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#1 2007-07-20 22:28:31

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
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Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

I'm considering dropping GNOME (again) and switching to lightweight WM (Openbox) and/or DE combo (Xfce/OpenBox).  I really like how easy Openbox is to use and I've read several OB-related threads here, trying to determine how other folks optimize it, but I'm still left with questions that I can't seem to find answers to.  I'm looking at using this setup on my Dell 6400 notebook which is currently a GNOME-centric desktop, with the exception of K3b, K9copy and a QT-frontend for VirtualBox.

The top 5 features I'm hoping to keep are as follows:

1. GUI-based SSH
Currently I use Nautilus to quickly browse remote servers, but is there a standalone GUI commonly used, or should I just get use to the shell?

2. Hibernate/Suspend support
In addition to basic powersaved functionality, GNOME offers options at shutdown or via gnome-panel.  Does OB and/or OB/Xfce has something similar?  When I tried Xfce in the past, I could never get the power management options to appear on the shutdown screen.

3. GUI-based volume management
I know Thunar can do this, but what do standalone Openbox fans use to quickly mount/unmount volumes?

4. Font hinting/antialiasing
Xfce can do this, but what about a standalone Openbox config?

5. Multimedia hotkeys
This should still work with Xmodmap, etc. but is there anything else I should know about?

If anyone can help shed some light on these topics, I would greatly appreciate it.

Last edited by thayer (2009-01-29 03:37:27)


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#2 2007-07-20 22:41:18

skymt
Member
Registered: 2006-11-27
Posts: 443

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

1. The XFCE file manager is Thunar, which doesn't natively support network drives. That doesn't mean you have to stick with the console sftp client, though: look into sshfs. Also, there are a variety of other graphical file managers available, some of which do support SSH.

3. I'm in standalone Openbox at the moment, but I just use the mount command as I'm usually in a shell anyway. Look into HAL for a DE-independent way to automount devices.

4. Openbox doesn't touch your font configuration. That means whatever is in /etc/fonts applies. The Arch wiki has a good article on font setup.


Sorry I can't help you with suspend (I don't use it) or multimedia keys (I have a very basic keyboard).

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#3 2007-07-21 08:39:30

[vEX]
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2006-11-23
Posts: 450

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

1. I use normal cli ssh in urxvt.

3. I use mount/umount commands in urxvt.

5. You can set them up in the Openbox config (rc.xml), like so:

    <keybind key="XF86AudioPlay">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sonata pp</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioStop">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sonata stop</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioNext">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sonata next</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioPrev">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sonata prev</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sonata shuffle</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>
    <keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>sonata repeat</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>

PC: Antec P182B | Asus P8Z77-V PRO | Intel i5 3570k | 16GB DDR3 | GeForce 450GTS | 4TB HDD | Pioneer BDR-207D | Asus Xonar DX | Altec Lansing CS21 | Eizo EV2736W-BK | Arch Linux x86_64
HTPC: Antec NSK2480 | ASUS M3A78-EM (AMD 780G) | AMD Athlon X3 425 | 8GB DDR2 | GeForce G210 | 2TB HDD | Arch Linux x86_64
Server: Raspberry Pi (model B) | 512MB RAM | 750GB HDD | Arch Linux ARM

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#4 2007-07-21 19:42:50

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
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Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Thanks for the tips, I did a fresh install last night with Xfce and OB at the core... I'll definitely look into urxvt, as I've seen it mentioned several times in various threads.

The powersave scripts are working as I expected, however I still can't figure out how to get the "Suspend" buttons to appear on the Quit screen.  It only displays Log Out, Restart and Shutdown.  I know it's possible though, because other distros have the feature (namely Xubuntu and SAM).

Last edited by thayer.w (2007-07-21 19:43:30)


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#5 2007-07-21 21:33:27

shen
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Registered: 2003-09-05
Posts: 272
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Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

3. GUI-based volume management
In fluxbox or openbox I use autofs....http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AutoFS_HowTo , In DE's like XFCE they use hal to handle volume management without the need of automount. Once you have autofs setup then you can use any filemanager such as emelfm2 to access the mounted devices in /media. I also think you could use ROX for such a thing as well.

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#6 2007-07-22 05:24:28

cry0x
Member
Registered: 2007-04-11
Posts: 91

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

thayer.w wrote:

2. Hibernate/Suspend support
In addition to basic powersaved functionality, GNOME offers options at shutdown or via gnome-panel.  Does OB and/or OB/Xfce has something similar?  When I tried Xfce in the past, I could never get the power management options to appear on the shutdown screen.

Since Openbox is only a window manager, it does nothing in the way of hibernation or suspension. However, as long as you have ACPI working, you can still suspend/hibernate very easily. On my laptop (macbook) I simply put an option in my menu to suspend the machine by running my suspend script (which is basically "echo mem > /sys/power/state" with some commands to load/unload necessary modules and daemons)

3. GUI-based volume management
I know Thunar can do this, but what do standalone Openbox fans use to quickly mount/unmount volumes?

Thunar is my file manager of choice. It is lightweight, yet fully featured. I've used Thunar with Openbox for quite some time.

4. Font hinting/antialiasing
Xfce can do this, but what about a standalone Openbox config?

As mentioned above, Openbox is completely separate from your fontconfig.

5. Multimedia hotkeys
This should still work with Xmodmap, etc. but is there anything else I should know about?

What [vEX] said. I use this method with xmodmap to get my apple remote working with MPD big_smile



When you use Openbox, and only Openbox, you start to realize that Desktop Environments add no additional functionality, only convenience. On the other hand, they can also muck things up by being proprietary and at times overly complicated. KISS.

Last edited by cry0x (2007-07-22 05:26:02)


Who is this doin' this synthetic type of alpha beta psychedelic funkin'?

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#7 2007-07-22 08:55:13

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
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Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Thanks cry0x (and shen)! I started out the day with a fresh Xfce/OB setup and by the afternoon I realized I was already settling in to old habits and before I knew it, my Xfce desktop was just as sluggish as GNOME (well almost!).  I decided to start over again and this time with Openbox only--no DE at all. So far, I'm loving this!

Currently, I'm running:

slim (with my custom Arch theme)
openbox
thunar (handling my automount needs, thanks to thunar-volman!)
urxvt (with terminal as my backup until I can figure out the color scheme--can't see some output in urxvt)
gmrun
mousepad (until I can try medit and others)
feh for wallpapers
mirage (for quick image viewing)

Now I just need to spend some time figuring out the options for styling GTK app fonts, engines, etc.

Overall, I'm extremely happy!  Thanks again for the help.


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#8 2007-07-22 11:42:19

Greycloack
Member
Registered: 2004-03-05
Posts: 166

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

About the SSH.
you might want to check out sshfs. It simply mounts a remote ssh server as a local directory and then you can pretty much do anything you want with it.

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#9 2007-07-22 12:00:56

Sekre
Member
From: The Rainy North
Registered: 2006-11-24
Posts: 116

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

thayer.w : maybe switch/switch2 is what you'r looking for ? (GTK fonts,themes)

Last edited by Sekre (2007-07-22 12:01:19)

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#10 2007-07-22 16:17:10

Mikko777
Member
From: Suomi, Finland
Registered: 2006-10-30
Posts: 837

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Great thread smile

I'll add one question though:

How to get a standalone system tray for openbox?
I really love tint task manager instead of avant/ pypanel / other panels but i'm missing a system tray smile
any suggestions?

Also if you want eyecandy you might want to add xcompmgr -c -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55 & to your .xinitrc.
also slim is a great companion for openbox loginscreen.

glipper is good for copy-pasting too.

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#11 2007-07-22 21:18:25

lemon
Member
From: Norway
Registered: 2006-11-11
Posts: 50

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Mikko777 wrote:

How to get a standalone system tray for openbox?

pacman -S trayer

trayer --help

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#12 2007-07-23 01:11:51

T-Dawg
Forum Fellow
From: Charlotte, NC
Registered: 2005-01-29
Posts: 2,736

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

You should be able to do keybinding for most all of that. As for suspend/hibernate support,

sync && echo "mem" >/sys/power/state

does the same thing. You can setup acpid to trigger a shutdown even if the battery gets to low.

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#13 2007-07-23 01:22:08

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
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Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Thanks, yeah I've got the shutdown stuff sorted out.

What I'm trying to figure out now is how to use wpa_supplicant (and then wifi-radar) for my WPA-PSK setup and how to manage the volume control on the desktop.  Currently, programs like beep won't respond when I adjust their volume--I have to use alsamixer.


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#14 2007-07-25 09:30:16

steven
Member
Registered: 2007-07-17
Posts: 56

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

thayer.w wrote:

Thanks, yeah I've got the shutdown stuff sorted out.

What I'm trying to figure out now is how to use wpa_supplicant (and then wifi-radar) for my WPA-PSK setup and how to manage the volume control on the desktop.  Currently, programs like beep won't respond when I adjust their volume--I have to use alsamixer.

I was planning on simply using Xmodmap with my extra keys, but I wanted an OSD for the volume. Rather than using OSD and writing a small app to display the volume changes, I found (it's in the wiki) an app called keytouch. It's great, I now have a GTK based OSD when I'm changing volume.

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#15 2007-07-25 11:28:09

PJ
Member
From: Sweden
Registered: 2005-10-11
Posts: 602

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Mikko777 wrote:

How to get a standalone system tray for openbox?

Docker

Last edited by PJ (2007-07-25 11:28:40)

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#16 2007-07-25 13:03:46

Mikko777
Member
From: Suomi, Finland
Registered: 2006-10-30
Posts: 837

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Thanks norway and sweden... roll

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#17 2008-09-17 21:10:12

kernel_script
Member
Registered: 2008-08-30
Posts: 44

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

Hi thayer, i hope these links help you in some way:


2 - http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=44150
     http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/All … o_shutdown

3 - PCMan File Manager

4 - That bothered me too... now i got some cool results with this article:
     http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fonts
     Thanks skymt for the link that drove me to that link above smile


See ya.

Last edited by kernel_script (2008-09-17 21:16:13)

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#18 2008-09-17 21:23:46

thayer
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From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
Website

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

kernel_script, this thread is over a year old now...I resolved my desktop needs ages ago.

Thanks for the info, but in future please don't resurrect dead threads.


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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#19 2008-09-17 21:59:57

kernel_script
Member
Registered: 2008-08-30
Posts: 44

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

@thayer

Sorry sad
I just wanted to help you sad
And got this as thanks... that's the prize to be good in this stupid world nowdays >(

And maybe it's useful for someone else too. If the tread is not to be used, the Admins may delete it so.

I will never bother you with my help ever again, don't worry.

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#20 2009-01-28 20:58:17

sfauzia
Member
Registered: 2009-01-11
Posts: 88

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

kernel_script wrote:

@thayer

Sorry sad
I just wanted to help you sad
And got this as thanks... that's the prize to be good in this stupid world nowdays >(

And maybe it's useful for someone else too. If the tread is not to be used, the Admins may delete it so.

I will never bother you with my help ever again, don't worry.

This might seem to be a "dead thread", but I found it when searching for a power manager for a standalone Openbox install. People searching from Google aren't caring if the thread is necessarily old or recent, though that does matter--they're looking for solutions. So if someone posts some reading material that might lead to an answer, don't get on their case. They may not be helping you, but they're definitely helping someone else like me. Thanks kernel_script for helping!

Last edited by sfauzia (2009-01-28 20:59:16)

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#21 2009-01-28 21:34:29

kernel_script
Member
Registered: 2008-08-30
Posts: 44

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

sfauzia wrote:
kernel_script wrote:

@thayer

Sorry sad
I just wanted to help you sad
And got this as thanks... that's the prize to be good in this stupid world nowdays >(

And maybe it's useful for someone else too. If the tread is not to be used, the Admins may delete it so.

I will never bother you with my help ever again, don't worry.

This might seem to be a "dead thread", but I found it when searching for a power manager for a standalone Openbox install. People searching from Google aren't caring if the thread is necessarily old or recent, though that does matter--they're looking for solutions. So if someone posts some reading material that might lead to an answer, don't get on their case. They may not be helping you, but they're definitely helping someone else like me. Thanks kernel_script for helping!

You're welcome sfauzia smile
I'm glad my post/tips was helpful to you smile

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#22 2009-01-28 23:53:14

sand_man
Member
From: Australia
Registered: 2008-06-10
Posts: 2,164

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

I think it's entirely valid to resurrect an old thread if you are contributing towards it.


neutral

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#23 2009-01-29 02:54:28

thayer
Fellow
From: Vancouver, BC
Registered: 2007-05-20
Posts: 1,560
Website

Re: Help - Looking for Openbox or OB/Xfce solutions [SOLVED]

sfauzia wrote:
kernel_script wrote:

@thayer

Sorry sad
I just wanted to help you sad
And got this as thanks... that's the prize to be good in this stupid world nowdays >(

And maybe it's useful for someone else too. If the tread is not to be used, the Admins may delete it so.

I will never bother you with my help ever again, don't worry.

This might seem to be a "dead thread", but I found it when searching for a power manager for a standalone Openbox install. People searching from Google aren't caring if the thread is necessarily old or recent, though that does matter--they're looking for solutions. So if someone posts some reading material that might lead to an answer, don't get on their case. They may not be helping you, but they're definitely helping someone else like me. Thanks kernel_script for helping!

This was the silliest thing I ever read here, and it continues to be so.  For future reference, please read our guidelines, in particular the part on necro-bumping:

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


thayer williams ~ cinderwick.ca

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