Opebox is the shizznit! (Page 1 of 2)

When I first built my Arch with a plain Openbox desktop . . . that's what I would get when I first opened the OS.

Just a plain medium gray screen with a 'right-click' menu . . . nothing else.  It was really kinda cool

I played with that for a while . . . as I got 'really, really' good at configuring Openbox.

Settings>>Desktop>>Menus, uncheck "Show application icons in menu".

After installing #! this last weekend with Openbox, I decided to install Openbox in Arch the other day.  For a fairly new linux user I must admit as with are_you _root that it was a little intimidating but as someone who wants to "LEARN" linux and not just have an OS that does everything I thought this could be really nice.

My question for you vrkalak is, I realize and have been reading a lot of Openbox sites including the Arch Wiki that there is a lot you can configure.  But for the new user who has this clean grey blank slate with nothing more than a right click menu (I did install and run menumaker) what should be my first course of action.  I also installed FF and when I minimized it....It disappeared. 
I also downloaded from the repos obconf, menumaker, openbox themes, transset-df, pcmanfm, ntfs-3g, amarok, nitrogen, tint2, conky, and wicd.  (do you recommend more?)So I think I have just about everything I need to get started.  I just do not know exactly where I should start first. 

Thanks ahead of time for yours as well as any other's response. 

All the best,

Ian

Would I be correct that creating a panel would be configured in the rc.xml file?  I would like to at least see some sort of icon or something if I minimize lets say Firefox or terminal. 

Thanks anonymous for taking the time to respond.    I also apologize to are_you_root if it appears I may be threadjacking your post.  It just seemed to fit where I am at. 

All the best,

Ian

Thanks Unia,
I downloaded tint2 from the repos.  Once configured, how do I make OB use it as the desk top.  Is tint2 configured then added to the rc.xml?
I have read so many links that cover each of these but nothing that shows the new starting from scratch user how to put them all together.  Maybe they do but my lack of experience may allow me to miss it.

Ian

I believe that works...also openbox has an autostart.sh file (under ~/.config/openbox/)

here's my entries in autostart.sh for tint2....check out the tint2 thread on the forums for more details on configuring it (you might take someone's sample script for example). 

tint2 &
tint2 -c /home/emile/.config/tint2/tint2rctask &

those two lines actually launch two separate panels.  the regular tint2 command will just launch tint2 using your regular tint2rc config file, the other one can be used to launch tint2 using a different config file.

One of the first things I did when using #! was install gnome-do so that even if my menus didn't lead to a program, I could just type the program name...I realize this is unnecessary because you can also hit alt-f3 to do that...but I prefer gnome-do - and now a rethemed launchy that matches my desktop.

Welcome to OB!

@unia - absolutely...it's like swimming with floaties.

I do have what I hope is a simple question.  I am coming along quite well from the plain grey desktop with a right click menu.
I have my menu set up with the programs I have installed.  I am now using tint2 and have it autostarting.  Have a great backround with the use of Nitrogen and even have conky up and running.  (I still got a LONG way to go to get conky where I want it but I know there is a very imformative thread here for that)

Now, I want to be able to take a screenshot.  I created a small script file and made it executable:

#!/bin/bash
DATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d\ %H-%M`
import -window root "$HOME/Desktop/screenshot $DATE.png"

and added a key binding under the keyboard section of my rc.xml

<keybind key="Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>screenshot.sh</command>
</action>
</keybind>

Problem is, this is not going to work on this laptop because I have to select the Fn key to select the Print Screen (prt sc) key.  So what would be the correct keybind sequence?  <keybind key="X X">

I would imagine that there is probably a program I can download that would make this all much easier huh? 

I have googled this and I can't seem to find the right search criteria to get the answer I need. 

Thank you in advance for your help. 

All the best and have a great weekend,

Ian

here's what mine says...

    <keybind key="Print">
      <action name="Execute">
        <execute>scrot '%Y-%m-%d--%s_$wx$h_scrot.png' -e 'mv $f ~/images/ &amp; viewnior ~/images/$f'</execute>
      </action>
    </keybind>

@anonymous I tried it but  Failed to execute Child process "screenshot.sh" no file or directory.  I looked back and made sure there were not spelling errors and what not and everything seems to look ok. 

@bobrossw - I don't have scrot installed

Ian

The file is located in:  /usr/local/bin/screenshot.sh

I then made it executable by typing as root:  chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/screenshot.sh

So at this point I am not sure why it's not working.

when I run it from terminal I get the following:

{root@ichase ichase}# /usr/local/bin/screenshot.sh
/usr/local/screenshot.sh:  line 1:  !#/bin/bash: No such file or directory
/usr/local/screenshot.sh:  line 3: import: command not found