fluxbox how-to (compiling from source the latest version) plus tips & tricks

[thewayofzen]

ive compiled flux from source before in the past just for the purpose of defeating that slow startup.. but i always found that once compiled it would never respect the bitmap font settings needed to display the artwiz fonts. the deb package in the repos always allows them to work fine but the fluxbox as i installed fromt he latest source never would..
yes i know for a fact my fonts are installed properly.. or they wouldnt work in gnome .. or the repo flux.. just somehow they never work in the one i compile myself.

can anyone confirm if they are now working?

[benplaut]

can the original writer of the HOWTO change 0.9.14 to 0.9.15? everything else should work

[Bjorg]

What's the name of that panel right-up in that screen. I'm looking for that sensor/display.

Thanks.

[etank]

I think the package you are looking for is called gkrellm.

[eklypze]

There is offical packages for ubuntu breezy for fluxbox .9.14, compling it is pretty much a total waste..

http://logicvortex.net/debian/fluxbox/
Make sure to get the package marked for breezy users. I spoke with dopey (the offical packager for Debian/Ubuntu fluxbox packages) in irc the other day and he said he would have .9.15 packages very soon. There is really no need to compile from source unless you just are bored or for some reason his package is missing xinerama or something..

If you have trouble use our wiki: http://fluxbox-wiki.org/
In the howto section we have a howto update using ubuntu guide. We also have many other great fluxbox specific howtos on this wiki. I personally think its the best fluxbox resource on the net.

Thank you for replying. I have tried out your suggestion to download the package and I get another error.

(Reading database ... 58950 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace fluxbox 0.9.14-1 (using fluxbox_0.9.14-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement fluxbox ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of fluxbox:
fluxbox depends on menu (>= 2.1.19); however:
Package menu is not configured yet.
fluxbox depends on libgcc1 (>= 1:4.0.1); however:
Package libgcc1 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing fluxbox (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
fluxbox

[yabbadabbadont]

Thank you for replying. I have tried out your suggestion to download the package and I get another error.

(Reading database ... 58950 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace fluxbox 0.9.14-1 (using fluxbox_0.9.14-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement fluxbox ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of fluxbox:
fluxbox depends on menu (>= 2.1.19); however:
Package menu is not configured yet.
fluxbox depends on libgcc1 (>= 1:4.0.1); however:
Package libgcc1 is not configured yet.
dpkg: error processing fluxbox (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
fluxbox

Use apt-get or synaptic to install menu and libgcc1 then it should go ahead and configure fluxbox.

[eklypze]

Apparently there is an issue of my menu and libgcc1 packages being broken. According to Synaptic both of those are installed, although they are broken. I have tried to uninstall them but if I uninstall those a whole bunch of essential programs that I have need to be uninstalled as well. I have no idea how to fix these broken packages now.

[guillote_GNU]

I'm a big fan too... it's good to see people using it and making howto's.
I just wanna add a couple of things.
In configure line perhaps you should use:

#./configure --prefix=/usr --disable-xbm

--prefix=/usr will put binaries in /usr/bin that is the deafault ubuntu directory, kde and gnome support are by default enabled in fluxbox.

And finally, in fluxbox.desktop file you should put the line:

exec /usr/bin/startfluxbox

that command uses automatically startup script for fluxbox and u dont need to edit .xsession file.
I hope it works and be helpful.

[daedalusman]

Great guide, I used the 0.9.14 deb file and now fluxbox is my default desktop, with conky is the best. Only uses about 90megs of ram at startup, just amazing. And so far I haven't ran into any major problems with it yet. Thanks.

[geuis]

response to eklypze

You have to get 'menu' from the universal repository. Do this:

sudo nano /etc/apt/source.list and uncomment the 2 lines about the universal repository.

Save those changes, then do:
sudo apt-get update

Then:
sudo apt-get install menu

This should install the menu.

Then install Fluxbox. I downloaded the fluxbox_0-1.9.14-1_i386.deb package from http://people.debian.org/~dopey/flux....14-1_i386.deb

sudo apt-get install -i fluxbox_0.9.14-1_i386.deb

It installed for me!