How about an openbox version? :D

[mexicore]

I must say, I really am enjoying Salix! The development team has done a great job with this distro, and I hope to see it continue to be successful! I was wondering if there are any plans to release other editions of Salix. You have already given people the choice between xfce and lxde, so how about something even more lightweight (for both 32bit and 64bit) like Openbox? I know that people can install Openbox themselves, but it does take a bit of configuration, so how about just releasing a full-fledged Openbox version for the noobs?

[thenktor]

Hi,
I don't think this is really necessary. Openbox is just a window manager and not a DE, but most users want a panel, a desktop background, a file manager, a menu, ...
If you want to have an Openbox version just use the LXDE version. So you already have Openbox+PCManFM. You can exchange lxpanel with tint2 if you want to. All you need to do is putting 2 or 3 config files to Openbox. I can post mine if you like. I'm using Openbox + Tint2 + PCManFM + gmrun.

[zAchAry]

I can post mine if you like.

Please, share these with us

[thenktor]

I'm using Openbox with Tint2 as panel, PCmanFM as file manager and gmrun as "alt+f2" run app.
My tint2rc is here: http://salix.pastebin.com/4T6h6K35
My Openbox autostart.sh: http://salix.pastebin.com/Ht16chpQ
And for my dynamic Openbox menu: http://salix.pastebin.com/Qn5qFJ2A (http://mimasgpc.free.fr/openbox-menu-en.html)

[mexicore]

Awesome thenktor! Thank you very much!

[thenktor]

And of course I've configured my Openbox to open specific apps at predefined desktops and positions. Example:
Firefox, Pidgin, Claws-Mail will always appear on desktop 1. The Pidgin chat window will always appear at the same position besides Firefox.
Music players always start on desktop 4.
...

As everyone has other needs I did not post this config, but IIRC it is well documented at the Openbox wiki.

PS: I'm using lxappearance for my gtk theme settings, lxmenu-data&menu-cache for my dynamic Openbox menu, which are both part of our LXDE edition. Furthermore some folks may want to have lxtask as task manager and lxterminal as terminal app. As you see: there is really not much that can be removed from LXDE edition to have a clean Openbox edition. And if you really want to, you can always do a removepkg /var/log/packages/lx* and all LX apps are doomed

[zAchAry]

@thenktor
What exactly does xset do?


I was wondering for sometime "How the rate of memory leaking of Firefox is not as severe with Openbox as it is with Fluxbox, especially when Firefox is an inactive window?". This leak is nasty, RAM of 600MB - 700MB and the overhaul load of SWAP is up to 800MB to 900MB.

Yesterday, I have asked my self this question and I planned on asking someone about it in the Openbox community, but then I recalled that I have added a few lines (commands) from the Openbox autostart.sh script of thenktor, which are unusual to me.

These are the commands:

Code: Select all

# the rest
sleep 2
xset s off
xset s noblank
xset -dpms


I have added these lines to my statup script of Fluxbox ~/.fluxbox/startup and I switched to Fluxbox.

The result: Firefox was running, at night for 8 hours, under a screensaver and as an inactive window a few hours later and Firefox took between 330MB to 420MB of RAM and the SWAP is currently at 135MB.

[thenktor]

@thenktor
What exactly does xset do?

xset -dpms: deactivates monitor power saving functions (automatic standby)
xset s off: turns screensaver off
xset s noblank: cannot really remember why this one is there, probably useless

See man xset for more information.
These are just my personal preference. On my desktop I don't like my monitor to get off or show a screensaver. On my notebook I'm using a "power deamon" anyway.