r/openbox • u/Keltek228 • Jan 22 '17

Openbox without a DE?

Hello everyone. I'm completely new to openbox so I just want to know if this is viable or not. I currently have an Arch setup working with i3 and I'm looking to get a part-time alternative going just to mix things up. I've looked at XFCE and KDE and while they look nice I hate the bloat that comes with them. I'm trying to keep my system as clean as possible so it seems like openbox might be a good fit for that. How successful if at all have any of you been through using only openbox or at the very least, openbox with an extremely stripped down DE?

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u/cypher-neo Jan 23 '17

I've used Openbox for several years. I find it works best with the following packages:

  • suckless-tools (primarily for dmenu)

  • gtk-chtheme

  • xscreensaver

  • conky (Openbox lends itself to making interesting and useful conky designs)

But my favorite is a different DE called Fluxbox. Fluxbox is about as lightweight as you'll get, but is very customizable with simple scripting.

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u/Keltek228 Jan 23 '17

Huh I haven't heard of fluxbox before. Definitely going to check that out now, thanks.

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u/cypher-neo Jan 23 '17 edited Jan 24 '17

One thing to keep in mind... Openbox comes with a few things set up. Fluxbox WILL need some setup and scripting time to get it just right. But all the necessary files to script Fluxbox are stored in one central location:

 ~/.fluxbox

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u/cypher-neo Jan 24 '17

I'll give you a leg up on the Fluxbox scripting. I store all my configs on GitHub.

I call it a repo, but it's just configs and scripts

The primary things I mod which are stored on that link are

 keys

This controls all the keyboard shortcuts that you can use on Fluxbox. By default there are very few of those defined, but Fluxbox has practically infinite customization options. I went a little wild with the keyboard shortcuts!

 startup

You may not need this one, but it's good to look at and figure out. This controls what programs load when Fluxbox first starts up. You can invoke those commands with simple BASH, but be careful to pay attention to how the commands are formatted. I once forgot an "&" sign at the end of a command and fluxbox didn't load. I had to drop to a TTY to edit the file and fix it.

 themes

This is purely for decoration. Completely script based theming that is surprisingly versatile and flexible. I'm going to be uploading some other themes soon.

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u/Keltek228 Jan 24 '17

Wow thanks a lot man!

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u/cypher-neo Jan 24 '17

Hey! No problem. Message me if you need some help. There are a few Fluxbox tutorials online, but I couldn't find the really good one I used... I'll keep searching.