Using the Fluxbox Window Manager

Tabs and Windows

This is one of the things I like most about Fluxbox. Every window has a tab to identify it. By dragging these tabs with the center mouse button, you can attach them to other tabs. This is good for people who have a lot of xterms open. I usually have several myself, and this way you can keep track of them a lot more easily.

The Slit

The slit is a place for your docked applications. This means that you can place mini-applications like CD or MP3/Ogg players, system monitors, Biff-type email monitors or other similar programs here. For example, as you can see in the previous screenshots, the famous gkrellm monitor is in my slit, along with a couple of apps designed for the Window Maker window manager. For example, to add gkrellm to the slit, you would type:

gkrellm -w &

Window Maker apps find the slit by themselves. You just need to type the name of these apps, like, for example: wmxmms &. This will place the XMMS media player in the slit. The slit comes in handy for those apps you're always using or looking at. You'll probably want the programs in the slit come up automatically, though. More on this in the configuration section.

Fluxbox's configuration files

Fluxbox keeps its configuration files in the (dot).fluxbox subdirectory in your home directory. The first one you'll probably want to start playing with is the one called 'menu'. What this file is for should be self explanatory by the name. Here's a little sample of what's in it:

[begin] (Fluxbox) [submenu] (Net) [submenu] (Browsers) [exec] (mozilla) {mozilla} [nop] (--------) [exec] (opera) {env QT_XFT=true opera} [exec] (konqueror) {kfmclient openProfile webbrowsing} [nop] (--------) [exec] (w3m) {xterm -e w3m fluxbox.org} [exec] (lynx) {xterm -e lynx fluxbox.org} [nop] (--------) [exec] (Firefox) {$HOME/firefox/firefox} [end] [submenu] (IM) [exec] (ayttm) {ayttm} [exec] (Yahoo) {ymessenger} [exec] (gaim) {gaim} [end] [submenu] (IRC) [exec] (xchat) {xchat} [end] [submenu] (Mail) [exec] (Evolution) {evolution} [end] [end]

The main menu you see when you right click on the desktop is essentially a group of 'submenus' of 'begin'. Then you establish your main section (in this example, one called 'Net') by creating a submenu and then others directly at it, with your section broken into smaller sub-sections. In this case, if have chosen sub-sections of 'browsers', 'IM', 'IRC' and 'Mail'. The menu above produces what you see in the screenshot below:

As for launching applications, as you can see, first you need to put the word 'exec' in brackets like so: [exec]. Following that, you put the name of the application in parenthesis: (Mozilla). This doesn't have to be the exact name of the application. You could use (Mozilla browser) or (Mozilla 1.6) to distinguish it from another version you have installed. Then finally, in curly brackets or braces, you need to put the name of the binary, which in this case does need to be exact, and any parameters or options you want to use. If you've installed a binary anywhere outside the paths that your system knows about, you'll need to specify the path here as well. For example, the following will launch a text-mode cd player in a small x-terminal:

[exec] (cd player) {xterm -fn 6x13 -bg black -fg yellow -e cdp}

Using Themes

As with anything, if you weren't allowed to change the appearance of something to your liking, what a boring world it would be. Imagine buying a house and not being able to decorate it as you wanted. Fluxbox, as I mentioned before, comes with a number of themes where you install it. You can also get more at Freshmeat's Fluxbox theme section. You can also, of course, make your own or modify an existing one. This last option might be a good one if you're just starting out in the Fluxbox world.

If you want to add a new theme to your collection, you have two options. Red Hat puts the default themes in /usr/local/share/fluxbox/styles and Debian uses /usr/share/fluxbox/styles. You can, as root, put new themes there. You can also add new themes to $HOME/.fluxbox/style directory. Some themes you get will come with a cool background image for your desktop. When you untar the theme, these should normally get moved to $HOME/.fluxbox/backgrounds

Key Bindings

It tends to be a trait of all those who like minimalist window managers to also be economical with the mouse (ie. prefer the keyboard). With Fluxbox, you can use the keyboard to your heart's content. You can modify the file $HOME/.fluxbox/keys to add keyboard shortcuts to, for example, start your favorite or most frequently used applications applications. A sample 'keys' file looks like this:

Mod1 Tab :NextWindow Mod1 Shift Tab :PrevWindow Mod1 F1 :Workspace1 Mod1 F2 :Workspace2 Mod1 F3 :Workspace3 Mod1 F4 :Workspace4

The 'Mod1' key is also known as the 'ALT' key on the left side of your keyboard. So, for example, if I wanted to add a keyboard shortcut to open up an xterm, I would add something like this:

Mod1 x :ExecCommand xterm &

Now if you press ALT+X, you will fire up an xterm. Once again, this is great for those frequently used apps that you don't have running all the time. For the changes to take effect, restart Fluxbox.

Changing Other Behavior

The last file we're going to look at is the $HOME/.fluxbox/init file. We briefly mentioned this when we talked about changing our desktop wallpaper. Well, there are a lot more things we can do with this file. By making modifications, we can change certain default settings so they're more to our liking. For example, I like to see the day and date along with the time. To be able to see this, I would make the following change in 'init':

session.screen0.strftimeFormat: %a %b %d - %H:%M

The %a stands for the day name abbreviation (Mon, Tue, Wed). The %b is for the Month abbreviation and the %d is for the day of the month. Then we'll follow those with the Fluxbox default, which is the Hour:Minute.

There are a lot of other things we can change. For example, I thought the tab width was a little small. I changed it:

session.screen0.tab.width: 100

Have a look at the init file and if you see some behavior you'd like to change, then feel free. Restart Fluxbox to see the changes.

Some of this can be changed by right-clicking in certain areas, as is the case with the workspace names. There isn't an absolute need to edit it for every change you make.