hey guys,
I have recently started using openbox and i love it...the amount of customization options available amaze me...nothing like KDE ever provided.
i had a question though.In openbox...i do not have any icons on the desktop...like i do not see any icons for my home directory....dont get me wrong..i love using the command line to do most of my work but sometimes i do need to see some graphical represesntations of what is going on.For example if i download a pdf file...i do not know how to open it since i dont remember the executable KDE uses to display pdf files(i do have acroread but i dont like using it as much).
i would really appreciate if someone could help me with this.
thanks

Try running openbox or fluxbox with rox . You can use rox pinboard to show wallpaper and icons on desktop. It has a bunch of other usefull stuff too. Read into it and give it a try.

well ROX seems to be pretty much a totally new Desktop Manager...i am not strictly against changing to it but i have openbox configured to my likings...i have all the keyboard shortcuts set...etc.I would just like to build on that rather than start on a totally new desktop manager.
thanks for the link though.Rox does seem to be pretty cool.

well i know nothing of openbox, but since you mentioned flux in yoru title then you can take an interest in FbDesk

as of your pdfs ... you can try typing ..
xpdf filename.pdf
thats just under the assumption you have xpdf installed

Well, maybe need to read a bit more. Just run rox --pinboard=MyPinboard & and all it does is lets you add wallpaper and icons. Make sure to set it to let the window manager handle desktop clicks(for *box menu) you can run rox-session for a full fledged desktop environment but not mandatory.

I have tried fluxconf and all that lets me do is change my wallpaper and set keys..which i am more than happy doing by hand.
FbDesk seems like a good altrenative but again it will only help me if i already have icons on the desktop...not if i dont have icons and i am trying to get them on here.
seems like i dont have pdf installed...the program i was referring to is KGhostView.
if only remembering everything were easy.

i did put rox into my source.list file according to the directions on Rox's site ...however when i search for rox...it only gives me an option to install rox-session.do i need to install rox-session on rox-flier?
thanks a lot for your help.

well i never personally used this utility before cause i have no use for icons, but where do you see that you have to have existing icons on your desktop ? and if you think about it, if they aren't there by default where are you getting them from ? thats the whole point of the program ....

cause from what i can see, is that you edit the config and tell it where you want the icon, and what you want it to launch ...

well, I compiled it from source so I don't know what your situation is with apt. But all you need to run the pinboard and/or panal is rox-filer(which is a nice file manager btw) There is also idesk but I have never tried it so I can't really recommend it.

that was a quich response...thanks DrOzz.I am going to try this out now.thanks for letting me know.

I guess i agree with DrOzz that i dont really need icons...i can manage from a command line tool.
I use Esetroot to set my wallpaper...i have it in my .xinitrc.
another question.I see all those cool eterms and aterm open in the screenshots for openbox and fluxbox...could someone point me to configuring eterm in such a way.
you can check what i currently have from my screenshot here:
http://manocha.ath.cx/~rmanocha/screenshot.jpg
thanks a ton you guys.

do you mean what we talked about here ?
this thread is regarding aterm ...

Try here