MX-Fluxbox

[JayM]

One niggle was that the announcement in the blog says

Once that installation finishes, the user clicks an entry in the 'MX-flux' menu to initiate the second step - moving a few small files and folders to the user's Home directory once permission has been given.

but there is no MX-flux menu. Instead there's an MX-flux menu item under System within the Whisker menu. That took me a moment to figure out and could be confusing to newbies. If instructions aren't perfectly clear forum posts will be generated.

(Edit: yes, I could have just typed flux into the search field in Whisker but I wanted to see where it was, so I explored the various categories until I found it.)

[figueroa]

What is the perceived advantage from installing Fluxbox? What is gained? Is RAM saved? How much? What functionality is lost? Does Fluxbox do anything better than XFWM4/XFCE4?

My guess is that someone will have fun using Fluxbox... and I think that is what it's all about.

Based on the replies, fun seems to be the main answer. I'm not much into different desktops and distributions for fun anymore. MX Linux out-of-the-box is my fun. But, if I were to become weary of Gentoo someday, I think MX (or antiX) could become my main thing. In the meantime, I'll concentrate on deploying MX for other users as I convert them.

[figueroa]

Bring it! I'm hoping we can do another version before the end of time that is more of a group effort.

If you do another, I'd suggest LXDE (not LXQt). I'm some eight years into using LXDE over OpenBox on my main desktop (though I use XFCE on everything else), and I'm very happy with the snail pace development, stability, and ease of use. Then whatever investment has been made in using lxappearance will be well invested.

[Jerry3904]

Have to be somebody else, sorry.

[chrispop99]

Some of the apparent 'pilot errors' might be menu problems. In addition to the Browser item pointing to Opera, which may not be installed, Music points to DeadBeef, and YouTube points to SMTube, neither of which are installed by default.

Those things are dead easy to correct, either by installing the missing programs, or following the FAQ to edit the menu to point to an installed program of your choice.

I found the File item, and the F3 keybinding, pointed to /home/$USER/.fluxbox, which meant Thunar opened in the hidden configuration folder. This may or may not have been by intent; it's easy to change by editing both the menu-mx and the keys files, and removing the .fluxbox part. I have also set F7 to open a browser by adding it to the keys file.

Only real bug I have found relates to the FAQ icon. I think it should be possible to drag it to a new location, but when I have tried that, it disappears without trace!

Things I am going to try when time permits (Christmas is apparently inescapable in the UK!) are creating a means of shutting down without logging out first, setting the Super key to open the Application Finder, and creating a 'live with persistence' USB on an old Pentium M 32-bit laptop. That might take a while...

Chris

[genericmeatsack]

What makes the Fluxbox experience different from Openbox? On my older machines years ago, I was a HUGE fan of #! Crunchbang, and was sad when it was abandoned. This may be the go-to environment for my EeePc, and I plan on giving it a spin over the holidays.

[jeffreyC]

Wouldn't it be better to have the F4 key open the terminal in MX Fluxbox as it does in MX Xfce?

Having the same keys do the same things would make the experience more cohesive, I think.

[JayM]

Some of the apparent 'pilot errors' might be menu problems. In addition to the Browser item pointing to Opera, which may not be installed, Music points to DeadBeef, and YouTube points to SMTube, neither of which are installed by default.

Those things are dead easy to correct, either by installing the missing programs, or following the FAQ to edit the menu to point to an installed program of your choice.

I found the File item, and the F3 keybinding, pointed to /home/$USER/.fluxbox, which meant Thunar opened in the hidden configuration folder. This may or may not have been by intent; it's easy to change by editing both the menu-mx and the keys files, and removing the .fluxbox part. I have also set F7 to open a browser by adding it to the keys file.

Only real bug I have found relates to the FAQ icon. I think it should be possible to drag it to a new location, but when I have tried that, it disappears without trace!

Things I am going to try when time permits (Christmas is apparently inescapable in the UK!) are creating a means of shutting down without logging out first, setting the Super key to open the Application Finder, and creating a 'live with persistence' USB on an old Pentium M 32-bit laptop. That might take a while...

Chris

Add

Code: Select all

[exec] (Reboot) {sudo /sbin/reboot} 
[exec] (Shutdown) {sudo /sbin/halt}

to menu-mx just above

Code: Select all

[end]

https://www.linux.com/tutorials/fluxbox-menu-setup/

(That's what I meant about "pilot error." I only fooled with fluxbox for a few minutes this morning and was trying to figure out how to add these to the menu on my own without reading the manual or doing a web search. I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't but at least I have a few resources at my disposal now that I've had a chance to play with it longer.)

[chrispop99]

Wouldn't it be better to have the F4 key open the terminal in MX Fluxbox as it does in MX Xfce?

Having the same keys do the same things would make the experience more cohesive, I think.

It does!

It actually opens the drop-down terminal in both of them, although I personally change that to a 'real' terminal.

Chris

[chrispop99]

Some of the apparent 'pilot errors' might be menu problems. In addition to the Browser item pointing to Opera, which may not be installed, Music points to DeadBeef, and YouTube points to SMTube, neither of which are installed by default.

Those things are dead easy to correct, either by installing the missing programs, or following the FAQ to edit the menu to point to an installed program of your choice.

I found the File item, and the F3 keybinding, pointed to /home/$USER/.fluxbox, which meant Thunar opened in the hidden configuration folder. This may or may not have been by intent; it's easy to change by editing both the menu-mx and the keys files, and removing the .fluxbox part. I have also set F7 to open a browser by adding it to the keys file.

Only real bug I have found relates to the FAQ icon. I think it should be possible to drag it to a new location, but when I have tried that, it disappears without trace!

Things I am going to try when time permits (Christmas is apparently inescapable in the UK!) are creating a means of shutting down without logging out first, setting the Super key to open the Application Finder, and creating a 'live with persistence' USB on an old Pentium M 32-bit laptop. That might take a while...

Chris

Add

Code: Select all

[exec] (Reboot) {sudo /sbin/reboot} 
[exec] (Shutdown) {sudo /sbin/halt}

to menu-mx just above

Code: Select all

[end]

https://www.linux.com/tutorials/fluxbox-menu-setup/

(That's what I meant about "pilot error." I only fooled with fluxbox for a few minutes this morning and was trying to figure out how to add these to the menu on my own without reading the manual or doing a web search. I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't but at least I have a few resources at my disposal now that I've had a chance to play with it longer.)

Thanks Jay; I would have tried something like that first. I have spent a bit of time with an Openbox distro, and a lot of it is the same. In fact both Openbox and Fluxbox are derived from Blackbox.

Chris