HOWTO: get a Fluxbox menu (and customization)

[RedSquirrel]

Contents

General Information

The Default Menu

Tips for Creating a Custom Menu

More Fluxbox Information and Links

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General Information

Basic Requirements for the Fluxbox Menu

The Fluxbox menu is created from a simple text file.

The default menu configuration file is created automatically using the menu package.

The menu package is a dependency for fluxbox. If you installed the fluxbox package from the Ubuntu repositories, the menu package was installed automatically when you installed fluxbox.



Editing the Fluxbox configuration files

The Fluxbox configuration files that you will be editing are located in the directory ~/.fluxbox.

If you have another window manager or desktop environment installed on your system (Openbox, IceWM, GNOME, KDE, XFCE, etc.), you can edit all of your Fluxbox configuration files from there, if you prefer. The next time you run Fluxbox you will see the changes you made.

If you are running Fluxbox and you edit the menu configuration file (~/.fluxbox/menu), you can see the changes you made by simply right-clicking on the desktop to bring up the menu; there is no need to restart Fluxbox to see the changes.


Backups

Before you edit a configuration file, it is a good idea to make a backup in case something goes wrong.

Example:

cp ~/.fluxbox/menu ~/.fluxbox/menu.backup

Fluxconf

fluxconf has some nasty bugs, particularly in fluxkeys.

My recommendation is to avoid the program altogether and learn to configure Fluxbox by editing the configuration files directly.



Testing

This tutorial has been tested on the following systems:

• Fluxbox 1.0.0 on Ubuntu 8.04
• Fluxbox 1.0.0 on Ubuntu 8.10
• Fluxbox 1.1.1 on Ubuntu 9.04
• Fluxbox 1.1.1 on Ubuntu 9.10

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The Default Menu

In your ~/.fluxbox directory, you have a file named menu. It is a text file.

The contents of the default menu file look like this:

[begin] (fluxbox)
[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)
[end]

As you can see, the default ~/.fluxbox/menu uses the contents of the file /etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu as the menu.

If for any reason you need to recreate a default fluxbox menu, simply create a text file with the above three lines and save it as ~/.fluxbox/menu.

Steps:

1. Open the menu file using a text editor:

nano -w ~/.fluxbox/menu

2. Copy and paste the following three lines:

[begin] (fluxbox)
[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu)
[end]

3. Save and Close the file.





Tips for Creating a Custom Menu

Sample file

The default menu is a good place to look for ideas. Make a copy of the default menu:

cp /etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu ~/.fluxbox/fluxbox-menu_ideas.txt

Read the section from the man page that deals with the menu syntax

Run (in a terminal):

man fluxbox

Look for the section entitled, "MENUS".

Press "q" when you have finished reading the man page.

Helpful Menu Sections

Backgrounds Menu

This will create a menu item that lists all of the backgrounds (wallpapers) in the directories you supply. Adjust the paths to suit wherever you store your wallpapers.

[submenu] (Backgrounds)
 [wallpapers] (/usr/share/backgrounds)
 [wallpapers] (~/.fluxbox/backgrounds)
 [wallpapers] (~/misc/wallpapers)
[end]

desktop-2009-10-31_14:56:07.jpg




Debian Menu

Most of the applications on your system can be found in this menu. When you install new programs, the menu is updated automatically to include them.

[submenu] (Debian Menu) </usr/share/pixmaps/debian-logo.png>
[include] (/etc/X11/fluxbox/menudefs.hook)
[end]

The Debian menu contains the same entries as the default menu, but without the Fluxbox configuration entries. You can see this in the following screenshots:

desktop-2009-10-31_14:46:15.jpgdesktop-2009-10-31_14:48:04.jpg




The Fluxbox Configuration Menu

Here is an example:

[submenu] (Fluxbox Menu)

      [config] (Configure) 

      [submenu] (System Styles) {Choose a style...}
        [stylesdir] (/usr/share/fluxbox/styles) 
      [end]

      [submenu] (User Styles) {Choose a style...}
        [stylesdir] (~/.fluxbox/styles)  
      [end] 

      [workspaces] (Workspace List) 
      [reconfig] (Reload config) 
      [restart] (Restart) 
      [exit] (Exit) 

[end]

desktop-2009-10-31_15:12:32.jpg

Icons

Locations for icon files that you may wish to use in your menu can be found by looking in the sample menu file mentioned above. You can start by looking in the following directories:

/usr/share/pixmaps
/usr/share/icons

A Fluxbox menu with icons:
desktop-2009-04-25_21:15:59.png



Menu delay/click to open or close submenus

(from the man page and the Fluxbox source code Changelog)

Menu Behavior The behavior of the submenus in a menu can be configured in the init file, with the following entries (default for both is 0): session.screen0.menuDelay: <msec> session.screen0.menuDelayClose: <msec> The menuDelay is the delay to open an submenu. The menuDelayClose is so you don't need to aim that much when you're moving the cursor to the submenu, over the item below or above, so it stays visible. "menuMode: Click" => this means you need to click on the menu item to open it. session.screen0.menuMode: can be either Click or Delay (default: Delay) session.screen0.menuDelay: in msec (default: 0 ) session.screen0.menuDelayClose: in msec (default: 0 ) example: session.screen0.menuMode: Delay session.screen0.menuDelay: 400 session.screen0.menuDelayClose: 300 Notice how the menuDelay is a bit larger than menuCloseDelay. This is so the previous menu can close before you open the next.

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More Fluxbox Information and Links

The man pages for fluxbox and fluxstyle are definitely worth reading.

man fluxbox

man fluxstyle

Here are some links you might find helpful:

Main Fluxbox site
http://fluxbox.org

Fluxbox wiki (This is an excellent reference.)
http://fluxbox-wiki.org

Credits

1. Fluxbox wiki -- http://fluxbox-wiki.org

2. posts on ubuntuforums.org (especially by yabbadabbadont and kerry_s)

3. the man page for fluxbox

4. the Changelog of the fluxbox source code



Recent changes

October 31, 2009

Some small additions. Tested on Karmic Koala (Ubuntu 9.10). Works well.


June 6, 2009

Some minor changes.


April 25, 2009

The default Fluxbox menu on older versions of Ubuntu had several issues. This tutorial contained detailed information about getting the menu to work properly. The default Fluxbox menu on recent versions of Ubuntu works very well and that problem-solving information is no longer necessary. For this reason, I removed it.