Blackbox: No toolbars and workspaces...

nutshell · 06-02-2002, 03:23 AM

HI,

I just installed blackbox. I typed man blackbox and read through it. Some instructions ae wrong. When it says click right mouse to bring up root menu i have to click left. In fact, i can't do anything with my right mouse and middle mouse, they do notthgin when pressed.

I also couldn't get the workspace and toolbar that the menu mentioned. It's very important to me.

THnx in advance ( i want to get rid of KDE hehe.. )

nutshell · 06-02-2002, 08:00 AM

I just signed up for an online photo album so i can show you the screen shot ( can't upload a file here ? ).

http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/...7318&members=1

Just in case you guys can't view it here is the list of items when i 'left click' on the root menu (background):

Code:

Mandrake  ...

Current Windows  ...
Window Ops   ...
Resize
Kill
Delete 

Restart 
Exit

Please give a hand here, thank you.

dorward · 06-02-2002, 09:07 AM

The button you use to call up the menu can be changed in the config files, presumably Mandrake have installed a custom config file (possibly for consistancy across window managers). You can create or edit your own version if you like.

The screen shot suggests you might have a virtual resolution greater then the actualy resolution, what happens if you drag your mouse to the very bottom of the screen and let it scroll? Then scroll left/right a little.

raven · 06-02-2002, 09:44 AM

hello

it seems to me, yopu didnt start blackbox, cos this menu belongs to twm (for mandrake)...

you must change the startx file, or the xinitrc file (located somewhere in your path or ~ dir...)

have fun.

raven

acid_kewpie · 06-02-2002, 09:53 AM

really really don't want to sound cruel but

that's not even blackbox... no wonder the manpage was confusing you!

twm will be launched as a last resort if the system can't find the wm you wanted.. so whatever yuo did to try to load blackbox failed somehow.

MasterC · 06-02-2002, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by raven
hello

it seems to me, yopu didnt start blackbox, cos this menu belongs to twm (for mandrake)...

you must change the startx file, or the xinitrc file (located somewhere in your path or ~ dir...)

have fun.

raven

Actually this is what my screen looks like as well. But I don't know if it's blackbox or what because if I type 'startx <anything other than KDE3 or Gnome>' I get this screen.

nutshell · 06-02-2002, 09:58 AM

s***............what can i do now. Actually i was really wondering before you told me that. But sinze i ran 'startx blackbox' and this came up i assumed it was successful.

Acid_kewpie you read my last post and you said that my blackbox installation was successful. But now what? I mean, what can i do now to have and run blackbox?

Pls help guys.........i'm embarrassed...

THnx

acid_kewpie · 06-02-2002, 10:02 AM

acid_kewpie · 06-02-2002, 10:03 AM

right, ok as raven hinted at you want to edit (or create) an ~./xinitrc file, which would in this instance contain the line:

exec blackbox

and nothing else. This is of course when you are going from a runlevel 3 bootup or whatever, so running startx will execute the contents of that file once X is ready for a window manager. You were asking about having it in kdm in a different thread, and i told you what i knew abuot that there.

I don't actaully think that startx can take that form of command line anyway, it can only deal with option flags and such to pass on to X itself.

raven · 06-02-2002, 10:51 AM

yeah, thats right (acid_kewpie), startx cant take options like "blackbox" in this case, except, you write a script for yourself, but thats another thing.

to nutshell:

just put the line "exec blackbox" into xinitrc. this should be right.

btw: how are you starting X? from init (swithcing to runlevel 3 or 5)? or are you starting a console (runlevel 1 or 2 or whatever) and then typing startx?

in the second case, the idea with writing a script is not that bad (if you want the possibility of multiple window managers on your system, like i am using it)

good luck

raven

acid_kewpie · 06-02-2002, 06:01 PM

it's normally .xinitrc, not xinitrc for traditions sake really. might save you getting confused.

nutshell · 06-03-2002, 08:11 AM

I could only find the .xinitrc file in /root/

So i tried to log in as root and run blackbox. But then it says the command is not found. Before that i tried to log in as normal user and just type 'blackbox', it says that the x server failed or something like that.

Any ideas?

Thnx a lot

acid_kewpie · 06-03-2002, 08:21 AM

ahh c'mon man give us a bit of a break and read the replies...

raven and i both said that you need to use starx to execute the contents of .xinitrc

"blackbox" itself is the window manager app, which needs a naked X session to attach to in order to work.

nutshell · 06-03-2002, 08:28 AM

Well as soon as i type 'startx' it loads KDE.

And is it normal that .xinitrc only resides in /root/ ?

I heard that blackbox is also an environment?

acid_kewpie · 06-03-2002, 08:45 AM

again, in an earlier post "you want to edit (or create) an ~./xinitrc file" so each user has their own.