Openbox

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Contents

Introduction

Openbox is a lightweight and highly configurable window manager with extensive standards support. Its features are well-documented at the official website. This article will pertain to running Openbox under Arch Linux.

Installation

Openbox is available from the standard repositories: 

# pacman -S openbox

Once installed, pacman will direct you to copy the default menu.xml and rc.xml configuration files to ~/.config/openbox/, for example:

Note: Do this as a regular user, not as root.
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/openbox/
$ cp /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml
$ cp /etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml

rc.xml is the core configuration file for Openbox. It is used to manage keyboard shortcuts, themes, virtual desktops and other features.

menu.xml controls the Openbox application menu that appears when you click on your desktop. The default items are pretty sparse, but it's very easy to modify the menu structure to suit your needs. See the menu section below for more details, or visit the Openbox website.

Getting Started

Using Openbox

To run Openbox on its own, simply add the following to the bottom of ~/.xinitrc: 

exec openbox-session

Using Openbox with GNOME

GNOME 2.26

Follow the next guide for GNOME 2.24. If it fails try this:

If after installing openbox and trying to log into the 'Gnome/openbox' session but it always fails then you can do the following as one way to achieve running openbox as your window manager every time you log into the 'Gnome' session from your login manager (xdm, gdm, kdm, entrance, slim, etc.)

  1. Log into your Gnome only session (which would still be using metacity as its window manager) if you aren't already.
  2. Install openbox if you have not done so already
  3. Explore your menus to System → Preferences → Startup Applications (possibly named 'Session' for older versions of Gnome)
  4. Open Startup Application, select '+ Add' and enter the text as seen in the box below whilst omitting the text behind the #.
  5. Now hit the 'Add' button for that data entry window and make sure the checkbox beside your new entry is selected.
  6. Thus log out of your gnome session and log back in and you should be running openbox as your window manager.
  7. Enjoy! 
Name:    Openbox Windox Manager          # Can be changed
Command: openbox --replace               # Text should not be removed from this line, but possibly added to it
Comment: Replaces metacity with openbox  # Can be changed

This creates an entry in a startup list which is executed by gnome everytime that particular user's gnome-session is started.

GNOME 2.24

First, create /usr/share/applications/openbox.desktop containing the following: 

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=OpenBox
Exec=openbox
NoDisplay=true
# name of loadable control center module
X-GNOME-WMSettingsModule=openbox
# name we put on the WM spec check window
X-GNOME-WMName=OpenBox

Then, in gconf, set /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager to openbox: 

$ gconftool-2 -s -t string /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager openbox

Finally, choose the GNOME session in the GDM sessions menu.

GNOME 2.22 and previous

  1. If you use GDM, select the "GNOME/Openbox" login option
  2. If you use startx, add exec openbox-gnome-session to ~/.xinitrc
  3. From the shell: 
$ xinit /usr/bin/openbox-gnome-session

Using Openbox with KDE

  1. If you use KDM, select the "KDE/Openbox" login option
  2. If you use startx, add exec openbox-kde-session to ~/.xinitrc
  3. From the shell: 
$ xinit /usr/bin/openbox-kde-session

Using Openbox with Xfce4

Log into a normal Xfce4 session. From your terminal of choice, do: 

$ killall xfwm4 ; openbox & exit

This will kill xfwm4, run Openbox, and close the terminal.

Log out, making sure to check the "Save session for future logins" checkbox. On next login, Xfce4 will use Openbox as its WM. To be able to exit the session using xfce4-session, open your file ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml (if it isn't there, copy it from /etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml).

Look for the entry: 

 <item label="Exit Openbox">
   <action name="Exit">
     <prompt>yes</prompt>
   </action>
 </item>

and change it to: 

 <item label="Exit Openbox">
   <action name="Execute">
     <prompt>yes</prompt>
    <command>xfce4-session-logout</command>
   </action>
 </item>

Otherwise, using the "Exit" entry of the root-menu will cause Openbox to terminate its execution, leaving you without a window manager.

If you have an issue changing between virtual desktops with the mouse wheel skipping over virtual desktops, open your ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml file and move the mouse binds with actions "DesktopPrevious" and "DesktopNext" from the context "Desktop" to the context "Root" (you may need to define the Root context).

If you want to use the Openbox root-menu instead of Xfce's, you may terminate Xfdesktop by running the following command in a terminal: 

$ xfdesktop --quit

However, Xfdesktop manages the wallpaper and desktop icons, requiring you to use other utilities, such as ROX, for these functions.

(When terminating Xfdesktop, the above issue with the virtual desktops is no longer a problem.)

Configuration

Preferences

Currently, there are two options for configuring the core Openbox preferences; manually edit the rc.xml, or use the ObConf tool.

Setting Preferences Manually

To configure Openbox manually, simply edit ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml with your favourite text editor. The config file provides plenty of comments throughout, and full documentation is available at the official website.

Setting Preferences with ObConf

ObConf is GUI-based Openbox configuration tool, which can be used to set most preferences including themes, virtual desktops, window properties and desktop margins.

To install ObConf, run: 

# pacman -S obconf
Note: ObConf cannot be used to configure keyboard shortcuts and some other advanced features. For these modifications, you must edit rc.xml manually (see above).

Menu Management

The default Openbox menu includes a variety of applications to get you started, but you'll probably want to customize this at some point. There are a number of ways to do so:

Manually

Similar to the rc.xml file, you can edit ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml with your favourite text editor. Although many of the settings are self-explanatory, full documentation is available.

MenuMaker

MenuMaker is a powerful tool that creates XML-based menus for a variety of Window Managers, including Openbox. MenuMaker will search your computer for executable programs and create an XML menu based on the results. It can be configured to exclude Legacy X, GNOME, KDE, or Xfce applications if the user desires.

MenuMaker is available in the community repository: 

# pacman -S menumaker

Once installed, you can generate a complete menu by running: 

$ mmaker -v OpenBox3

By default, MenuMaker will not overwrite an existing menu.xml. To do so, run it with the -f (force) argument: 

$ mmaker -vf OpenBox3

To see a full list of options, run mmaker --help.

This will give you a pretty thorough menu. Now you can modify the menu.xml by hand, or simply regenerate the list whenever you install new software.

Obmenu

Obmenu is a GUI-based menu editor for Openbox. For those who don't enjoy editing XML source code, this is probably the best option for you.

It is available in the community repository: 

# pacman -S obmenu

Once installed, simply run obmenu and add or remove the desired applications.

obm-xdg

obm-xdg is a command-line tool that comes with Obmenu. It can generate a categorized sub-menu of installed GTK/GNOME applications.

To use obm-xdg, add the following line to ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml: 

<menu execute="obm-xdg" id="xdg-menu" label="xdg"/>

Then run openbox --reconfigure to refresh the Openbox menu. You should now see a sub-menu labeled xdg in your menu.

Note: If you do not have GNOME installed, then you need to install gnome-menus package for obm-xdg to work.

Startup Programs

Openbox features support for running programs at startup. This is provided by the "openbox-session" command.

There are two ways to enable autostart:

  1. If you use startx/xinit to log into your X session, edit ~/.xinitrc and change the line that executes openbox to execute openbox-session instead.
  2. If you log in with GDM/KDM, then select the Openbox session and it will automatically use autostart.

Startup programs are managed in ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh. Full instructions and best practices for how to do this are available at the Openbox website.

Per-application settings

Openbox features per-application settings, allowing you to define rules for your programs. For example, you can:

  • load your web browser on a certain desktop
  • load your terminal without a window border
  • load your torrent client at a certain position on your screen

These are defined in ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml. As you might expect, the instructions are well-documented within the file itself. Full details can also be found here: http://icculus.org/openbox/index.php/Help:Applications

Theming and Appearance

With the exception of the Openbox Themes topic, the following section is intended for users who have configured Openbox to run as a standalone desktop, without the assistance of GNOME, KDE or Xfce.

Openbox Themes

Openbox themes control the appearance of window borders, including the titlebar and titlebar buttons. They also determine the appearance of the application menu and on-screen display (OSD).

Additional themes are available from the standard repositories: 

# pacman -S openbox-themes

This package is by no means definitive. You can download more themes at websites such as:

Downloaded themes should be extracted to ~/.themes and can be installed or selected with the ObConf tool.

Creating new themes is fairly easy and again well-documented.

For a GUI theme editor, take a look at ObTheme.

Desktop Wallpaper

Openbox itself does not include a way to change the wallpaper. This can be done easily with programs like Feh or Nitrogen. Other options include ImageMagick, hsetroot and xsetbg.

GTK Themes

GTK2/GTK+

GTK+ themes can be managed easily with the lxappearance, gtk-chtheme, or switch2 utilities. To install, run: 

# pacman -S lxappearance

and/or 

# pacman -S gtk-chtheme

and/or 

# pacman -S gtk-theme-switch2

Now you can simply run lxappearance, gtk-chtheme or switch2 to set the desired theme.

GTK1

For legacy GTK1 themes, install the gtk-theme-switch package: 

# pacman -S gtk-theme-switch

Then run switch to select a desired theme.

GTK Fonts

Manually edit the config file

If you want to change the type and size of your fonts, add the following to ~/.gtkrc.mine: 

style "user-font"
{
font_name = "[font-name] [size]"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"
gtk-font-name = "[font-name] [size]"

where [font-name] [size] is the desired font and point size. For example: 

style "user-font"
{
font_name = "DejaVu Sans 8"
}
widget_class "*" style "user-font"
gtk-font-name = "DejaVu Sans 8"

Both font_name and gtk-font-name fields are required for backwards compatibility.

Use GUI tools

You can use gtk-chtheme or lxappearance to set GTK font settings. Please refer to the above section.

GTK Icons

First, extract the desired icon theme to /usr/share/icons (system-wide access) or ~/.icons (local user access), then:

Manually edit the config file

Add the following to ~/.gtkrc.mine: 

gtk-icon-theme-name = "[name-of-icon-theme]"

where [name-of-icon-theme] is the name of the icon theme directory. For example: 

gtk-icon-theme-name = "Tango"

Ensure ~/.gtkrc-2.0 is configured to parse ~/.gtkrc.mine: 

# ~/.gtkrc-2.0
# -- THEME AUTO-WRITTEN DO NOT EDIT
include "/usr/share/themes/Rezlooks-Gilouche/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"
include "/home/username/.gtkrc.mine"
# -- THEME AUTO-WRITTEN DO NOT EDIT
Use GUI tools

You can use lxappearance to choose GTK icon themes. Please refer to the above section.

Mouse cursor themes

Extract the desired Xcursor theme to either /usr/share/icons (system-wide access) or ~/.icons (local user access).

Add this to ~/.Xdefaults: 

Xcursor.theme:   [name-of-cursor-theme]

where [name-of-cursor-theme] is the name of the cursor theme directory. For example: 

Xcursor.theme:	Vanilla-DMZ-AA

To change the size: 

Xcursor.size: [size]

Desktop Icons

Openbox does not provide a means to display icons on the desktop. PcmanFM, ROX, iDesk, or even Nautilus (and the gnome-settings-daemon) can provide this function.

ROX and PCmanFM have the additional advantage of being lightweight file managers.

Tips & Tricks

Improve Fonts

Improve the appearance of fonts for LCD monitors by following this guide.

Then, create ~/.fonts.conf and add: 

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
       <match target="font" >
              <edit mode="assign" name="rgba" >
                     <const>rgb</const>
              </edit>
       </match>
       <match target="font" >
              <edit mode="assign" name="hinting">
                     <bool>true</bool>
              </edit>
       </match>
       <match target="font" >
               <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
               <const>hintfull</const>
               </edit>
       </match> 	
</fontconfig>

Recommended Programs

There is list of Lightweight Software at Arch's wiki, most of them nicely fits with Openbox.

Login Managers

SLiM provides a lightweight and elegant graphical login solution for standalone Openbox configurations. Refer to Arch's SLiM wiki for detailed instructions.

Qingy is ultralight and very configurable graphical login. It support login to both console and X Windows sessions. It uses DirectFB, therefore it does not start X Windows unless you choose X Windows session. See article about Qingy at Arch's wiki.

Composite Desktop

Xcompmgr is a lightweight composite manager capable of rendering drop shadows, fading and simple window transparency within Openbox and other window managers.

Application Launchers

dmenu

Set-up dmenu as described in the dmenu wiki article. Then, add the following entry to the <keyboard> section ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml to enable a shortcut to launch dmenu: 

   <keybind key="W-space">
     <action name="Execute">
       <execute>dmenu_run</execute>
     </action>
   </keybind>
Gmrun

gmrun provides an excellent Run dialog box, similar to the Alt+F2 features found in Gnome and KDE: 

# pacman -S gmrun

Add the following entry to the <keyboard> section ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml to enable Alt+F2 functionality: 

<keybind key="A-F2">
<action name="execute"><execute>gmrun</execute></action>
</keybind>
Bashrun

bashrun provides a different, barebones approach to a run dialog, using a specialized bash session within a small xterm window. It is available in the community repository and can be launched through the Alt+F2 style approach mentioned previously. To make bashrun act more like a traditional run dialog, add the following entry to the <applications> section ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml: 

   <application name="bashrun">
     <desktop>all</desktop>
     <decor>no</decor>  # switch to yes if you prefer a bordered window
     <focus>yes</focus>
     <skip_pager>yes</skip_pager>
     <layer>above</layer>
   </application>
Launchy

Launchy is a less minimalistic approach; it is skinnable and offers more functionality such as a calculator, checking the weather, etc. Originally for Windows, similar to Gnome Do. 

# pacman -S launchy

It is launched by Ctrl+Space key combination.

LXPanel

LXPanel If LXPanel is used as a taskbar manager, the run utility from the LXPanel menu can be executed with "lxpanelctl run".

File managers

There are many possibilities, but the most popular lightweight file managers are:

  • Thunar. Thunar supports auto-mount features and other plugins. 
# pacman -S thunar

Thunar may be started in daemon mode for tighter desktop integration. For instance, inserting a USB pendrive will invoke a Thunar window to popup, with the drive contents listed in the window.

To start Thunar in daemon mode, edit ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh and add: 

thunar --daemon &
  • ROX (ROX provides desktop icons) 
# pacman -S rox
  • PCMan (pcmanfm also provides desktop icons) 
# pacman -S pcmanfm

For even lighter options, consider Gentoo or emelFM, both of which use the familiar 'Midnight Commander' two pane layout (these two require Gtk 1.2.x).

Of course, you can also use GNOME's Nautilus. Although slower than the above solutions, it has the additional advantage of VFS support (e.g. remote SSH, FTP and Samba connections).

Clipboard Managers and copy/paste

You may wish to install a clipboard manager for feature rich copy/paste ability. xfce4-clipman-plugin, parcellite, or glipper-old may be installed via pacman. Add your choice to autostart.sh. From the terminal, Ctrl+Insert as copy and Shift+Insert as paste generally works as well. You may also copy from terminal with Ctrl+Shift+C, and paste with mouse middle click.

Panels, Trays, and Pagers

There are quite a lot of utilities available that provide a panel (taskbar), system tray, and pager to Openbox. The most common are:

Panels

Trays

Pagers

Make your choice and add it to your startup file.

Pipe-menus

Pipe-menus are small scripts that can return menu-items to create a dynamic feel of the Openbox menu.

RSS-Reader

Get xprop values for per-app settings quickly

If you use per-application settings frequently, you might find this bash alias handy: 

alias xp='xprop | grep "WM_WINDOW_ROLE\|WM_CLASS" && echo "WM_CLASS(STRING) = \"NAME\", \"CLASS\""'

To use, run xp and click on the running program that you'd like to define with per-app settings. The result will display only the info that Openbox requires, namely the WM_WINDOW_ROLE and WM_CLASS (name and class) values: 

[thayer@dublin:~] $ xp
WM_WINDOW_ROLE(STRING) = "roster"
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "gajim.py", "Gajim.py"
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "NAME", "CLASS"

Firefox/Gran Paradiso application rules

For whatever reason, Firefox and its open source equivalents will ignore application rules (e.g. <desktop>) unless class="Firefox*" is used, regardless of what xprop reports as the actual WM_CLASS values.

Linking the menu to a command

Some people would want to link the Openbox main menu, or any other, to a command. This is useful for creating a menu button in a panel, for example. Although Openbox doesn't support this, a very simple script, xdotool, can simulate a keypress by running a command. Xdotool is available on AUR. To use it, simply add the following code to the <keyboard> section of your rc.xml: 

    <keybind key="A-C-q">
      <action name="ShowMenu">
        <menu>root-menu</menu>
      </action>
    </keybind>

Restart/reconfigure Openbox. You can now magically summon your menu at your cursor position by running the following command: 

# xdotool key ctrl+alt+q

Of course, you can change the shortcut to your liking.

Urxvt in the background

With Openbox, running a terminal as desktop background is easy. You won't need devilspie here.

First you must enable transparency, open your .Xdefaults file (if it doesn't exist yet, create it in your home folder). 

URxvt*transparent:true
URxvt*scrollBar:false
URxvt*geometry:124x24    #I don't use the whole screen, if you want a full screen term don't bother with this and see below.
URxvt*borderLess:true
URxvt*foreground:Black   #Font color. My wallpaper is White, you may wish to change this to White.

Then edit your .config/openbox/rc.xml file: 

<application name="urxvt">
  <decor>no</decor>
  <focus>yes</focus>
  <position>
    <x>center</x>
    <y>20</y>
  </position>
  <layer>below</layer>
  <desktop>all</desktop>
  <maximized>true</maximized> #Only if you want a full size terminal.
</application>

The magic comes from the <layer>below</layer> line, which place the application under all others. Here Urxvt is displayed on all desktops, change it to your convenience.

Additional Resources

Retrieved from "http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Openbox"
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