Configure My urxvt!

Thrillhouse · 2008-02-17 23:21:34

So, I decided to make the switch from XFCE to Openbox on my laptop. No reason really other than trying something different. I've gotten things to where I'm almost completely satisfied with it but not quite. The thing that's really sticking out right now is my terminal. I'm using urxvt but I can't find any documentation on how to configure it (what, no wiki?). I've taken a look at the manual and have gotten some minor things done but nothing substantial. I would like something that would match the theme that the other windows have below...

As you can see, I have a dark gray gtk theme but my terminal is black (per my command). I would like the terminal to match the color of the other things on my desktop but haven't been able to pass it a color that works (where does it get the colors?). I would also like the font to match the greenish color I have in my openbox theme and both my font and borders to be a little smoother. I have xcompmgr running so transparency is a definite possibility.

From viewing the monthly screenshots thread, I see that some configurations come from a ~/.Xdefaults file but I don't have that and can't find a generic one. I'm not sure if this is where rxvt gets its configuration or not but I obviously need something to go off of.

So, if you feel like a challenge, I know a lot of people like to spend time configuring new desktops but I'm really not one of those people, I like to do it once and leave it, please feel free to try and provide me with a good rxvt config. I really like Openbox and would like to stick with it but if I can't get this figured out, I don't know if I'll be able to.

Thanks.

tomk · 2008-02-18 00:10:26

~/.Xdefaults is what you need - you have to create it, it's not there by default. I know some people like to spend time providing config files for others to use, but I'm not really one of those people, so I'd suggest a quick Google, or even a search of this forum.

eerok · 2008-02-18 00:16:29

Or ~.Xresources ... Anyway, off the top of my head:

URxvt.background: #303030

Redacted: my irrelevant opinion on terms

Last edited by eerok (2008-02-18 00:44:07)

Thrillhouse · 2008-02-18 01:09:31

@ tomk
Well, there's no reason to get snippy. I wasn't ridiculing people who like to tinker with their desktops. It's obviously enjoyable for them and is often worth it when you see what they can come up with. I just am not like that and if someone would find pleasure in providing me with an .Xdefaults, I would certainly appreciate it. Especially considering there isn't a wiki article for it, as far as I can tell.

@eerok
Thanks for your suggestion. It turns out I do have (what looks like a vanilla) .Xdefaults. I made the modification you suggested, along with a few others, but it doesn't seem like urxvt is picking up on them after I stop and re-start the X server. Here is what the file looks like:

URxvt.termName: rxvt
URxvt.transparent: true
URxvt.inheritPixmap: False
URxvt.imLocale: pl_PL.UTF-8
URxvt.scrollBar: false
URxvt.saveLines: 500
URxvt.urlLauncher:      firefox
URxvt.cursorBlink: true
URxvt.geometry: 80x20
URxvt.fading: 25%
urxvt.font:             xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:pixelsize=10
urxvt.boldFont:         xft:Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:bold:pixelsize=10
URxvt*background:      #303030
urxvt.depth: 32
urxvt.background: rgba:0000/0000/0000/bbbb
URxvt.foreground: grey80
URxvt.tintColor: #262626
URxvt.borderLess: true
URxvt.borderColor: #888888

*foreground:     rgba:0000/0000/0000/dddd
*background:     rgb:10/10/10
!black
*color0:         rgb:20/20/20
*color8:         rgb:75/77/73
!red
*color1:         rgb:cc/00/00  
*color9:         rgb:ef/29/29
!green
*color2:         rgb:4e/9a/06
*color10:        rgb:8a/e2/34
!brown/yellow
*color3:         rgb:c4/a0/00
*color11:        rgb:fc/e9/4f
!blue
*color4:         rgb:34/65/a4
*color12:        rgb:72/9f/cf
!magenta
*color5:         rgb:75/50/7b
*color13:        rgb:ad/7f/a8
!cyan
*color6:         rgb:06/98/9a
*color14:        rgb:34/e2/e2
!white
*color7:         rgb:d3/d7/cf
*color15:        rgb:ee/ee/ec

Any further assistance would be appreciated.

eerok · 2008-02-18 01:55:52

Well, if .Xdefaults isn't being sourced by X, try renaming it to .Xresources ... and instead of restarting X, just do

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources

You see, both .Xdefaults and .Xresources are used by various distros ... some may source them both, who knows? Anyway, I know that .Xresources works on Arch.

Borosai · 2008-02-18 03:03:44

I'm not sure if the the latest releases of rxvt-unicode have added/removed any of the options (since last July, when I used it), but this is my .Xdefaults file from that time. I went through all the documentation I could find, and tried to make a complete list of options (including those which I didn't use). I just wanted to list them all so I wouldn't have to re-read the documentation again (it took some time). If you want to know what each option does, take a look at the man page - I can only offer the list (but it's a starting point). I hope it helps.

!!
!! ~/.Xdefaults
!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!! rxvt-unicode !!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

urxvt*font:                    -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
urxvt*boldFont:                -*-terminus-medium-*-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso8859-1
!urxvt*italicFont:
!urxvt*boldItalicFont:
urxvt*intensityStyles:        true
urxvt*skipBuiltinGlyphs:    true
urxvt*linespace:            0

!urxvt*title:
!urxvt*iconName:
urxvt*geometry:                100x30
urxvt*borderLess:            false
urxvt*externalBorder:        0
urxvt*internalBorder:        2
!urxvt*borderColor:
urxvt*scrollBar:            false
!urxvt*scrollstyle:
!urxvt*scrollBar_right:
!urxvt*scrollBar_floating:
!urxvt*scrollBar_align:
!urxvt*scrollColor:
!urxvt*troughColor:

urxvt*depth:                32
urxvt*background:            rgba:0000/0000/0000/cccc
!urxvt*background:            #000000
urxvt*foreground:            #c8c8c8
urxvt*color0:                #000000
urxvt*color1:                #b33636
urxvt*color2:                #6ba82a
urxvt*color3:                #deaf40
urxvt*color4:                #5a78ad
urxvt*color5:                #ab4382
urxvt*color6:                #39a0b3
urxvt*color7:                #c8c8c8
urxvt*color8:                #646464
urxvt*color9:                #e61717
urxvt*color10:                #78dc0c
urxvt*color11:                #f1e022
urxvt*color12:                #699dfa
urxvt*color13:                #de2a98
urxvt*color14:                #13d1f3
urxvt*color15:                #ffffff
!urxvt*colorRV:
!urxvt*colorBD:
!urxvt*colorIT:
!urxvt*colorUL:
!urxvt*underlineColor:
!urxvt*highlightColor:
urxvt*cursorColor:            #ffffff
urxvt*cursorColor2:            #000000
urxvt*cursorBlink:            false
urxvt*reverseVideo:            false
!urxvt*fading:
!urxvt*fadeColor:
!urxvt*pointerColor:
!urxvt*pointerColor2:
urxvt*pointerBlank:            false
!urxvt*pointerBlankDelay:
!urxvt*backgroundPixmap:
!urxvt*path:
urxvt*inheritPixmap:        false
!urxvt*tintColor:
!urxvt*shading:
!urxvt*blendType:
!urxvt*blurRadius:

urxvt*insecure:                false
urxvt*termName:                rxvt-unicode
urxvt*loginShell:            true
urxvt*hold:                    false
urxvt*saveLines:            2048
urxvt*jumpScroll:            true
urxvt*skipScroll:            true
urxvt*scrollTtyOutput:        false
urxvt*scrollWithBuffer:        false
urxvt*scrollTtyKeypress:    true
urxvt*mouseWheelScrollPage:    false
!urxvt*secondaryScreen:
!urxvt*secondaryScroll:
!urxvt*selectstyle:
urxvt*tripleclickwords:        true
urxvt*cutchars:                `'",;@&*=|?()<>[]{}
urxvt*pastableTabs:            false
urxvt*mapAlert:                false
urxvt*urgentOnBell:            false
urxvt*visualBell:            false
urxvt*utmpInhibit:            false
!urxvt*print-pipe:
!urxvt*modifier:
!urxvt*preeditType:
!urxvt*inputMethod:
!urxvt*imLocale:
!urxvt*imFont:
!urxvt*meta8:
!urxvt*answerbackString:
!urxvt*backspacekey:
!urxvt*deletekey:
!urxvt*keysym.<keys>:

!! Perl Extensions !!
!! Available extensions: default, automove-background, block-graphics-to-ascii,
!! digital-clock, example-refresh-hooks, kuake, macosx-clipboard, matcher,
!! option-popup, readline, remote-clipboard, searchable-scrollback, selection,
!! selection-autotransform, selection-pastebin, selection-popup, tabbed,
!! urxvt-popup, xim-onthespot
!urxvt*perl-ext-common:
!urxvt*perl-ext:
!urxvt*perl-eval:
!urxvt*perl-lib:
!urxvt*selection.pattern-<number>:
!urxvt*selection-autotransform.<number>:
!urxvt*searchable-scrollback:
!urxvt*urlLauncher:
!urxvt*transient-for:
!urxvt*override-redirect:
!urxvt*iso14755_52:
!urxvt*tabbed.tabbar-bg:
!urxvt*tabbed.tabbar-fg:
!urxvt*tabbed.tab-bg:
!urxvt*tabbed.tab-fg:
!urxvt*matcher.button:
!urxvt*matcher.pattern.<number>:
!urxvt*matcher.launcher.<number>:

And you can load these settings, without restarting X, with the following command:

xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults

coarseSand · 2008-02-18 05:29:37

Hey Thrillhouse,

I can't really help you out as I just installed Xmonad yesterday which prompted my switch to urxvt for my terminal, but I've had luck coming up with my own .Xdefaults by browsing http://dotfiles.org. Check it out if you want to mess with your config a bit.

Also, my .Xdefaults file seems to reload on the fly as I can usually just issue mod+shift+return to get a new terminal with my settings, though I'm now vaguely remember editing a config file a month ago to get .Xdefaults to merge properly.

eerok · 2008-02-18 07:33:29

I just checked, and Arch will load both .Xdefaults and .Xresources without any fuss. I might have known -- it's in keeping with the KISS principle (Other distros I've used have arbitrarily chosen one or the other.)

So that's not the problem.

jbromley · 2008-02-18 07:58:35

coarseSand wrote:

Also, my .Xdefaults file seems to reload on the fly as I can usually just issue mod+shift+return to get a new terminal with my settings, though I'm now vaguely remember editing a config file a month ago to get .Xdefaults to merge properly.

Some applications will read .Xresources/.Xdefaults at runtime instead of using the X resource database (xrdb). I believe urxvt will do this if it can find your .Xresources file. It is generally good practice to use xrdb instead of relying on various apps to read your resource file on their own. As I mention below, you probably had to edit /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to get it to look for .Xdefaults. By default it looks for .Xresources.

eerok wrote:

I just checked, and Arch will load both .Xdefaults and .Xresources without any fuss. I might have known -- it's in keeping with the KISS principle (Other distros I've used have arbitrarily chosen one or the other.)
So that's not the problem.

Are you sure about this? I use wmii, so I don't get auto-loading of .Xmodmap and .Xresources by a desktop environment. I had to insert the following line into my .xinitrc to have Arch read in my preferences:

[ -f /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ] && sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

My /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc file only looks for .Xresources. I have the default configuration files. Perhaps the problem is that he is not sourcing /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, because on its own, Openbox will not execute this file.

Regards,
j

Last edited by jbromley (2008-02-18 08:07:09)

eerok · 2008-02-18 16:53:25

jbromley wrote:

eerok wrote:
I just checked, and Arch will load both .Xdefaults and .Xresources without any fuss. I might have known -- it's in keeping with the KISS principle (Other distros I've used have arbitrarily chosen one or the other.)
So that's not the problem.
Are you sure about this? I use wmii, so I don't get auto-loading of .Xmodmap and .Xresources by a desktop environment. I had to insert the following line into my .xinitrc to have Arch read in my preferences:
[ -f /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ] && sh /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

I tried my test again on both openbox and xmonad with the same results: both .Xresources and .Xdefaults loaded. Neither of my WM startup files sourced either .Xresources or .Xdefaults, so it was X doing it. (One thing I didn't check was whether in fact both would be loaded if both were present -- I only did an either/or comparison. I just wasn't that curious about that )

jbromley wrote:

My /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc file only looks for .Xresources. I have the default configuration files. Perhaps the problem is that he is not sourcing /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc, because on its own, Openbox will not execute this file.

I also have the default configuration files, though there's no guarantee that something I installed didn't make a change somewhere. This seems to be a mystery, but the most simple and practical way to solve it is to explicitly merge either .Xresources or .Xdefaults in the startup files of your WM's and then you'll know that it will work.

edit: D'oh. I use gdm -- that could explain the difference.

Last edited by eerok (2008-02-18 17:01:03)

jbromley · 2008-02-18 21:35:28

eerok wrote:

edit: D'oh. I use gdm -- that could explain the difference.

I use slim, so that very well could be the difference. GDM actually starts your X session so it seems quite possible that it at some time either runs xinitrc or otherwise loads user X configurations. As I don't have GDM installed right now, I can't look at what it does. If you're really interested you could probably kill GDM to get back to a console, log in and do startx to see what Arch/Xorg actually bring up. I did this and in my case I got none of my customizations. Anyway, hopefully there are enough clues in all of this for the original poster to get his configurations made and properly loading.

Regards,
j

bgc1954 · 2008-03-21 12:46:39

I use slim on two computers and gdm on one. All three use .Xdefaults for my urxvt settings--no prob.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-02-17 23:21:34

Configure My urxvt!

#2 2008-02-18 00:10:26

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#3 2008-02-18 00:16:29

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#4 2008-02-18 01:09:31

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#5 2008-02-18 01:55:52

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#6 2008-02-18 03:03:44

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#7 2008-02-18 05:29:37

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#8 2008-02-18 07:33:29

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#9 2008-02-18 07:58:35

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#10 2008-02-18 16:53:25

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#11 2008-02-18 21:35:28

Re: Configure My urxvt!

#12 2008-03-21 12:46:39

Re: Configure My urxvt!

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