Maybe i should outline what i was expecting for clarity. I wanted to install fluxbox as an alternative window manager whilst using xfce to explore fluxbox so i can carry out customisation - reason being that i am sure i will make mistakes. I have looked at the directories under .fluxbox and feel there is quite a lot to learn. I was hoping to have fluxbox to test out like there is icewm installed by default. So far i have not found a fluxbox book or pdf that takes one through each of the files - if there was i would probably install the fluxbox distro straight away but too much of a risk without a good manual to read through. i have run the fluxbox iso and done some exploring and like fluxbox. It goes without saying i have a great library of browser passwords and don't want to do all that again just yet but hopefully if i learn fluxbox over the next few months the next install will be the fluxbox distro.
I installed xfce as i have used it in the past and did a full sha256sum and that was fine.
I used another distro before and this was my first experience of mx-package installer - previous experience was synaptic and aptitude. Following the 1st reply i tried to follow the post
There seems to be some package conflict. What i noticed was 'fluxbox' seems to conflict with 'mx-fluxbox'.
I thought i would try synaptic as it is graphical and one can easily look at dependencies [had to change to colour to yellow to see the package more clearly - the dark green masks the package names].
But it would install despite the dependency conflicts... that seems odd to me. Using restart i selected fluxbox and logged in okay but left with a bare screen - i was hoping to get a customisation like on the fluxbox iso. It would seem that is not provided but one has to do customisation. I got 9 packages to install - more than with mx-package installer. Again dependency conflict.
So thought what would i get with command line aptitude which i must say is my choice for package manager. [I've got aptitude set up with aliases... so 'ins' is install]. Thought i would see what i got with installing 'fluxbox'. It seems there is conflict there and mx-fluxbox is the correct selection which i did for the second attempt. Wow a whopping 31 files and pulls in 'fluxbox'.
Code: Select all
ins fluxbox
The following NEW packages will be installed:
fluxbox
The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed:
xfonts-terminus
The following packages are SUGGESTED but will NOT be installed:
fbautostart fbpager
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,289 kB of archives. After unpacking 4,323 kB will be used.
(Reading database ... 305735 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../fluxbox_1.3.7+git20220731-0mx23+1_i386.deb ...
Unpacking fluxbox (1.3.7+git20220731-0mx23+1) ...
Setting up fluxbox (1.3.7+git20220731-0mx23+1) ...
Processing triggers for menu (2.1.49) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.11.2-2) ...
Current status: 0 (+0) broken, 0 (+0) upgradable, 363 (+0) new.
ins mx-fluxbox
The following NEW packages will be installed:
exit-options{a} fluxbox{a} fonts-font-awesome{a} gkrellm{a} grsync{a} idesk{a}
libgnutls-openssl27{a} libgtkmm-2.4-1v5{a} libntlm0{a} libqalculate-data{a} libqalculate22{a}
librsvg2-bin{a} libxcb-cursor0{a} libxcb-ewmh2{a} mx-desktop-menu-l10n{a} mx-dockmaker{a}
mx-fluxbox mx-fluxbox-data{a} mx-idesktool{a} mx-rofi-manager{a} mxfb-accessories{a}
mxfb-docs{a} mxfb-goodies{a} nitrogen{a} preview-mx{a} qalc{a} rofi{a} rofi-calc{a} tint2{a}
wmalauncher{a} xfonts-terminus{a}
The following packages are RECOMMENDED but will NOT be installed:
fonts-terminus-otb
The following packages are SUGGESTED but will NOT be installed:
fbautostart fbpager xfonts-terminus-oblique
The following packages will NOT be UPGRADED:
rsyslogd-sysvinit-compat
0 packages upgraded, 31 newly installed, 0 to remove and 1 not upgraded.
Need to get 14.7 MB/16.0 MB of archives. After unpacking 55.6 MB will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?]
Summary
Hmmm aptitude seemed to find more files to install which i don't understand. The install by synaptic and aptitude seemed to work but the conflicts seem odd to me. It's not what i wanted to find - i thought i would get a customised install of fluxbox not one to fully customise which i am not ready for yet.
Developer note: if icewm is provided on the DVD as an alternative - could fluxbox not be included as well for future iso as there is enough space on the DVD iso. I have looked at icewm and think fluxbox is a more viable alternative to xfce for those seeking customisation. Another thought - if there was one DVD iso at install, options could be offered for window managers
[ ] all [ ] icewm [ ] fluxbox [ ] xfce
which would allow users to try the alternatives, icewm is not to my liking but i am hoping fluxbox is and i would have loved just selecting it before login.
So it seems i will have to wait until i choose to try the fluxbox iso install. I appreciate the replies but it is an outcome that i didn't expect [wrongly so i should add perhaps]. As i see it - I need to get another machine so i can install the fluxbox iso and then copy files across. Or i do the fluxbox iso install - copy the files to my remote hard disk - then do the standard install with xfce, then install mx-fluxbox with aptitude and then copy the files across from the remote drive. Then i have the solution i am seeking which is using xfce for everyday use while i explore and tinker with fluxbox. It's likely i will mess up something with fluxbox files and then will just have to just cut and paste from the remote hard disk.
