Giving FluxBox a try
Since I learned that Gnome 2 development was being discontinued, I have being trying different potential replacements. KDE4 is nice, but heavy. Gnome 3 (also called Gnome Shell) and Unity are also heavy and, besides, the concept does not really fit well into my way of working. Xfce4 was the obvious choice and it is a quite good one actually. Lighter and more minimalistic than Gnome 2, even if not so full-featured. Even lighter it is LXDE, but I did not liked it completely for it still requires quite a lot of manual configuration for a consistent Desktop Environment (DE). Then, it came Enlightenment (e17) which is aesthetically gorgeous and yet very light on your resources. Just a bit too complicated for my likings.
I therefore decided to do without a DE and to try just one of the several light-weight Window Managers (WM) that one can find out there. First I went for OpenBox, which is extremely lightweight. It also requires a large deal of manual configuration and, even if at the end of the day I was able to achieve the result I wanted, I am still a bit confused by the different configuration files. To the point that I doubt I would be able to reproduce the same configuration steps again.
Today I have tried FluxBox and I must confess that I am quite impressed by this WM. It feels even lighter than OpenBox and, even if it also requires a respectable amount of manual configuration, I found the structure of the configuration files to be somehow simpler. In fact, in about two hours I was able to go from starting to download the Debian network installation image to having a fully working and quite pleasant FluxBox-centered desktop. This is it:
As I said, I started by downloading a 64-bit network installation image of Debian Squeeze (Stable) from here. I performed a pretty standard installation, however, when it came to the point where you have to select the software categories to be downloaded and installed, I unchecked all the boxes which left me with a bare minimum installation. Then I installed only xorg and FluxBox and modified a couple of configuration files, just enough to start an X-server session. Without having any previous experience with or knowledge about FluxBox, it did not took me a long time to figure out that I needed a specific application in order to add icons to my desktop. This time I chose iDesk, which I found to be quite elegant. It requires manipulating a couple of text files. I read somewhere that there is a configuration GUI, but today I was feeling like doing everything the hard way and, besides, I did not want to use any application which was not present in the official Debian repositories.
Next, I found the taskbar or panel to be a bit limited. I wanted to have a system menu on it, and the FluxBlox panel requires an external application to handle menus, and so I decided to replace it with the fbpanel. Another option could have been Tint2, but I already knew that one from my OpenBox experiences and was not quite convinced. I found fbpanel to be as lightweight and far more configurable (but, again, it requires understanding and manipulating one configuration text file). I also found it to be more straightforward than any other of the minimalistic non-GUI-configurable panels out there.
I also installed Wicd and a few other lightweight tools (mainly from the Xfce4 goodies category). Finally, I downloaded Firefox and Thunderbird from here and here, respectively (I ignore why the 64-bit Linux versions are kind of hidden). In order to be able to install LibreOffice I had to add the Debian backports repositories. I completed the basic installation by installing the Nvidia proprietary drivers (right from the Debian repositories) and adding some common multimedia programs.
The result is a 64-bit Debian Stable with Backports minimal installation plus xorg and FluxBox (enhanced with iDesk and fbpanel and Xfce applications). It could look a bit more polished, I agree, but I find it to be quite all right for being the result of two hours of work. In fact, I think that, if it does not give me any serious troubles, I will keep it for good.
Hi,
I like the way you made your fluxbox installation and would love to do it myself basing it on Arch Linux . Could you please spare some time and write about all the packages you installed on your custom fluxbox installation plus all the manual configurations you did to make such a beautiful desktop up and running? you could do more if you like, add remastersys-debian , make an image of your installation and upload the iso as a torrent on linuxtracker.org
thanks
regards,
As I said, it is a bare minimal Debian installation. Then I added xorg and FluxBox and xdm. Then I modified the configuration files to start at runlevel 5. Next, I need to make sure that xdm will log the user into FluxBox. In my case, I also needed to add the Nouveau drivers in order to be able to start the X server.
This is more or less explained here (just up to the XDM section, in Arch you can try LightDM instead):
http://wiki.debian.org/FluxBox
I also copied the default FluxBox menu to the user folder as explained here (just the 2 cp commands concerning the menus):
http://www.go2linux.org/installing-a-light-linux-operating-system-debian-fluxbox
That should result in a default FluxBox installation.
Next I added the murrine Gtk+ engine, wicd, the Thunar file manager, and other Xfce stuff, which in Debian is included in the metapackage xfce4-goodies:
http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/xfce4-goodies
You may also want some icon theme (Oxygen, in my case) and whatever other tools you normally use, such as for instance:
http://wiki.xfce.org/recommendedapps
This is optional. To start with, I have installed very few things. I will install more as required.
Next, for the window decoration, you need to configure your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file to indicate the Gtk+ theme and the icon theme. As I said, my Gtk+ theme is one of the murrine ones (I do not remember which one and I do not have my laptop here to check right now, it may be “murrine-chrome”). For the icons, I used “oxygen”. If you run gtk applications as root, you may want to copy that file also to your root directory.
For an example, check for instance:
http://wiki.debian.org/FluxBox#Changing_GTK_themes
I also needed to install the default Gnome icon set, for Oxygen does not provide everything that the fbpanel expects to find.
Next, I installed iDesk in order to be able to add icons to the desktop. The general configuration file is ~/.ideskrc, an you can find a sample and instructions here:
http://idesk.sourceforge.net/html/usage.html
Next you need to create a ~/.idesktop directory containing NAME.lnk files (one per icon). They look like this:
table Icon
Caption: Gedit
ToolTip.Caption: Text Editor
Command: /usr/bin/gedit
Icon: /usr/share/icons/oxygen/48×48/apps/accessories-text-editor.png
Width: 48
Height: 48
X: 20
Y: 30
end
I think that is pretty much self explanatory.
Instead of iDesk, you could use fbdesk (I have not tried it).
Next, I installed fbpanel. It is configured as explained here:
http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/docs.html#config
I found this to be quite straightforward, but it was the most time-consuming step. The only thing you must keep in mind that is that if you want a specific icon you should use the “image” category to set the path. The “icon” category only works for system default icons.
Finally, you may want to make sure that idesk and fbpanel are loaded when FluxBox starts:
http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php?title=Editing_the_startup_file
I also added to the start-up section wicd and xfce4-power-manager (the default fbpanel battery applet did not work for me).
In order to get rid of the default panel, you have to modify ~/.fluxbox/init as explained here:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=40637
This means changing “session.screen0.toolbar.visible” from “true” to “false” and removing “systemtray” from the list following “session.screen0.toolbar.tools”.
In order to set the wallpaper, there are several options:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fluxbox#Background_.28Wallpaper.29