Openbox/Fbpanel, How to set it all up.
Posted: Thu 26 May 2011, 15:08
Important.. see KNOWN ISSUES here: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 409#533409
Ok, this is what we are aiming for:
Notice transparency of bar backgrounds, window buttons moved to (The correct ) left side of the windows, elegant theme, and bug free positioning of taskbar at the top of the screen.
There are some very real reasons to try Openbox/fbpanel. The themeing is gorgeous, it is possible to specify dialogue type windows open mid screen, it is possible to specify screen margins to prevent maximised windows covering launchbars, and a host of other small tweaks, all from a GUI. Fbpanel can be used not only to create a configured taskbar, but also launchbars (as on the left of my screen Unity style), or even much like Wbar, with rounded corners, and transparent backgrounds.. The launch icons have a nice animation when clicked too. The menu also has a millisecond or two delay built in, which makes them hugely easier to navigate than JWM.
AND, Firefox 4/5, Seamonkey 2.1/Opera DON'T exhibit the F11 bug.
The launchbars are just text files like in JWM, so cost next to nothing in resources.
Here is an fbpanel configured to look like Wbar. Please bear in mind this is just an fbpanel, a tiny text file:
Installing
This tutorial will cover Spup and Lucid. Other derivatives should also be fine, there is nothing exotic here.
If you are using Lucid, you are in luck as everything you need is installed.
For Spup you will need to install Openbox via the package manager, Obconf, which is the configuration GUI for Openbox, fbpanel, and Pupclockset. They are below.
After installation, you will have three menu entries, all under the Desktop heading: Fbpanel Configuration, Fbpanel refresh, and Open Box Window Manager Config.
Openbox configuration is simple and straightforward from the GUI. Fbpanel is also until you want to do more exotic configuring. The configuration documents for fbpanel are here http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/docs.html, but they are a bit confusing so I will try to make it simple here. It is no more difficult than JWM once you know how it works, may even be a little simpler.
Ok, this is what we are aiming for:
Notice transparency of bar backgrounds, window buttons moved to (The correct ) left side of the windows, elegant theme, and bug free positioning of taskbar at the top of the screen.
There are some very real reasons to try Openbox/fbpanel. The themeing is gorgeous, it is possible to specify dialogue type windows open mid screen, it is possible to specify screen margins to prevent maximised windows covering launchbars, and a host of other small tweaks, all from a GUI. Fbpanel can be used not only to create a configured taskbar, but also launchbars (as on the left of my screen Unity style), or even much like Wbar, with rounded corners, and transparent backgrounds.. The launch icons have a nice animation when clicked too. The menu also has a millisecond or two delay built in, which makes them hugely easier to navigate than JWM.
AND, Firefox 4/5, Seamonkey 2.1/Opera DON'T exhibit the F11 bug.
The launchbars are just text files like in JWM, so cost next to nothing in resources.
Here is an fbpanel configured to look like Wbar. Please bear in mind this is just an fbpanel, a tiny text file:
Installing
This tutorial will cover Spup and Lucid. Other derivatives should also be fine, there is nothing exotic here.
If you are using Lucid, you are in luck as everything you need is installed.
For Spup you will need to install Openbox via the package manager, Obconf, which is the configuration GUI for Openbox, fbpanel, and Pupclockset. They are below.
After installation, you will have three menu entries, all under the Desktop heading: Fbpanel Configuration, Fbpanel refresh, and Open Box Window Manager Config.
Openbox configuration is simple and straightforward from the GUI. Fbpanel is also until you want to do more exotic configuring. The configuration documents for fbpanel are here http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/docs.html, but they are a bit confusing so I will try to make it simple here. It is no more difficult than JWM once you know how it works, may even be a little simpler.