I am running an installation of Debian 9. I downloaded the netinst cd so I am installing from a network. I decided to unselect everything except the last option (system utilities). So after the installation I get to a terminal (shell) screen with a login.

The only errors I got during boot, relate to some drivers which I fix by installing firmware-linux and firmware-realtek. I have an Asus A320M-A motherboard. After this, the only persisten errors that I can't fix are ACPI. After weeks of searching, I found out that most people just leave those alone, since there are always compatibility issues with hardware manufacturers and ACPI. As far as I know, it never led to any problems for me, so that completes my minimal installation.

Now on to the next part and some questions. I would like to install the latest video drivers and a desktop environment. Since the drivers are NVIDIA, the install is super easy. I just install build-essential, I check the kernel with "uname -r" and then install the appropriate linux-headers-*. After that, I install nvidia-driver and nvidia-cuda-toolkit. I would like to mention that I install xorg before all that. Then I reboot. Same ACPI errors, but the monitor adjusts to the new default resolution and I launch X with startx.

I get a black screen (since no window manager is installed) and the tol left part of the screen is a shell. I also get a mouse pointer. To exit, I move the mouse to the top left and type exit.

OK, ready to install a Desktop Environment.

My questions will be very beginner or noob, but I am not a beginner, so feel free to respond anyway. I am a Windows user, who is very seriously trying to move to Open Source and Linux. I'm very happy with the direction so far, but I am very far away from being able to say that I can use Linux correctly.

Ok, minimal desktop environment. To make a long story short, I tried almost every desktop environment out there.

Mate, Gnome, Xfce4, KDE, Cinnamon and a few more including a combination of openbox and other components.

I am looking for something that get's as close not so much in looks, but usage as possible to CDE. I know there is a project out there to implement CDE in an open way on Linux, but it requires too advanced a configuration for it to be useful to me (It would be my first choice).

So I want to install OpenBox with some panel and some decent usage. My problem is, that no matter what recommendation I have gone by so far, something gets mixed up with something else. I mean, if I right click the desktop, I might have some compatible manager that creates duplicates of menu entries or something annoying in the setup. Without going into detail about the dozens of things I tried, I would rather ask exactly what I want. I hope my descirption so far gets you an understanding of the somewhat confusion I am going through with the install.

Ok:
1. What packages do I need to install OpenBox as well as a window manager and a panel.
2. How can I ensure, that only the components I need are installed (what components). So I don't have multiple configurations of things that I don' need.
3. If I have a pnale with menus, I want to disable right clicking the desktop and getting a context menu of menu items.
4. How can I ensure that I can easily edit menu items without a dozen utilities. Can I do this with point and click, or do I have no choice but to edit some menu text files.
5. How can I ensure that I get a consistent look. I don't want a desktop that looks 10% mac os 50%windows 30% linux and who knows what else at the same time. (Some of you know what I might mean by that).
6. Are there any good detailed tutorials for something like this out there. I found a few, but most leave you guessing.

and finally, I know, that it's my lack of understanding in all of this, that get's me stuck, but I'm not incompetent. I just require, very detailed explanations on how to do something, or I usually mess it up pretty quickly. If anyone has some good pointers on this please post.

I do have one more question. I know, I did not think of or find everything out there. So If you have some other suggestion of different programs or files, something that get's close to CDE, please let me know about it. I will look into it, and see if it's a better solution.

Thanks in advance...

Have you tried Debian derivatives that specialize in these minimal/window manager installs?

Antix, BunsenLabs (both Debian) and MiyoLinux (based on Devuan/Debian) are very good choices. You can play with them and see what they install, how they did it etc..., then stay with it or take your notes back to Debian and try to recreate the effort. I would suggest VM's first, then hard metal when you are absolutely (or at least sorta) sure that's what you want.

From the pictures of CDE i found, windowmaker (sometimes called wmaker) seems to be close.

question 1) In debian there is no such thing to install openbox+panel. You will have to install one in addition to installing openbox.
question 3) edit ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml and search for: <menu>root-menu</menu>, remove the paragraph which mentions it, including the mouse action and/or keyboard-shortcut which enables it.
question 4) i don't think there is a way besides editing files.

xorg (something) and xinit for startx and X11 then openbox, it has nothing, tint2 for a panel, menu systemtray, if you want one, docker or is it ciro for a fancier one, xfce4-panel works too, it has dockapps support so just about any dockapp window maker, fluxbox and alike can run openbox can run them too, https://www.dockapps.net/ .
menumaker or use xdg for dynamic menus, pcmanfm or thuanr for desktop control. that should be enough to get you started.

BW-userx: in debian the metapackage for xinit,startx,x-drivers, etc is just called "xorg". so round the lines of "apt-get install xorg openbox obconf tint2 " ... Just saying, as in other distros it can be different, in debian it is rather easy (the xorg part, no -something :-) ).

they're meta packing it now hummm. I remember having to install them separately ohh a few years back. xinit has startx within it. I wasn't sure i they called it just xorg or attached something else to the name, ditros are different. but that is neither here nor there, as this is what search is for. either way its enough to get OP started with openbox.

obmenu too might come in handy.

X.Org X Window System

Lot's of useful help here, thanks everyone. I will look at some of the alternative panels mentioned. As for editing menu files, I figured this much, so you confirmed it for me. Windowmaker is really great, I had one issue with it a while back. Sometimes the config options don't map to what needs to happen without tinkering.

I also found out I had this issue with what was called gksudo. It's one of the most annoying problems out there. I don't want to sidetrack this thread, but I never could figure out how to make sure applications that require super user privileges get correctly installed. For example, If I install the nvidia drivers after I install xfce4 (on a previous installation), than the nvidia-settings don't start except from a terminal with su. The only way I was able to fix that was to change the order I installed in which required a reinstall (uninstalling does not work - including clearing settings files). I tried gksudo and everything else I could find info on but for some reason it requires specific editing that I did not know how to do (still don't know now).

Either way, I think these issues will come back to haunt me if I don't learn them now, so I will look further into it.

Thanks again for all the info.

Regarding gsku[do]. Not sure if i understand you correct. No experience with nvidia-settings and not much in menus:
i assume you mean you can't start it from the menu?
I just use a command prompt and do "gksu gparted".
If that is the problem, then it probably just a question of editing the menu's file.

For openbox i use gmrun as command prompt, but others have already been mentioned. The entry in the rc.xml file looks like:
with Windows-key being a bit non mainstream, Alt+F2 being more common (i only did it as i switched from awesome, and that used W+r for running a command). Your choice, of course.

If you want OpenBox specifically try LXDE, otherwise you might find IceWM to your liking, or even JWM, but I personally always use Fluxbox.

Download AntiX & run it live to see what IceWM, JWM, & Fluxbox look like - you might even find you want to install & use it in preference to using Debian itself.


https://antixlinux.com/
https://sourceforge.net/projects/ant...al/antiX-17.2/

Some detailed instructions here for installing CDE for Debian (and for other distributions too). https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/wiki/LinuxBuild/

Another suggestion to get a CDE likeness is to just install a regular desktop or window manager, and then find and install a CDE theme for it. Here's some themes I found with a quick internet search: https://www.box-look.org/search?projectSearchText=cde