embracing the beauty of openbox

[Steve]

After installing xfce 4 i learned how to use a panel for my app icons - much neater.

Screenshot_2022-01-11_05-52-01.jpg

probably won't work for file icons though. @AVLinux
steve

[AVLinux]

After installing xfce 4 i learned how to use a panel for my app icons - much neater.Screenshot_2022-01-11_05-52-01.jpg
probably won't work for file icons though. @AVLinux
steve

Hi!

Haha, nice tux! Beauty or not is in the eye of the beholder but I'm a fan of the configurability of OB and also I like a clean Desktop.. @Jerry3904 of MX-Fluxbox and @anticapitalista of antiX have done an incredible job of getting a lot out of a little and they take the less is more approach several steps farther than I have so if you are enjoying AVL-MXE you may want to check out their work as well if the minimalism bug really gets you!

[manyroads]

After installing xfce 4 i learned how to use a panel for my app icons - much neater.Screenshot_2022-01-11_05-52-01.jpg
probably won't work for file icons though. @AVLinux
steve

You might enjoy using j4-dmenu-desktop and/or rofi in that realm as well. There are tons of ways to accomplish such work. Personally, I like using a combination of keybindings, conky and j4-dmenu-desktop best. I keep a completely clean desktop (noicons).

[siamhie]

Haha, nice tux! Beauty or not is in the eye of the beholder but I'm a fan of the configurability of OB and also I like a clean Desktop.. @Jerry3904 of MX-Fluxbox and @anticapitalista of antiX have done an incredible job of getting a lot out of a little and they take the less is more approach several steps farther than I have so if you are enjoying AVL-MXE you may want to check out their work as well if the minimalism bug really gets you!

‘Hear, hear!’ @AVLinux

@Jerry3904 has done one hell of a job to bring Fluxbox to the forefront with all the tools he and others have created (tint2 toolbar, mx-dockmaker, etc).

I myself started my Flux journey with 0.9.14 (Slackware 10) and when the announcement of MX-21 would have Fluxbox as an independent ISO install from XFCE, I jumped at the chance to try it out and haven't regretted it. (to note, I switched from Linux back to Windoze when I got into media servers-circa 2013, then back to Linux late 2021).

This is my current Flux desktop (I prefer the natural look and I'm only a right click away)

[AVLinux]

Haha, nice tux! Beauty or not is in the eye of the beholder but I'm a fan of the configurability of OB and also I like a clean Desktop.. @Jerry3904 of MX-Fluxbox and @anticapitalista of antiX have done an incredible job of getting a lot out of a little and they take the less is more approach several steps farther than I have so if you are enjoying AVL-MXE you may want to check out their work as well if the minimalism bug really gets you!

‘Hear, hear!’ @AVLinux

@Jerry3904 has done one hell of a job to bring Fluxbox to the forefront with all the tools he and others have created (tint2 toolbar, mx-dockmaker, etc).

I myself started my Flux journey with 0.9.14 (Slackware 10) and when the announcement of MX-21 would have Fluxbox as an independent ISO install from XFCE, I jumped at the chance to try it out and haven't regretted it. (to note, I switched from Linux back to Windoze when I got into media servers-circa 2013, then back to Linux late 2021).

This is my current Flux desktop (I prefer the natural look and I'm only a right click away)

I saw that in the Fluxbox thread, I think it is your best one yet! Looks great!

[figueroa]

@Steve
Would you mind sharing what's in your ~/.config/openbox/autostart file?

[siamhie]

I saw that in the Fluxbox thread, I think it is your best one yet! Looks great!

Thanks. My next step will be incorporating images into my menus.

[Jerry3904]

@Steve
Would you mind sharing what's in your ~/.config/openbox/autostart file?

I'm just finishing an Openbox-Fluxbox respin for Raspberry Pi so your question interests me. What are you looking for in particular?

[figueroa]

@Jerry3904
Mainly, I want to know what program he's using to manage the desktop and provide the panel. I have now used OpenBox on my primary and a few remote machines, using PCManFM to manage the desktop and LXPanel to provide a classical panel. If it's of interest to you, here is mine:

Code: Select all

$ cat ~/.config/openbox/autostart
#
# These things are run when an Openbox X Session is started.
# You may place a similar script in $HOME/.config/openbox/autostart
# to run user-specific things.
#

# If you want to use GNOME config tools...
#
#if test -x /usr/libexec/gnome-settings-daemon >/dev/null; then
#  /usr/libexec/gnome-settings-daemon &
#elif which gnome-settings-daemon >/dev/null; then
#  gnome-settings-daemon &
#fi

# If you want to use XFCE config tools...
#
#xfce-mcs-manager &

numlockx &
setxkbmap -option terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp &
lxpanel &
pcmanfm --desktop &
volumeicon &
#xscreensaver &
xautolock -time 55 -locker slock -corners 00-0 -cornersize 20 &
#conky --config=/home/figueroa/.config/openbox/conky.conf -d &
pause 5
conky -d &
#xfce4-panel &

I also use the openbox-menu program with lxmenu-data to provide a dynamic menu for the OpenBox right-click menu using the following settings.

Code: Select all

$ cat ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml
<openbox_menu>
<menu id="desktop-app-menu" label="Applications" execute="/usr/bin/openbox-menu lxde-applications.menu"/>
<!--
<menu id="desktop-app-menu" label="Applications" execute="/usr/bin/openbox-menu lxde-applications.menu"/>
<menu id="desktop-app-menu" label="Applications" execute="~/.config/openbox/openbox-menu"/>
<menu execute="/usr/bin/openbox-menu applications.menu" id="desktop-app-menu" label="applications"/>
<menu id="lxpanel-menu" label="LXPanel Menu" execute="/usr/bin/lxpanelctl menu"/>
-->
<menu id="root-menu" label="OpenboxConf">
<separator label="Menu"/>
<menu id="desktop-app-menu"/>
<separator label="Openbox Conf"/>
<item label="Configuration-GTK+">
<action name="Execute">
<command>obconf</command>
</action>
</item>
<!--
<item label="Configuration-QT">
<action name="Execute">
<command>obconf-qt</command>
</action>
</item>
-->
<!-- "openbox dash-dash-reconfigure" -->
<item label="Reconfigure Openbox">
<action name="Reconfigure"/>
</item>
<separator label="Session"/>
<!--
<item label="Logout">
<action name="Execute">
<command>lxsession-logout</command>
</action>
</item>
-->
<item label="Openbox Logout">
<action name="Execute">
<command>/home/figueroa/.config/openbox/openbox-logout</command>
</action>
</item>
</menu>
</openbox_menu>

I made a whole forum post on the Gentoo forums how I transitioned from LXDE to OpenBox that provides some additional configurations. I put links here in the MX forums a couple of times, most recently in one of these recent threads (maybe even this one).

[AVLinux]

@Jerry3904
Mainly, I want to know what program he's using to manage the desktop and provide the panel.

For context I believe he was showing how he has set up AVL-MXE which comes with Openbox and XFCE... there is no Desktop manager by default, simply Openbox and Nitrogen for backgrounds the old school way. Applications would be handled in the Whisker Menu, XFCE4-Panel and of course in the Openbox menu which is provided with full Icon support with obmenu-generator. I think the point was he didn't miss an active Desktop as much as he thought..