

daark.child · Post by **daark.child** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:19 pm

Gentoo is a linux distribution (Linux kernel, gnu tools and other packages). KDE and GNOME are desktop environments and Fluxbox is a window manager. An X session is a graphical session using a Window Manager or Desktop environment. X (provided by the xorg packages) is not installed if you have done a minimal installation, but you can install it seperately or if you install a package that requires X, X will also be installed. You do not need KDE or GNOME installed in order to install or run Fluxbox.

spielc · Post by **spielc** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:22 pm

Short answer: No you don't need kde/gnome installed if you want to use fluxbox...

Long answer: You won't be able to get rid of qt/gtk-completely because alot of programs are based on this toolkits... Furthermore especially in the beginning it might be easier to use one of the big desktop environments because i assume you are/were a windows user and a de has everything you need usually but fluxbox is a PURE window manager it doesn't come with things like filemanager, editor. You have to install this things yourself and tell fluxbox to use them yourself (btw. you have to do almost everything manually with fluxbox)

Don't get me wrong i don't want to scare you, I just think it would be better to go with a big one first and if you feel comfortable with linux enough change to something else...

funboy.ch · Post by **funboy.ch** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:30 pm

wow thanks for the quick responses. I must admitt, I am a windows user.

So in theory, one can get fluxbox to look like a desktop though right? Another question, do I need a login manager if i were to install KDE or fluxbox? Any recommendations on desktops if I don't go with fluxbox?

Thanks again

spielc · Post by **spielc** » Wed May 24, 2006 6:55 pm

Well fluxbox is a window manager, this means it JUST manages windows so yeah you need a login manager. Examples for window managers are gdm, kdm, xdm or slim.

If you just install (=emerge) fluxbox you'll get some stlyes, a rudimentary menu and no wallpaper picture. You have to setup everything else yourself but you can do (almost) everything you want...

If you want ideas of what you can do look at the the screenshot-section on the fluxbox webpage.

bluedevils · Post by **bluedevils** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:07 pm

I suggest you use kde first and then fluxbox. Coming from a windows background I think you will get comfortable with it quicker. Once you get kde setup, it should be easy to emerge fluxbox and slowly customize it. This way you have a comfortable desktop to fall back to (kde) while learning fluxbox. Fluxbox acts and feels different from windows.

You don't need a login manager (kdm,gdm,xdm). You could just log in from commandline and "startx" to start kde or fluxbox (read up on .xinitrc).

bluedevils · Post by **bluedevils** » Wed May 24, 2006 7:11 pm

BTW kde will take a long time to emerge.....

funboy.ch · Post by **funboy.ch** » Wed May 24, 2006 8:01 pm

hehe...I tried kde yesterday... that's when I decided to post and ask some questions....i'm just running on a old p3 800mhz with 386mb of ram

think I'll try to jump into fluxbox right away...perhaps a big mistake but i'm up for a challenge

thanks again for all the advice

bluedevils · Post by **bluedevils** » Wed May 24, 2006 8:44 pm

haha...I first tried gentoo on a p3 800.

Gentoo prompted me to get a 3Ghz cpu.

It is not a mistake to jump into fluxbox right away. Just don't get discouraged by the ugliness when you first start it up....

I've run slackware with fluxbox on the p3 800 for a couple of years and it was pretty snappy for an old cpu.

funboy.ch · Post by **funboy.ch** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:04 pm

I got an old AMD Athlon 1GHz next to that machine...but currently running win2k3 and acting as my dhcp, proxy, ftp, etc...

I'm still a poor student, once I have the money and I get used to Linux i'll build another good computer to install linux on...oh, I'm gentoo is compiling kernel now.

dmartinsca · Post by **dmartinsca** » Wed May 24, 2006 9:49 pm

If you're looking for a desktop environment that is a bit more lightweight you could try xfce4.