Questions to fluxbox users

revoohc · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 12 Oct 2002 Posts: 128

I have a couple of questions for you fluxbox users.

1. What login manager do you use (i.e. xdm, gdm, kdm, etc)?

2. What options do you include in your USE variable?

3. Any really great or can't live without fluxbox addins that should be added to a fluxbox system?

Thanks for any replies as I am betting ready to rebuild my gentoo box focused as a fluxbox workstation.

Chris

RagManX · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 5:47 pm Post subject:

Personally, I like to log in from a command prompt and use startx to get into my windowing environment. My USE options are whatever gentoo defaults. I don't manually modify them. And I don't use add-ins, I just customize my menu to have the apps that I use easily available and move the control bar to the top right corner of the screen.

RagManX
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Ellidi · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 5:56 pm Post subject: Re: Questions to fluxbox users

Arthur Vandelay · n00b Joined: 09 Jan 2003 Posts: 55

1. Don't use a login manager. I still get a kick out of having a full desktop in 1 second after startx. Login manager just gets in my way with bloat.

2. USE="-esd -oss -3dnow -arts -java -motif -spell -cups -gnome -alsa cdr sse"

3. I tried using fluxconf but found it got in my way. Things are so much simpler by just going in and changing the files manually. I can't vouch for any addins.

kres · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 6:17 pm Post subject:

Chris -

Answers!

1) You can use xdm "out of the box" with FluxBox, the addition of KDM or GDM {Yah, they do look nicer} will require a hefty bit of file overhead, seeing as GDM kinda relies on GNOME and KDM kinda relies on KDE. Your other choice is to just login to the console and start fluxbox using the startx command.

If your new to Linux, using startx to "start" fluxbox will requires you to create a file called .xinitrc in your home directory. In this file lives your default window manager. The easiest way to create this file is to type:

ledzep345 · n00b Joined: 06 Mar 2003 Posts: 10

I just use startx -- In my xinitrc are three lines, two commented out. Each line points to the exec script I wrote to start gnome, kde, or fluxbox. Fluxbox is the only one I really use tho.

bbpager is a must -- at least some kind of desktop pager is a must. Rox is a solid lightweight file manager.

bbrun is good too, in fact you should check out the various box's websites to find all the slick tools and apps that go with em. Set bbrun up for f3 and your rockin.

Vim too, is a must -- after all, you have to edit the fluxbox config somehow.

For a terminal, check out aterm. To set your background, use Esetroot (cause it works with transparent aterms).

_SkeLeToN_ · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 9:18 pm Post subject: Re: Questions to fluxbox users

fuji · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 26 Apr 2002 Posts: 111

mr_neutron · Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2003 10:35 pm Post subject: Re: Questions to fluxbox users

Megaptera · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 29 Jul 2002 Posts: 145

I use KDM-- I experiment enough with other desktop managers that it makes up for the extra step in starting up.

My USE looks like: -3dnow alsa cdr dvd -gnome -mikmod mozilla -nls -oss -pdflib samba sse xml.

I have gkrellm, xscreensaver, and fluxter start when Fluxbox loads. Definitely pick up the extra gkrellm plugins (individually or all at once with x11-plugins/gkrellm-plugins) and the additional Fluxbox themes in x11-themes/commonbox-styles-extra. Fluxconf is really handy as well.

Also, if you don't have the remember patch enabled, do that :) On top of remembering window stuff, it lets you make a Startup section in your menu that autoruns any programs you put in there.

d3c3it · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 12:37 am Post subject:

Q1: command login+startx
Q2: USE="X gtk -gnome alsa evo avi -kde sse mmx jpeg png mpeg oggvorbis qt quicktime opengl java truetype svga"

easykill · Apprentice Joined: 07 Dec 2002 Posts: 230

1. I start with startx...I hate booting into X, cause a lot of times I am doing various stupid things to my system that require a lot of rebooting (I do lots of pointless stuff, like I just finished encrypting my root file system, for example), and ?dm takes too long to boot

2. My USE variable is crazy, since I have kde around cause I used KDE for a long time, and I really like some of the KDE apps. I also have EVERYTHING in it, with very few -'s...mainly just -gnome and -arts...not much more that is interesting...I put everything in, i have kerberos in there, a few other things.

3. fluxter, gkrellm2 (very nice), and I have fbrun (similar to bbrun) in my menu, and the top 2 menu items are Transparent Eterm and mozilla. I use those constantly. I also have ksensors --nodock start up on my second monitor, and I sometimes have an eterm over there running top so I can see what is bogging down my CPU sometimes. It's also cool to see when I'm playing q3 or ut2003 in my main monitor, I get to watch the temps/CPU usage go up in the other monitor. It's useful sometimes.

for the heck of it, here's my .xinitrc (I commented it a while ago to post to another thread, so it should be relatively easy to understand)

ggelln · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 2:56 pm Post subject:

easykill thanks for that sweet .xinitrc!
I finally have my extra mouse buttons . . .

why do you have the wait $wmpid line, what is the benefit of doing this over just letting fluxbox be killed?

as to answering the original post:

I use startx, as I often use the plain console.

as everyone has said the remember patch is an essential fluxbox addon, I use it to set up functional workspace: one is my browser space, music space, etc. This coupled with the mouse wheel makes fluxbox such a pleasure to use.

the only thing that I dislike is not being able to completly remove the taskbar (or whatever it is called in flux), I've heard this is possible in openbox -- does anyone know a workaround (I just keep it hidden).

Gabriel

easykill · Apprentice Joined: 07 Dec 2002 Posts: 230

you'll notice the line starting fluxbox ends with wmpid=$! which sets a variable to the process ID, sort of

now, when the .xinitrc ends, your X session is finished, and you're back at the console. If you start all your programs in the background (e.g /usr/bin/fluxbox &), it will exit right out.
wait $wmpid will wait until the fluxbox process is finished, and then exit out of X.

I copied it off of the docs at fluxbox.org

[edit]
oh, if you want to use buttons 4 and 5 on an intellimouse as back/forward in konq/mozilla/etc, you need ONLY the following in your ~/.imwheelrc

nyjal · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 8:27 pm Post subject:

First,

I'd like to say that this is my 1st post...yay. =)

Second,

This post has helped already...being a "noob", I've been trying to set up fluxbox for the past couple days to get it "just right" and this has helped tremendously. Thanks to all!!!

Third,

To answer the original post,
1. No login manager, my machine is too slow, just use .xinitrc
2. I don't remember all the USE variables: -berkdb samba mozilla -nls apache tcltk and some others
3. gkrellm is a great tool, and on a slightly different line....the phoenix web browser...it's small and fast, even on my measly machine.

nyjal
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nyjal · Posted: Wed Mar 26, 2003 8:43 pm Post subject:

Sorry about the triple post....IE at work doesn't much like gentoo I don't think =(

nyjal
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Kosmo · n00b Joined: 24 May 2002 Posts: 74

1) startx

2) Nothing fluxbox specific

3) i have bbrun, grkellm an bbpager running all the time

eryvile · Apprentice Joined: 14 Aug 2002 Posts: 234 Location: europe

1. gdm, I like the look (also impresses others :wink:

) and it loads faster than kdm
2. I made the switch to fluxbox from kde so my use-flags are still a mess that needs to be cleaned up
3. gkrellm2 is running all the time, that's about it...

kachaffeous · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 07 Jun 2002 Posts: 86

1. startx
2. gentoo default
3. fluxbox remember patch (remebers programs to run at startup and their positions). Currently gkrellm2, aterm and phoenix are remembered.

TripKnot · Apprentice Joined: 29 May 2002 Posts: 213

1. GDM since I like to have the system log me in automatically and it has few deps unlike KDM. Well few as in I use a lot of gnome apps like Abiword, Gnumeric, Gnucash and GDM adds few if any extra over that.

2. The USE flags you would find usefull in an all fluxbox environment would be -kde -qt -gnome. -gtk is kinda bad in my opinion, but of course I use lots of gtk apps too.

3. Forget gkrellm, its a PITA. Dockapps only for me. fluxter(started with -w to place it in the slit), wmmon, wmnd, wmxmms, wmix, wmweather, and wmspaceclock

garion911 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 04 Jun 2002 Posts: 88

If you really want the graphical login, without the spartan XDM or bloated KDM/GDM, try looking at WDM... Doesn't rely on GTK or QT, and alot better looking then XDM.. Plus the ability of changing WM's as you wish.. There's an ebuild out there somewhere.. I also had to do some mofiying to my /etc/init.d/xdm file to get it to work ( since it doesn't seem to be 'offically' supported at this point..)..

That said... I used to use KDM... Once I switched to WDM, it seems that Fluxbox takes longer to load.. It could be because instead of relying on the remember patch being in flux, I use .xsession to load my stuff, so everything is loading all at once, instead of after flux loads..

--garion

abracadaver · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Feb 2003 Posts: 125

wow .xinitrc is slick! before i used xdm and openbox but after seeing the overwhelming number of people who don't use a login manager at all i decided to give the command login a go and I'm very impressed at how fast openbox loads, literally at the blink of an eye im good to go (i even added a sweet little start up sound

)
my USE vars are pretty much the default

does anybody know if the remember patch work for openbox? i run Gkrellm2, Bubblefishymon and a little dock app called Temperature.app at start up (i know gkrellm has a temperature plug in which i use also, but .app has the temp in a pretty big font so it's easier when i want the temp at a quick glance)

Axiom · Posted: Fri Mar 28, 2003 9:47 pm Post subject:

1. At the moment I just type "startx" at the console, because for some reason GDM and KDM start incredibly slowly on my machine (Athlon 1700+ with 512 MB RAM) - much slower than GNOME and KDE themselves!

2. I must admit that my USE-Flags contain "kde", "gnome", "qt" and "gtk2". Although my favourite window manager is Fluxbox, I can't live without Konqueror, KMail and GTetrinet. :oops:

3. KDE ...

Chickpea · l33t Joined: 03 Jun 2002 Posts: 846 Location: Vancouver WA

I am a startx kinda girl. I like the login managers but with me being the only one using the linux portion of the box because my husband pretty much refuses to use it, I dont need the fancy stuff. Plus I have framebuffer working so I have a nice picture to look at.

Nothing in my use flags. I make sure that I disable kde gnome in my use so that I can have a small system. That being said, I have installed kde and gnome anyway because there are a few progs that I like namely kmail and konqueror. Still looking for that perfect file manager. I wish I could find gnome midnight commander....

Xdm can be customized to look really beautiful but typing startx is just as easy

C

PlatinumCursor · Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2003 4:26 am Post subject:

I dont use fluxbox at all, but Openbox does intrest me and I might try fluxbox soon, but I want to know aobut some of these things, like whats the fluxter and remember patch? I'm used to having everything perfect (i use enlightenment, good times, good times)
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