Arch Linux

cyker

Member

Registered: 2009-05-30

Posts: 86

[SOLVED] Replace with compiz in an openbox session

When I tried

compiz --replace

in an openbox session, it crashed.

From the Compiz Wiki:

LXDE uses an Openbox session which does not allow any window manager to replace it.

I'm not using LXDE but I'm wondering whether openbox-session doesn't allow WM replacement in general. Thanks.

Last edited by cyker (2015-05-15 17:43:25)

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Chazza

Wiki Maintainer

Registered: 2013-06-02

Posts: 506

Re: [SOLVED] Replace with compiz in an openbox session

The Compiz Wiki is rotting, it hasn't been maintained in years. I'd steer well clear of it in almost all cases. You should check the Arch Wiki instead

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/LX … ce_Openbox

Edit: I just noticed you said openbox-session. You cannot run compiz --replace or metacity --replace or indeed anything --replace in a pure openbox-session. Openbox is the key component in an openbox session; if you replace it then the session is inevitably going to crash.

Last edited by Chazza (2015-05-15 09:56:51)

cyker

Member

Registered: 2009-05-30

Posts: 86

Re: [SOLVED] Replace with compiz in an openbox session

Thank you, Chazza. I can indeed replace default WM with compiz in DEs.

I'm not quite an expert on X but I'm wondering how

compiz --replace

works. Why will this cause a crash in the case of openbox-session but not in DEs? Is there anything to do with the exec command used in openbox-session? Would you please have a few more words on the key component stuff? Thank you!

# Run Openbox, and have it run the autostart stuff
exec /usr/bin/openbox --startup "/usr/lib/openbox/openbox-autostart OPENBOX" "$@"

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ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,721

Re: [SOLVED] Replace with compiz in an openbox session

Because openbox is a WM.  Compiz is a WM.     

Xfce, Gnome, KDE are DEs and include their own WMs.  The WMs (typically) can be dynamically replaced with a different WM.

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WorMzy

Administrator

From: Scotland

Registered: 2010-06-16

Posts: 13,718

Website

Re: [SOLVED] Replace with compiz in an openbox session

When you --replace a WM, the original WM is killed off. If your X session is running on that WM, then your X session is going to die.

I expect that DEs have something else to maintain the X session (like XFCE has startxfce4), so the WM can be replaced without everything falling like a house of cards.

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Chazza

Wiki Maintainer

Registered: 2013-06-02

Posts: 506

Re: [SOLVED] Replace with compiz in an openbox session

As I understand it, desktop environments such as Xfce and GNOME have what are called session managers (xfce4-session and gnome-session) which will start Xorg and whatever other programs they're supposed to start as well. So in the case of Xfce, xfce4-session would start xfwm4, xfce4-panel etc and in the case of GNOME, gnome-session would start gnome-shell. By running compiz --replace in Xfce, you're killing off xfwm but the xfce4-session process lives on so all is well.

In the case of Openbox, I would imagine that the session manager runs as part of the Openbox process itself. So, when you run compiz --replace in an Openbox session, you kill the Openbox process which takes the session manager down with it, hence the crash.

Apologies in advance if I've got anything wrong. As I said, this is just my understanding. For more info, you might want to see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_session_manager

Last edited by Chazza (2015-05-15 19:32:00)