Openbox

USE flags

Emerge

Emerge Openbox:

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:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># ...other .bashrc content...
export XSESSION=openbox</syntaxhighlight>

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.

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># 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 &</syntaxhighlight>

environment

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

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">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"</syntaxhighlight>

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.

rc.xml

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

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

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

<keybind key="W-t">
  <action name="Execute">
    <command>xterm</command>
  </action>
</keybind>

<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>

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

   <menu label="Shells" icon="/usr/share/icons/shell.png">
   <item label="xterm" icon="/usr/share/icons/xterm.png">
   	<action name="Execute">
   		<execute>xterm</execute>
   	</action>
   </item>