Arch Linux

DingDone

Member

Registered: 2011-06-28

Posts: 1

Gnome 3 and Openbox WM

Sorry if this has been posted before, but I couldn't find it.

This is the first time I've installed Arch on a system (I've used Ubuntu and Fedora for about 4 years and wanted a change).

The install wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, since the wiki pretty much walks you through it.

I've never tried Openbox before, so decided to use it as the window manager for gnome rather than standalone.

So I followed the wiki entry on installing both, configured everything exactly. I've read over the wiki about 5 times, and definitly havn't missed anything. Gnome works fine, I'm tryping on it now. But it isn't using Openbox as the window manager? Is this something to do with Gnome 3? As the wiki only goes up to gnome 2.26?

Let me know if you want the details of any config files, or if you're using both and it's something stupid that I've missed.

Thanks for any help.

EDIT:

Okay my bad. At the login screen I didn't use the drop down box to change from GNOME to GNOME/Openbox ... although it just crashes and sends me back to GDM, so i'm guessing there is a problem somewhere..

(For the record, gnome 3 sucks.)

Last edited by DingDone (2011-07-03 03:54:29)

Stebalien

Member

Registered: 2010-04-27

Posts: 1,237

Website

Re: Gnome 3 and Openbox WM

The relevant error messages should be in `~/.xsession-errors`.

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Steven [ web : git ]
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Do not email: honeypot@stebalien.com

triplesquarednine

Member

Registered: 2011-04-12

Posts: 630

Re: Gnome 3 and Openbox WM

Okay my bad. At the login screen I didn't use the drop down box to change from GNOME to GNOME/Openbox ... although it just crashes and sends me back to GDM, so i'm guessing there is a problem somewhere..

(For the record, gnome 3 sucks.)

hehe, i do like Gnome 3, but yes, Gnome-Shell (which is just a 'shell' for gnome really) does kind of suck (so i don't use it!)

...are you trying to use OpenBox with gnome-shell?!?  if so, that is probably why it is crashing, and doesn't work.

Gnome-Shell requires both Mutter (for compositing) and gtk-window-decorator in order to run properly. Gnome-Shell is an integrated desktop that isn't very modular at all, nor is it designed to be. ie: switching out window-managers is a no-go... (that would actually go against the new gnome philosophy)...

anyway, if you want to use openbox with gnome 3, you can...all you have to do is use 'fallback mode' - without any compositor (ie: mutter or compiz - won't work with openbox to begin with).

i just tested openbox/gnome after reading your post, being as i already use compiz with gnome 3 fallback by default on my desktop. all i did was 'killall compiz' and then ran 'openbox --replace' from terminal. openbox started, and as i type this message openbox is my windowmanager...Openbox works fine in Gnome 3 - just not with Gnome-shell...

quick howto;

1. to enable forced-fallback mode goto;  gnome-control-center --> system-info --> graphics
2. then logout and back in again.
3. to make openbox your default window-manager;

edit '/usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/gnome-fallback.session' and change the last line from 'metacity' to openbox

DefaultProvider-windowmanager=*metacity*  (change to openbox)

or you could create your own gnome-openbox.session (basically, you could copy gnome-fallback.session, edit it and rename it.. I haven't tested this part (well, not with openbox, but with compiz, yes - so this should work fine..

hope that helps

Last edited by triplesquarednine (2011-07-04 04:35:38)