Openbox and Xinerama and desktops (and 2 other questions)

scottro · 2015-07-04 17:29:14

This is something that dwm does out of the box and I'm wondering if I've missed something in the openbox docs

I have a 4 screen setup at work, NVidia, proprietary drivers, using Xinerama. With dwm, if I want to change the tag (for those not familiar with dwm, think of them as workspaces) in one monitor, it just changes in that one monitor. In openbox, if I use its default ctl+alt+right, for example, to go from desktop 1 to desktop 2, all 4 monitors go to a new desktop. I'm wondering if there's a fairly simple configuration option that I'm missing.

Question two--another dwm thing that I like is that one can move to the next monitor (which dwm considers a screen) with a keyboard shortcut, by default mod+ period to go to the next monitor and mod+comma to go to the previous. In openbox, I wonder if there is a way to move to the next monitor without having to use the mouse. The closest I've come is the MoveResizeTo where I can use <monitor>next<./monitor> That will move an open application to the next monitor. (But "previous" doesn't work) So, while the default alt+tab goes through all applications and I can always say, focus on an app in monitor 3, I would like to be able to move focus to monitor three, even if there was nothing open in it, and open a terminal with another keyboard shortcut.

This leads me to my third question which is, is there a way to specify previous monitor as opposed to only next? I can specify each monitor by number, but I'm looking for something a bit more like what I can do with dwm.

Lastly, I should admit that this isn't actually on Arch, it's on FreeBSD. I asked on the openbox mailing list and got no responses. so maybe what I want simply isn't easily done. I'm _hoping_ that I've just misunderstood or overlooked something in the documentation. I'm asking here before asking in FreeBSD forums because I know that so many people on this list use openbox, and often, Arch users tend to delve more deeply into the innards of things. (However, it's not important enough to me to try to patch it, I'm hoping for easy config options. Mostly, I prefer using dwm, but on occasion get in the mood for stacking rather than tiling.)

Apologies for asking when it's not even running on Arch, but I've explained my reasons. (If there are answers, I probably won't be able to respond till later in the week)

scottro · 2015-07-06 18:35:58

Well, this method actually uses keybindings to move the mouse--so I could use that to move the mouse to another monitor which is sort of an indirect way of changing focus with key bindings

https://wiki.arcoslab.eie.ucr.ac.cr/dok … berry_pi_b

scottro · 2015-07-07 15:16:55

To follow up, in case someone comes across this. So, I have solved one of the issues to my own satisfaction. Using xdotool, I chose 4 mouse positions, one for each monitor (they're 1600x900 resolution. I'll put the section here for posterity. I found it easier, than the link I posted above, as it's only 4 key combos, and I don't want fine tuning of the focus, just to get to one monitor or another.

<!--Mouse to right upper monitor-->
    <keybind key="W-A-Up">
 <action name="Execute">
       <command>xdotool mousemove 2400 450</command>
 </action>
</keybind>

<!--Mouse to left upper monitor -->
    <keybind key="S-W-A-Up">
 <action name="Execute">
       <command>xdotool mousemove 800 450</command>
 </action>
</keybind>

<!--Mouse to left lower monitor-->
    <keybind key="S-W-A-Down">
 <action name="Execute">
       <command>xdotool mousemove 800 1350</command>
 </action>
</keybind>

<!--Mouse to right lower monitor-->
    <keybind key="W-A-Down">
 <action name="Execute">
       <command>xdotool mousemove 2400 1350</command>
 </action>
</keybind>

Now for other (and actually more important one) of being able to move to a different desktop on only one monitor.

scottro · 2015-09-19 17:33:53

To add a bit of closure here--I asked on the #!Crunchbang forums as well as was told that this is actually

This is actually a limitation in the EWMH specification: only one workspace is assumed to be active at any given time. Openbox follows this specification, while DWM (where tags are not workspaces and therefore do not have this limitation) does not.
There is, however, a fork of Openbox that exists specifically to circumvent this limitation at the cost of other software (think pagers, panels, et cetera) not working: openbox-multihead. Before using it, have a good look at its README.

After looking at the readme, it seemed as if it would require more effort than I felt like putting into it to make it work. So, as it stands, I was able to solve one of the two aggravating issues, and was offered a solution for the second, though that solution might have its own drawbacks.

Arch Linux

#1 2015-07-04 17:29:14

Openbox and Xinerama and desktops (and 2 other questions)

#2 2015-07-06 18:35:58

Re: Openbox and Xinerama and desktops (and 2 other questions)

#3 2015-07-07 15:16:55

Re: Openbox and Xinerama and desktops (and 2 other questions)

#4 2015-09-19 17:33:53

Re: Openbox and Xinerama and desktops (and 2 other questions)

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