Fluxbox, Blackbox and Openbox on Vector 5.8

[Colonel Panic]

Has anyone managed to compile and build these on the latest Vector? I've had a go at all of them but I haven't had much success. None of them work as yet.

It's no big deal for me because I've got both icewm and fvwm (which is probably my favourite) to work, but all the same I'd like to know what's going wrong.

Thanks in advance,

Colonel Panic.

[lagagnon]

You don't need to compile fluxbox - there is a fluxbox package for VL5.8 alredy in the repository. Install it, create a $HOME/.fluxbox directory and then reboot X and there should be a dropdown (left side) of the KDM login manager screen where fluxbox will appear as an option.

I don't recommend blackbox as it has not been developed for about 3 years now. fluxbox as you many know, is a fork of blackbox and does the same and more for little cost in extra resources.

I compiled openbox quite easily on my 5.8 machine, works fine. I did not make a package however, so I can't send you one or I would.

[Freeman]

Lagagnon, if we know there is an error in the Fluxbox package (creating the home dir) don't we need to repackage it? So other users won't have this inconvenience when installing Fluxbox from the repo?
If we know where the problem is, why not fix it? Just a thought..

[lagagnon]

Freeman: true enough, but please remember this is a volunteer effort and folks here do that work out of the goodness of their hearts and need to find time amongst all the other things in their lives!  . Also, Fluxbox is not an essential component of the VL distribution or it would have been done by now.

[Freeman]

You're right. Such things may not be expected by volunteers. My apologizes...

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for the replies above. Anyway I've got openbox working now and I'm posting from it, so that's a good outcome.

[Colonel Panic]

You don't need to compile fluxbox - there is a fluxbox package for VL5.8 alredy in the repository. Install it, create a $HOME/.fluxbox directory and then reboot X and there should be a dropdown (left side) of the KDM login manager screen where fluxbox will appear as an option.

I don't recommend blackbox as it has not been developed for about 3 years now. fluxbox as you many know, is a fork of blackbox and does the same and more for little cost in extra resources.

I compiled openbox quite easily on my 5.8 machine, works fine. I did not make a package however, so I can't send you one or I would.

Thanks for the advice, which I've taken and I'm now running and posting from fluxbox. It's a very good window manager IMO, with tabbed windows for ease of dragging around the desktop.

[Colonel Panic]

I should have added that as with fluxbox you need to make a directory (.openbox) underneath your $HOME directory.

[Triarius Fidelis]

You're right. Such things may not be expected by volunteers. My apologizes...

What is the error in question, exactly?

[Colonel Panic]

I think the problem was that it didn't have a subdirectory to which it should put its config files, so it crashed. You need to put one there beneath the $HOME directory in order for it to work.

Apologies if I'm wrong about this.

[Freeman]

This is the part that isn't included in the package, according to lagagnon:

Code: [Select]

create a $HOME/.fluxbox directory
If the .fluxbox directory will automagically be created in the home dir, everything will work as expected.

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks, you're right.

I couldn't get Blackbox to compile, but there's a cutdown version called hackedbox which will and had a recent version (2007) which is available from this site;

http://scrudgeware.org/projects/Hackedbox

[Triarius Fidelis]

This is the part that isn't included in the package, according to lagagnon:

Code: [Select]

create a $HOME/.fluxbox directory
If the .fluxbox directory will automagically be created in the home dir, everything will work as expected.

Then we have a few choices for how to handle that. The easiest one, IMO, is adding a .fluxbox directory to /etc/skel.

[Colonel Panic]

Why not have .fluxbox under /root? I'm not arguing, just ignorant frankly.

[uelsk8s]

This is the part that isn't included in the package, according to lagagnon:

Code: [Select]

create a $HOME/.fluxbox directory
If the .fluxbox directory will automagically be created in the home dir, everything will work as expected.

Then we have a few choices for how to handle that. The easiest one, IMO, is adding a .fluxbox directory to /etc/skel.

this will work for users created after the package is installed and it should be added to the package, but it doesnt take care of existing users.