Openbox configuration Tips

masterxellos · 2009-03-12 05:46:49

Good Evening everyone,

I'm working on customizing my Openbox setup (first time! ) and I was hoping I could get a few tips on where to go to learn more about how to customize the setup. So far I have Obconf, Obmenu, and Obkey fairly down pat, but the problem is I don't know of many places to look for themes, and I haven't been able to find ANY icon sets for something like thunar so I have a lot of missing icon pictures floating about. Mouse icon packs would be great as well.

Basically, I see all the awesome openbox screenshots around and I really don't have much of an idea of how people got their setups to that point. So any tips and pointers on how to get a nice setup going would be appreciated. Also, a good terminal emulator and how to configure it would be VERY much appreciated. XTerm is starting to hurt my eyes.

Inxsible · 2009-03-12 05:52:33

you can find a lot of themes at box-look.org

I personally have a very bare OB setup. No panel. Just a tray (stalonetray) for pidgin and skype to rest in. OB Onyx theme, with a nice Arch wallpaper. urxvt as my terminal with a few settings in .Xdefaults for transparency(pseudo). Not too fancy.

I have never used obkey -- wasnt there- or maybe i didnt know of it when I started using openbox. I do have obconf and obmenu installed. But I have never used obmenu. I just manually edit it with vi. Infact, that reminds me, I will get rid of obmenu completely. It screws up the well formedness of the menu.xml.

Its been quite a while that I haven't even updated my menu.xml. Everytime I install an app, I simply give it a shortcut key - with the keybindings. SO I dont use the right click menu much anyway.

That's also a reason why I have started using dwm much more than openbox recently. No mouse..well almost !

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-03-12 05:59:12)

xd-0 · 2009-03-12 06:05:13

As mentioned, box-look.org have all the ob themes. Also you can often find them together with some nice gtk2 themes. For wallpapers take a look at deviantart.
For apps you should use:

obconf: to change ob theme.
oboinus: To change wallpaper
lxappearance: to change icons and gtk.

masterxellos · 2009-03-12 07:33:15

Biggest issue I've stumbled on so far is the Icons, are they included in the theme packs or what? What's the deal with those and if they aren't in the themes, where can I find them? I tried urxvt out, but the text was WAY too small for me to realistically use it and I couldn't really find any config options for it... tips with that would be great and the icons.

droog · 2009-03-12 08:42:38

gnome-look.org has the most icon themes, download and extract them to ~/.icons then change the icon theme with lxappearance.

for urxvt font size and color settings are stored in ~/.Xdefaults i would get the terminus font from aur to use with it.
there are alot of .Xdefaults posted in the screenshot thread you should look at and try some.

masterxellos · 2009-03-12 09:27:54

Ah thanks for the info. I wasn't aware that urxvt was configured through there and not the application itself like gnome-terminal or the xfce-terminal. I'll start experimenting with it in a bit. Gnome-look seems solid for icons so I'll start browsing through those.

japetto · 2009-03-12 13:14:34

I have not seen it mentioned yet, but have you checked out the wiki page for OB yet?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openbox

masterxellos · 2009-03-12 16:31:04

Yeah I looked at the openbox entry in the wiki. Installing it, playing with the menus and such isn't what the big problem was. Finding a good terminal emulator was a big one, as well as where to get icons which isn't in the wiki. Quick question about rxvt, is there any way to get copy/past functionality in it?

Inxsible · 2009-03-12 16:32:48

masterxellos wrote:

Yeah I looked at the openbox entry in the wiki. Installing it, playing with the menus and such isn't what the big problem was. Finding a good terminal emulator was a big one, as well as where to get icons which isn't in the wiki. Quick question about rxvt, is there any way to get copy/past functionality in it?

There is copy paste functionality in it. Ctrl + Shift + C copies and middle click pastes

josedb · 2009-03-12 16:41:35

is this autostart fine? i need to start cairo-dock after everything

#!/bin/bash
xcompmgr &
gnome-settings-daemon 
nvidia-settings -l&
nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=2&
gsynaptics-init&

if which dbus-launch >/dev/null && test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"; then
eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
fi

export OOO_FORCE_DESKTOP="gnome"
thunar --daemon &
conky &
battery_warning.sh&
gnome-mount&
gnome-volume-manager&
pypanel &
sleep 3 && wicd-client &
sleep 5 && tilda &
sleep 11 && cairo-dock&

skottish · 2009-03-12 16:43:46

The official openbox website is supreme for information on any and every subject related to it:

http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Main_Page

Hrod beraht · 2009-03-12 20:55:32

masterxellos wrote:

...I haven't been able to find ANY icon sets for something like thunar so I have a lot of missing icon pictures floating about.

The extensive Tango icon set is easily available via pacman (tango-icon-theme and tango-icon-theme-extras).
Activate it in your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file, as in:

gtk-theme-name="Exupery"
gtk-icon-theme-name="Tango"

masterxellos wrote:

Mouse icon packs would be great as well.

There are a bunch of cursor themes available via pacman. Do a search with pacman -Ss cursor, then activate the theme in your ~/.Xdefaults file, as in:

Xcursor.theme: Vanilla-DMZ

masterxellos wrote:

XTerm is starting to hurt my eyes.

Change the background and other colors and use a nicer font (pacman -S terminus-font), as in:

~/.Xdefaults

xterm*geometry:           80x25
xterm*faceName:           terminusbold:pixelsize=14
xterm*dynamicColors:      true
xterm*utf8:               2
xterm*eightBitInput:      true
xterm*saveLines:          512
xterm*scrollTtyKeypress:  true
xterm*scrollTtyOutput:    false
#xterm*scrollBar:          true
#xterm*rightScrollBar:     true
xterm*loginShell:         true
xterm*jumpScroll:         true
xterm*multiScroll:        true
xterm*toolBar:            false


! tangoesque scheme
*background: #111111
*foreground: #babdb6
! Black (not tango) + DarkGrey
*color0:  #000000
*color8:  #555753
! DarkRed + Red
*color1:  #ff6565
*color9:  #ff8d8d
! DarkGreen + Green
*color2:  #93d44f
*color10: #c8e7a8
! DarkYellow + Yellow
*color3:  #eab93d
*color11: #ffc123
! DarkBlue + Blue
*color4:  #204a87
*color12: #3465a4
! DarkMangenta + Mangenta
*color5:  #ce5c00
*color13: #f57900
!DarkCyan + Cyan
*color6:  #89b6e2
*color14: #46a4ff
! LightGrey + White
*color7:  #cccccc
*color15: #ffffff

Bob

thisllub · 2009-03-12 20:59:17

Inxsible wrote:

you can find a lot of themes at box-look.org
I personally have a very bare OB setup. No panel. Just a tray (stalonetray) for pidgin and skype to rest in. OB Onyx theme, with a nice Arch wallpaper. urxvt as my terminal with a few settings in .Xdefaults for transparency(pseudo). Not too fancy.
I have never used obkey -- wasnt there- or maybe i didnt know of it when I started using openbox. I do have obconf and obmenu installed. But I have never used obmenu. I just manually edit it with vi. Infact, that reminds me, I will get rid of obmenu completely. It screws up the well formedness of the menu.xml.
Its been quite a while that I haven't even updated my menu.xml. Everytime I install an app, I simply give it a shortcut key - with the keybindings. SO I dont use the right click menu much anyway.
That's also a reason why I have started using dwm much more than openbox recently. No mouse..well almost !

If you use gmrun there is really no need for a menu.

You just need a few shortcuts in rc.xml for moving stuff around.

I use the following because z is right above the meta-key.

    <keybind key="W-z">
      <action name="Execute">
        <startupnotify>
          <enabled>true</enabled>
          <execute>gmrun</execute>
        </startupnotify>
        <command>gmrun</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>

The default for this is Meta-A but I prefer this mapping.
No panels required.

    
    <keybind key="C-Menu">
      <action name="ShowMenu">
        <menu>client-list-combined-menu</menu>
      </action>
    </keybind>

I find these three (and a number of similar ones) enable me to do away with a mouse entirely

   
 <keybind key="W-w">
      <action name="MoveResizeTo">
        <monitor>1</monitor>
        <height>1000</height>
        <width>1200</width>
        <x>+0</x>
        <y>+0</y>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-e">
      <action name="MoveResizeTo">
        <monitor>1</monitor>
        <height>1000</height>
        <width>1600</width>
        <x>-0</x>
        <y>+0</y>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-u">
      <action name="MoveResizeTo">
        <monitor>2</monitor>
        <height>1000</height>
        <width>1200</width>
        <x>-0</x>
        <y>+0</y>
      </action>
    </keybind>

Last edited by thisllub (2009-03-12 21:00:55)

Hiz · 2009-03-13 09:56:51

long time. I had looking for it and I was too lazy...
*Window maximize Horizonaly & Vert & full

~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

     <keybind key="W-m">
       <action name="ToggleMaximizeFull"/>
     </keybind>
     <keybind key="W-v">
       <action name="ToggleMaximizeVert"/>
     </keybind>
     <keybind key="W-h">
       <action name="ToggleMaximizeHorz"/>
     </keybind>

* No decoration for urxvt in <applications>

   <!-- urxvt does get decorations though. 
        calender app, see http://www.xfce.org/projects/orage/ --> 
   <application name="urxvt"> 
     <decor>no</decor>
   </application>

celettu · 2009-03-13 13:51:32

Openbox Guide.

Made my first steps with Openbox very easy.

brisbin33 · 2009-03-13 14:06:50

thisllub wrote:

... lots of keybindings for moving windows around...

have you had a look at u_no_hu's Poor man's Tiling Window manager?. it's a python script that calls wmctrl and xdotools to move window saround.

i love it, let's you keep openbox just as is but define some keycombos to auto tile/move/swap/cycle windows. very slick.

> cat .config/openbox/rc.xml | grep -A 25 poor\ man
    <!-- Keybindings for poor man's tiling -->
    <keybind key="W-t">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>python /home/patrick/.bin/manage.py simple</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-s">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>python /home/patrick/.bin/manage.py swap</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Tab">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>python /home/patrick/.bin/manage.py cycle</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Left">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>python /home/patrick/.bin/manage.py left</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="W-Right">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>python /home/patrick/.bin/manage.py right</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>

Knute · 2009-03-19 18:31:03

Inxsible wrote:

masterxellos wrote:
Yeah I looked at the openbox entry in the wiki. Installing it, playing with the menus and such isn't what the big problem was. Finding a good terminal emulator was a big one, as well as where to get icons which isn't in the wiki. Quick question about rxvt, is there any way to get copy/past functionality in it?
There is copy paste functionality in it. Ctrl + Shift + C copies and middle click pastes

<Shift><Instert> also pastes via the keyboard. The nice thing (and sometimes not so nice thing) about both this and the middle click is that it will paste what was last hilighted. FYI.

matebarny · 2014-05-22 09:51:49

Hi there, very nice post.
I'd like to say that linux is rocks, I've used a couple of distros and liked most Debian and Arch which are respectively my main and secondary os, with Openbox as wm on both since it is so light, fast and easy to use, the best wm I've seen so far.
The only thing that, in my opinion, could be better in Openbox is the windows switching, key binds are just great but, since I use to have many windows open on 4 or 5 workspaces, I think it would be nice if the Alt-Tab dialog had mouse support and the combine-clients-menu could do more than just focus one windows at the time.
I'm trying to achieve this by binding mouse buttons, my touchpad supports up to 12, to a simple bash script that emulate keystrokes with xte but it doesn't work.
I don't know if OB doesn't allow fake key as key bind, I read that xterm doesn't so maybe it is something similar, or maybe bash scripting isn't enough.
Please let me know what you think about it and if you know a better way of pimping OB with simple scripts.
Thanks, bye

ooo · 2014-05-22 12:04:07

You shouldn't necrobump old threads as it's forbidden in forum rules: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … Bumping.22

for your question, from openbox documentation:

You can also use Mod1 through Mod5 as the modifiers to directly select a modifier mask (e.g. Mod1 to select Mod1Mask), but this is for advanced users who have customized their modifier mapping with xmodmap.

Inxsible · 2014-05-22 14:20:20

matebarny, read the forum rules. As mentioned, do not necrobump threads.

Closing...

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-12 05:46:49

Openbox configuration Tips

#2 2009-03-12 05:52:33

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#3 2009-03-12 06:05:13

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#4 2009-03-12 07:33:15

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#5 2009-03-12 08:42:38

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#6 2009-03-12 09:27:54

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#7 2009-03-12 13:14:34

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#8 2009-03-12 16:31:04

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#9 2009-03-12 16:32:48

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#10 2009-03-12 16:41:35

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#11 2009-03-12 16:43:46

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#12 2009-03-12 20:55:32

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#13 2009-03-12 20:59:17

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#14 2009-03-13 09:56:51

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#15 2009-03-13 13:51:32

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#16 2009-03-13 14:06:50

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#17 2009-03-19 18:31:03

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#18 2014-05-22 09:51:49

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#19 2014-05-22 12:04:07

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

#20 2014-05-22 14:20:20

Re: Openbox configuration Tips

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