Openbox with Gnome?

bongo_950 · 2009-04-04 05:38:09

Hey now,
I'm in the process of installing arch on my laptop and I've decided to use openbox as my window manager. I'm going to the openbox wiki to get a little more info and in the article it give you an option to use Gnome, KDE, xfce4.

I'm having a hard time understanding what these mean. I'm chalking it up to lack of knowledge. Do I need to install one of these, or is it optional, and what do these do?

molom · 2009-04-04 05:56:32

It's optional. Openbox is a window manager/WM, you pick what you want to join it with, you can pick another DE or have it alone or add apps you want to work with it (File manager, system tools, apps etc.). Openbox is harder to configure than Gnome, KDE or XFCE (Especially if you want to change its looks in some way because you need to edit text files)... Just to warn you

If you need to know what a Desktop Environment (DE) or Window Manager (WM) is, wikipedia has very good details.

Last edited by molom (2009-04-04 05:57:40)

bongo_950 · 2009-04-04 06:12:57

Good deal, thank you much.

Statix · 2009-04-04 07:01:52

molom wrote:

(Especially if you want to change its looks in some way because you need to edit text files).

Just want to point out that that's not entirely true. obmenu and obconf are two awesome GUI config tools for openbox that makes it easier for beginners and XML haters.

CheesyBeef · 2009-04-04 07:41:44

I tried for quite a while to find a screenshot of Gnome + OpenBox. I know I have seen one before, but can't find it or another one.
I really would like to see what it looks like.

And yes, configuring OpenBox is almost entirely possibly via GUI now. Obconf for configuring themes, fonts, workspaces, etc; obmenu for configuring the OpenBox menu; and obkey for configuring Openbox keyboard shortcuts. I find obconf and obkey very useful. Menu editing is pretty easy to do, and I prefer it because obmenu tends to mess up the tidyness of the menu file.

molom · 2009-04-04 08:57:49

bongo_950 wrote:

Good deal, thank you much.

No problem. As CheesyBeef said, there are GUI's. But I'm pretty sure you can't configure every option using them.

bongo_950 · 2009-04-04 09:41:02

While I have this open, Do I need to have a login manager? And if I don't, will I have to put in a few different commands before I get to the desktop?

molom · 2009-04-04 09:49:47

It's preferable having a login manager (GDM, KDM or SLIM), otherwise you would have to configure some text file to do an automatic login.

jumzi · 2009-04-04 15:02:34

But remember! With vim, editing a config file is like beeing high, you giggle all the time!

Last edited by jumzi (2009-04-04 15:04:06)

CheesyBeef · 2009-04-04 15:55:54

I don't use a login manager, I edited the "text" file to enable me to login and for X.org to start automatically. If you want to do it also, follow this wiki. It is easier than you would think:

1) This one first:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Aut … on_startup
2) Then this one:
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Start_X_at_boot

Arch Linux

#1 2009-04-04 05:38:09

Openbox with Gnome?

#2 2009-04-04 05:56:32

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#3 2009-04-04 06:12:57

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#4 2009-04-04 07:01:52

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#5 2009-04-04 07:41:44

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#6 2009-04-04 08:57:49

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#7 2009-04-04 09:41:02

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#8 2009-04-04 09:49:47

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#9 2009-04-04 15:02:34

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

#10 2009-04-04 15:55:54

Re: Openbox with Gnome?

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