Openbox

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Openbox is a highly configurable, next generation, stacking window manager for X11 with extensive standards support. It was originally forked from Blackbox. It is used by the LXDE as its default window manager and KDE can also use Openbox as its window manager instead of its default window manager, KWin.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for x11-wm/openbox Standards compliant, fast, light-weight, extensible window manager

branding Enable Gentoo specific branding
debug Enable extra debug codepaths, like asserts and extra output. If you want to get meaningful backtraces see https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Project:Quality_Assurance/Backtraces
imlib Add support for imlib, an image loading and rendering library
nls Add Native Language Support (using gettext - GNU locale utilities)
session Enables support for session managers
startup-notification Enable application startup event feedback mechanism
svg Add support for SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics)
xdg Install the python xdg files for xdg autostart

Emerge

Emerge Openbox:

root #emerge --ask x11-wm/openbox

Configuration

There are four important files to consider when configuring Openbox:

Openbox installs these files to /etc/xdg/openbox/ To have Openbox use custom configurations for each user, copy the four configuration files above to the home directory of each user (~/.config/openbox/), then modify each according to the users' needs.

For example:

user $mkdir -p ~/.config/openbox/
user $cp /etc/xdg/openbox/* ~/.config/openbox/

Then use a text editor of choice to start making changes:

user $vim ~/.config/openbox/autostart

Starting

To start Openbox it is possible to use a display manager or the startx command.

To use startx, set the XSESSION variable your shell to openbox, for example:

FILE ~/.bashrcOpenbox with startx
# ...other .bashrc content...
export XSESSION=openbox

Note that there are an infinite number of ways of achieving the above and this example only applies to bash for users using ~/.bashrc and those who wish to start X manually from the command line.

Also note that a common misconception is to create a ~/.xinitrc file - please do not do that, as it will prevent X from executing all the automatically provided scripts in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/ - if you wish to add anything in particular, you can create an executable file in that directory.

autostart

The autostart script is the ideal way to execute specific commands and programs when Openbox starts. It makes no difference if Openbox is started using the startx command or a display manager, autostart will be executed either way.

The following is an example of some of the things that could be done in an autostart file.

FILE ~/.config/openbox/autostartOpenbox autostart example
# Sets the wallpaper to an image of choice.
wallpaper="planet.jpeg"

# Sets the DESKTOP_ENV variable to "OPENBOX"
DESKTOP_ENV="OPENBOX"

# The following are examples on how to call programs;
# unless programs are called in a daemon mode like the 
# conky example below an ampersand (&) will need to be included 
# in order to start the command and fork it to the background
# See job control for more information.
conky --daemonize

# Waits one second then starts the NetworkManager applet.
sleep 1 && nm-applet --sm-disable &

# Starts a light-weight X11 desktop panel.
fbpanel &

# Starts a lightweight image viewer to display the wallpaper.
feh --bg-scale ~/Artwork/${wallpaper} &

# Starts a simple battery monitor for the system tray.
batti &

# Starts a program that turns on numlock in X (after the X server starts).
numlockx &

environment

Using the environment file is the ideal place to export global variables and configure the Openbox environment:

FILE ~/.config/openbox/environmentOpenbox environment example
eval $(gpg-agent --daemon)
eval $(gnome-keyring-daemon)
if which dbus-launch >/dev/null && test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"; then
       eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
fi
LANG="el_GR.UTF8"

menu.xml

The menu.xml file contains information for the right-click menus in Openbox. By default the right click menu is predefined with some common applications, so unless the applications are installed on the system most of the default links on the menu will not be operational.

Dynamic generation

openbox-menu

An application called openbox-menu can be used to dynamically generate new Openbox right click menus based off information defined in the /etc/xdg/menus directory.

Install x11-misc/openbox-menu:

root #emerge --ask x11-misc/openbox-menu

After the menu generator has been installed, run the following command to create a new menu for the present user:

user $openbox-menu
obmenu-generator

Another excellent choice for generating an Openbox right-click menu is obmenu-generator. It can generate either static or dynamic (pipe) menus based on a user-modifiable schema and the .desktop files installed by most applications. It supports themed icons and arbitrarily nested submenus.

http://trizenx.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/obmenu-generator.html

https://github.com/trizen/obmenu-generator

Install x11-misc/obmenu-generator:

root #emerge --ask x11-misc/obmenu-generator

To generate a static menu with icons:

user $obmenu-generator -i -s

To generate a pipe menu with icons:

user $obmenu-generator -i -p

Add '-c' to automatically reconfigure a running instance of Openbox:

user $obmenu-generator -i -s -c
MenuMaker

The other popular option to automatically configure your menu.xml file is menumaker which also works with JWM, IceWM, BlackBox. FluxBox, PekWM and others.

Install x11-misc/menumaker:

root #emerge --ask x11-misc/menumaker

To generate a static menu for OpenBox with sakura terminal:

user $mmaker -vf OpenBox -t Sakura

If no terminal is specified, xtem will be used by default. You can check the availiable terminal emulators, terminals and otehr options by running:

user $mmaker --help

Manual configuration

For those who do not wish to configure the OpenBox menu automatically, it is possible to configure It manually by editing the file ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml:

FILE ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<openbox_menu>
    <menu id="root-menu" label="OpenBox 3">
        <menu id="2" label="Editors">
            <item label="Mousepad"> <action name="Execute">
                <execute>mousepad</execute>
            </action> </item>
            <item label="Xournal"> <action name="Execute">
                <execute>xournal</execute>
            </action> </item>
        </menu>
        <menu id="18" label="Games">
            <item label="Nibbles"> <action name="Execute">
                <execute>gnome-nibbles</execute>
            </action> </item>
            <item label="DeSmuME (Gtk)"> <action name="Execute">
                <execute>desmume</execute>
            </action> </item>
        </menu>
        <menu id="5" label="Network">
            <item label="FireFox"> <action name="Execute">
                <execute>firefox</execute>
            </action> </item>
        </menu>
        <menu id="19" label="File Managers">
            <item label="File Manager PCManFM"> <action name="Execute">
                <execute>pcmanfm</execute>
            </action> </item>
        </menu>
        <separator/>
        <menu id="40" label="OpenBox">
            <menu id="client-list-menu"/>
            <item label="Reconfigure"> <action name="Reconfigure"/> </item>
            <separator/>
            <item label="Exit"> <action name="Exit"/> </item>
        </menu>
    </menu>
</openbox_menu>

In this example shown is a couple of applications in different categories. Each submenu goes inside the root <menu> which must go inside the <openbox_menu> tag. Specify a name for the subcategory to be displayed with the label "attribute", also specify an "id" for each submenu inside the main menu tag, which must be unique, but can be any positive number aside from 1 which is reserved for the parent <menu tag>. Items inside menus are specified with the <item> tag, and the name to be displayed is as in the <menu> tag case specified with the "label" attribute. The actions executed by the item are specified with the tag <action> which will likely want to used with the label name="Execute", in that case, inside the <action> tag to define an <execute> tag and inside that tag place a terminal instruction to be called when the user clicks that button, for example "firefox" to start Firefox or "loginctl poweroff" to turn off the system, to give some examples.


On each <item>tag there's also the possibility to specify an icon using the "icon" attribute with must be filled with a path pointing to the icon wanting to display in the menu.

rc.xml

The rc.xml file is used to specify keyboard and mouse bindings.

The following is a list of special key 'modifiers':

Key Description
S Shift key
C Ctrl key
A Alt key
W Super (windows) key
M Meta key
H Hyper key

To make a key binding, combine modifiers and a key. They are separated with the - (dash) sign.

Important
Case matters! S (uppercase) equates to the Shift key while s (lowercase) is the s alphabet key.

Key binding examples

Keybinding Modifier
Alt+o A-o
Ctrl+Alt+x C-A-x
Ctrl+Alt+Shift+y C-A-S-y
Shift+s S-s
Important
Any custom key bindings should go between <keyboard> and </keyboard> tags in rc.xml.

To open a xterm window with Super+t, add the following to the rc.xml:

FILE ~/.config/openbox/rc.xmlXTerm key bind example
<keybind key="W-t">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>xterm</command>
  </action>
</keybind>

Keybinding a menu is also possible. For example, bind Openbox's right click and middle click menus with the following statement:

FILE ~/.config/openbox/rc.xmlRoot-Menu key bind example
<keybind key="W-x">
  <action name="ShowMenu">
    <menu>root-menu</menu>
  </action>
</keybind>

<keybind key="W-z">
  <action name="ShowMenu">
    <menu>client-list-combined-menu</menu>
  </action>
</keybind>

In the above example, the right click menu is bound to a Super+x key press combination, and the middle click menu is bound to Super+z key press combo. It is useful to key bind applications especially when a user prefers to not use a panel program with Openbox.

Tips

Icons in the Openbox menu

Since version 3.5.0, Openbox is able to have icons next to menu entries.

  1. To emerge Openbox with imlib support add imlib USE flag to x11-wm/openbox in /etc/portage/package.use
    root #echo "x11-wm/openbox imlib" >> /etc/portage/package.use
  2. Re-emerge Openbox so that support for the imlib USE flag is considered:
    root #emerge --ask --changed-use x11-wm/openbox
  3. Add a <showIcons>yes</showIcons> line to the <menu> section of the rc.xml file.
  4. Add in menu.xml icon="<path>" like this:
    FILE ~/.config/openbox/menu.xmlManually add icons to Openbox example
    &lt;menu label="Shells" icon="/usr/share/icons/shell.png"&gt;
    &lt;item label="xterm" icon="/usr/share/icons/xterm.png"&gt;
    	&lt;action name="Execute"&gt;
    		&lt;execute&gt;xterm&lt;/execute&gt;
    	&lt;/action&gt;
    &lt;/item&gt;
    

See also

  • Tint2 — a lightweight panel/taskbar specifically made for Openbox, but it can also work with other window managers.
  • Openbox/Guide — covers the basics on installing and configuring the OpenBox window manager.
  • LXDE - An extremely lightweight desktop environment based on Openbox.

External resources