Arch Linux

antiloaded

Member

From: Copenhagen

Registered: 2006-01-13

Posts: 45

How to install & run Fluxbox

Hi,

I'm currently running Gnome, and I want to change to Fluxbox.

Should I remove Gnome, or can I just install and run Fluxbox instead?

Would it be better to install it on a clean Arch installation?

How should I configure my rc.conf to start up Fluxbox?

Sincerely, Jørgen

Snowman

Developer/Forum Fellow

From: Montreal, Canada

Registered: 2004-08-20

Posts: 5,212

Re: How to install & run Fluxbox

You just need to install fluxbox. In gdm (I assume you are using it), you'll  be able to select fluxbox as your session. You can also set it as your default session and you're done.

ozar

Member

From: USA

Registered: 2005-02-18

Posts: 1,686

Re: How to install & run Fluxbox

I'm not a fan at all of running the lightweight WMs on top of the heavyweights such as Gnome and KDE, but if you want to remove Gnome you can do that or you can do a fresh install without Gnome and then start Fluxbox from within your /home/user/.xinitrc file with "exec fluxbox".

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oz

polarrr

Member

Registered: 2004-09-12

Posts: 110

Re: How to install & run Fluxbox

Assuming you used GDM with Gnome, if you want to ditch GDM (that's quite a lot of deps for something just to get WM going), you can use slim from community instead. Add "slim" to daemon array in rc.conf, play around with config file for your liking, and edit .xinitrc, then you are good to go.

Beetlenut

Member

From: Taipei Taiwan

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 126

Re: How to install & run Fluxbox

There is nothing wrong with having a few window managers available. Some, including me, prefer making a choice between KDE and Gnome. That is, I normally run Fluxbox, but occasionally use window maker or e17, but I use Kmail and K3b so I have KDE dependencies. (Note: I never run KDE.) So, if you didn't know it you can run all your favorite Gnome or KDE programs when you are using Fluxbox (or WindowMaker, Enlightenment, etc.)

If you set up fluxbox to start with X you don't need gdm, kdm, slim or anything else. From the Fluxbox menu you can switch to another window manager. (Likewise with Window Maker but as far as I know you can't switch from Gnome or KDE to another Window Manager.) Fluxbox starts very very quickly so that is a simple clean choice.

Furthermore, you might install a filemanager such as mc. If you ever have problems logging into X you can easily edit things. (Yes, you don't need something like mc to edit files but as a newbie it is much easier to use.)

PS. If you use Fluxbox, check out gkrellm and the desklets. gkrellm is a system monitor which also has many many other addons and configurations. desklets, in the AUR, can give you little things like calenders, weather, etc if you liked those kind of things in gnome.

antiloaded

Member

From: Copenhagen

Registered: 2006-01-13

Posts: 45

Re: How to install & run Fluxbox

You just need to install fluxbox. In gdm (I assume you are using it), you'll  be able to select fluxbox as your session. You can also set it as your default session and you're done.

Thanks for your reply.

So I should just do a pacman -S fluxbox. Thats it?

Sincerely, Jørgen

Moo-Crumpus

Member

From: Hessen / Germany

Registered: 2003-12-01

Posts: 1,488

Re: How to install & run Fluxbox

Thats it, you've got it.

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Frumpus ♥ addict
[mu'.krum.pus], [frum.pus]