Some time ago I posted on my old blog an article (like a kind of memorandum) on how to configure my desktop using open box and today I have decided to bring him here, after dwarf it will remind me 😀
The idea back then was to have something like this:
For our desktop to be like this we need 5 important packages:
- tint2 - For the panel.
- bring - For the icon tray.
- Conky - For the statistics of our PC, although the panel has this option.
- wbar - For the dock.
- feh - To manage our desktop background.
- gmrun - To launch applications
Installing packages.
The first thing of course is to install all these packages (I'll put Debian as an example):
$ sudo aptitude install tint2 trayer feh conky gmrun
Once we finish we have to configure all these elements.
tint2
In the case of tint2, this app has evolved a lot since then. At that time this was my configuration:
# ———————————————
# TINT CONFIG FILE
# ———————————————
# ———————————————
# PANEL
# ———————————————
panel_mode = multi_monitor
monitor_panel = 1
panel_position = bottom center
panel_size = 700 28
panel_margin = 15 5
panel_padding = 9 3
font_shadow = 0
# ———————————————
# BACKGROUND AND BORDER PANEL
# ———————————————
panel_rounded = 6
panel_border_width = 1
panel_background_color = # 000000 60
panel_border_color = #ffffff 18
# ———————————————
#TASKS
# ———————————————
task_text_centered = 1
task_width = 200
task_margin = 2
task_padding = 6
task_icon_size = 15
task_font = sans 9
task_font_color = #ffffff 70
task_active_font_color = #ffffff 85
# ———————————————
# TASK BACKGROUND AND BORDER
# ———————————————
task_rounded = 5
task_background_color = # 393939 30
task_active_background_color = #ffffff 50
task_border_width = 0
task_border_color = #ffffff 18
task_active_border_color = #ffffff 70
# ———————————————
#CLOCK
# ———————————————
# time1_format =% H:% M
# time1_font = sans 8
# time2_format =% A% d% B
# time2_font = sans 6
#clock_font_color = #ffffff 76
# ———————————————
# MOUSE ACTION ON TASK
# ———————————————
mouse_middle = none
mouse_right = close
mouse_scroll_up = toggle
mouse_scroll_down = iconify
Now, the other configurations will be applied to the file that starts applications openbox, which is in ~ / .config /openbox/autostart.sh and which contains the following:
[Code]# Launch panel
(sleep 2s & amp; & amp; tint) & amp;
# Launch systray, although not necessary with the new tint2.
(sleep 2s & amp; & amp; trayer –expand true –transparent true –alpha 255 –edge bottom –align right –expand true –SetDockType true –widthtype request –margin 20) & amp;
# Application for wallpaper and image path
(sleep 4s & amp; & amp; feh –bg-scale /home/elav/Imagenes/backgrounds/background.png) & amp;
# Wbar and its options
(sleep 6s & amp; & amp; wbar -bpress -above-desk -pos top -balfa 0.0 -jumpf -0.1) & amp;
#Conky
(sleep 10s & amp; & amp; start_conky) & amp;
As you can see in this file, the panel (tint), then to the trayer (for the system tray) where the properties of the same are put although this application is not necessary if we use tint, then with feh I assign the wallpaper to my desktop, I raise wbar and finally Conky.
GMRun
Now to openbox it lacks a tool that I use a lot, that of running applications with Alt + F2. Inside our home we create a file called gmrunrc and we put this:
[Code]# gmrun configuration file
# gmrun is (C) Mihai Bazon, & lt; mishoo@infoiasi.ro>
# GPL v2.0 applied
# Sets the terminal. The “AlwaysInTerm” value determines the
# commands that will always be executed in a terminal emulator.
Terminal=rxvt
TermExec = $ {Terminal} -e
AlwaysInTerm = ssh telnet ftp lynx mc vi vim pine centericq perldoc man
# Set the size of the window (except height)
Width = 400
Top = 300
Left = 300
# History size
History = 256
# Displays the last selected line of history when invoked
ShowLast = 1
# Show hidden files (those that start with a period)
# Default is 0 (off), set to 1 if you want hidden files to be shown
# in the autocomplete window
ShowDotFiles = 0
# Time limit (in milliseconds) after gmrun will simulate a TAB press
# Set this to NULL if you don't want this feature.
TabTimeout = 0
With this we make gmrun run in the center of the screen. But still not running when pressing Alt + F2 so we have to tell openbox let him do it. For this we edit the file ~ / .config /openbox/rc.xml and add this:
[Code]
We restart the session and that's it.
You can see more screenshots of open box en my Deviantart profile 😀
OpenBox is something I've been wanting to try for a while. Or FluxBox.
Well, don't wait, he's a good manager, I've tried him on Archbang and I liked him a lot
Openbox is king! You should give it a try, it's a great thing 😀
I will copy the configuration to you when I fix my Desktop with Archlinux.
Thanks is good for me to improve crunchbang.
ufff .. recently tired of applications that write "alone" things that one does not want, leave gnome. I gave xfce a chance and it's better than gnome, less "bloat," but I also felt like I was still fat. I got to Openbox and I can't leave it.
I tried to leave him with lxde .. but it was late. My future is awesome. I guess that's all we need (of the monopolist kde, I better not even speak)
Trayer? Correct me if I'm wrong, but Tint2 doesn't have a task tray?
You are not wrong. As I said in the article, I used these settings a long time ago, when tint didn't have that option. Now it is no longer necessary to use a trayer.
Aaaah, friend! I had been missed. Nah, you still used it for having some extra functionality. It was just out of curiosity 😉
This is how I configured Debian Testing + Openbox one of these days ... But without Trayer (I didn't know what it was) or Conky (I don't like it very much, I don't know how to configure it well or with Colors) and instead of Feh I used Nitrogen (I'm considering do it now with PCManFM or SpaceFM, or maybe not…).
Anyway, excellent article 🙂 Openbox is a slight wonder.
in fact I plan to use it to minimize my desktop as much as possible, not because of lack of power but because of my distractions, I want to program and sometimes it fucks up my life so much ... Of course, this ultimately has certain complications, such as you don't have a manager for music like Ubuntu with Banshee, or how useful it is to drag a window to one end of the screen and have it resize automatically ...
They are little things that must be accommodated, yes, but hey, maybe we can develop them here in DesdeLinux.
a month ago I configured a session in debian only with openbox, feh and custom keyboard shortcuts. but I broke my head trying to install a theme to conky and configure it to my liking so I ended up throwing the tolla and uninstalling conky. I read all its documentation and I could not install any theme.
I spent more than 5 days alone in that and I could not, if someone knows a "step by step" on how to install a theme to conky I would appreciate it.
congratulations on your blog, I follow it recently but I read it every day although I never think.
Hehehe they just gave me the internet account officially and look where I gave to enter first… .. Ahh Elav tell Gaara to return to Debian worse this time with LXDE and openbox hehehe
They were right about the comparison with the NOVA
Fuck partner congratulations 😀
I sent you an email a few moments ago.
Greetings and I wait for your answer ... hehe, another one that joins the world LOL !!!
Hahahaha congratulations bro, now I'm partially walking around with Arch, but I don't think today happens. I'm going back to Debian 😀 and maybe I'll go back to my old ways with OpenBox 😀
The note seems good to me, however, I think you could add some utilities that will certainly help novice users a lot, for example:
Obkey: Add keyboard shortcuts via GUI.
Obmenu: Configure the main menu through GUI.
Obconf: Openbox GUI configuration.
Gtk-chtheme: Change GTK themes via GUI.
It is just a suggestion, greetings! ...
I didn't know about Obkey, thank you very much 🙂 I had to download the source and proceed to compile it, greetings.
Sorry, it's not compile, just do a ./obkey and voila ^. ^ »It works fine.
Thank you…..
I have just been trying to establish a minimalist desktop option to run on a proxmox host and thus not have to use another PC to configure it and curiously, googling a bit I came to this post (well, actually its original version), which it has come in handy.
However wbar is behaving unstable to me with repainting. I was looking for an option to put a background without any transparency and thus minimize the impact, but I could not find how to do it. I also tried adding a line to launch xcompmgr in the autorun.sh, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect on wbar. Also, every time a new window is opened and maximized, wbar is clogged, an anti-intuitive behavior for a dock.
Does anyone know how to make wbar behave acceptably, or is this application still having problems?
PS Actually initially I wanted to try plank, but since proxmox is based on Debian and plank is for Ubuntu, it would form a trail of dependencies, so obviously I didn't put it.
Very good post, thank you very much for sharing the steps, greetings