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

[yabbadabbadont]

I looked through the init file. I tried setting - forcepseudotransparency and - decorateTransientWindow to true. I also tried setting the alpha channel for menu and windows to 150 and, but it didn't do anything.

I would suggest installing fluxbox using the deb package found here http://logicvortex.net/debian/fluxbox/

There is a package of the latest version built specifically for Breezy there. I just installed it and verified that the alpha options are all present. You have to take the option to restart fluxbox from the menu to make any alpha changes take effect though.

The specific steps that I took were:
1) sudo -s -H
2) apt-get install menu (dependency of the deb package that I pointed you to)
3) dpkg -i fluxbox_0.9.14-1_i386.deb
4) logout and login using failsafe xterm session
5) sudo update-menus
6) startfluxbox (this will create a proper ~/.fluxbox directory structure)
7) ctrl-alt-backspace (for some reason, fluxbox didn't startup all the way)
8) select the fluxbox session from GDM and login.

Everything worked properly from that point on.

[kch_86]

alright, I followed your instructions exactly. When I ran startfluxbox, I got a bunch of errors. All the ones that I could see were like: failed to set session.somevalue. I don't know what's going on. My laptop has an old ati rage 128 graphics card, would this have anything to do with it?

[yabbadabbadont]

Your video card shoudn't have anything to do with it. Fluxbox runs on top of X, and as long as you see the GDM login screen, it should work too.

The errors/warning messages are normal the first time a user runs fluxbox. It just means that there isn't an init file in the .fluxbox directory yet. (or an incomplete one) It should create a default ~/.fluxbox/init file for you after it displays those messages.

As I said in my instructions, for some reason, fluxbox didn't start up all the way (I just got a black screen) and I had to kill X with ctrl-alt-backspace. After that, selecting a fluxbox session from GDM worked fine.

When you originally built fluxbox from source, did you use checkinstall so that it was installed from the created deb package? Either way, did you uninstall the old version before installing the package I suggested? Since you had been using fluxbox before, did you remove or rename your ~/.fluxbox directory before following my instructions? (I forgot to suggest that in the steps I listed, sorry)

These are just some things to try. I switched back to Gentoo (again), so I'll have to get Breezy installed in vmware before I'll be able to try to troubleshoot this some more.

[kch_86]

yeah i did ctrl-alt-backspace after I ran startfluxbox for the first time. I renamed my .fluxbox file before I installed with the .deb. I'll try and install again and use checkinstall to make sure it was installed from the deb package.

[l0c0dantes]

How do I set my screen resolution tho? right now im at the amazingly tiny 1600x1200 >_<

[yabbadabbadont]

You can use ctrl-alt-(numeric keypad)+ and ctrl-alt-(numeric keypad)- to change it temporarily or you can edit your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Section "Screen"
        Identifier      "Screen0"
        Device          "Card0"
        Monitor         "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth    24
        SubSection      "Display"
                Viewport        0 0
                Depth           8
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection      "Display"
                Viewport        0 0
                Depth           15
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection      "Display"
                Viewport        0 0
                Depth           16
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection      "Display"
                Viewport        0 0
                Depth           24
                Modes           "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Only include the screen resolutions that you want to allow.

[topper_harley]

How can I edit the startup file to make a certain application to start on a certain desktop?

For example, on startup, I would like to run Firefox on desktop 2 and Eterm on desktop 1 and 3.

Is it possible?

Thanks,
Andrea

[yabbadabbadont]

It is possible to do some of this by using the apps file in the ~/.fluxbox directory. However, I'm not sure about having two Eterms on two different desktops automatically. Read through this http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Ho..._the_apps_file for how to do this.

Actually, after reading through that link myself, I think you can do what you want. You will have to include the -name option on the command line when you launch Eterm. You will need to give each instance a different name so that the settings for that specific instance can be saved in the apps file. The wiki article sort of gives an example of this using xterm, but Eterm supports the -name option too.

[topper_harley]

I think Eterm supports the -n option instead of -name, but should work the same.
I prefer Eterm because I can have completly transparent terminals with this command:
Eterm -O -x -f white --scrollbar 0 --buttonbar 0

Thanks for your help!!!

[topper_harley]

The "-n" trick worked great!!!
I have a different terminal in each workspace!

Now I have another question:
I've ridden in the docs that fliuxbox doesn't have built-in session manager. Is it possible to use an external one? Maybe Gnome-session?

I can restart or halt my laptop using the command line but I don't know how to suspend to ram and suspend to disk without a session manager. Can anybody explain me how to?

Thanks...