Hi there everyone,

I am currently using GNOME and would like to test out some other Window Managers. I've read through several threads here and decided to give Fluxbox a shot since it's also compatible with Blackbox (which is also supposed to be very good).

Now I've downloaded the source tarball and installed it properly I suppose:


tar zxvf fluxbox....tar.gz
cd fluxbox...
./configure
make
su
typed in my password to become root
make install

now it seems that Fluxbox is installed because I can do

$ which fluxbox
and I get
$ /usr/local/bin/fluxbox

the problem I'm having now is to set it up and actually run it.

I would like to ask for a detailed step-by-step guidance if possible . I'm sure there is someone out there that is running RH 9.0 and who also uses Fluxbox

I tried to follow the Documentation of fluxbox (http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/) and I don't seem to get it to work

Please help me out!

Thanks guys!!!!

Do you boot to runlevel 3(text) or runlevel 5(graphical)?

If you boot to runlevel 3 simply create a new file in the home directory of whatever user you want to have fluxbox as their window manager. If your username is reitredsoldier on your box then create a hidden file in your home directory called .xinitrc(/home/retiredsoldier/.xinitrc). The contents of .xinitrc should look like this:

# window manager
fluxbox & wmpid=$!

# HANG POINT - wait for windowmanager to exit
wait $wmpid

When you log back in you will be in fluxbox.

If you boot to runlevel 5 then thats a different tale which I can not help you with.

At the login menu boot to 'failsafe' and type fluxbox in the prompt.

First of all thanks to Crashed_Again for the very good step-by-step guide! I haven't tried it yet because I actually run init lvl 5 upon bootup (graphical).

I'm sure these steps would work perfectly for runlvl 3 as I'm sure you know what you're doing! Thanks again!

And hairston4, you've answered my question in a very simple and effective way! lol. It worked just as you said.

Now I just need to figure out how to change my mouse sensitivity because it somehow switched back to the original sensitivity that it had when I installed RH.

Besides that everything works great!

Thanks again guys! Ya'll rock!!

retiredsoldier, if you dont want to manually mess with altering your graphical login, do what I did and install a Fluxbox .rpm which'll alter everything for you, and then compile from source correctly (maybe with ./configure --prefix=/usr) and it'll overwrite and update the binary files which the login screen starts.

phew Proud, first of all thanks for your help here. I am honestly said still a newb in linux

I mean I know how to install rpms, however I've heard that rpm for fluxbox is a little complicated so I used the source tarball.

At the moment I always choose the FAILSAFE session when I logon and I type in fluxbox in order to get fluxbox to startup.

But yeah, it would be nice to have a session configured that would be remembered whenever I logon with my username. Maybe someone can tell me how to set it up hehe.

Tell me more about that thing that you're trying to show me here Proud. I'm interested in permanently using fluxbox until I need to change it back to something else. Hope you can help hehe

Thanks again!

To fix the mouse speed use the 'xset' command. Here is the man pages entry for xset with the -m(mouse) switch:

m The m option controls the mouse parameters. The parameters for
the mouse are `acceleration' and `threshold'. The acceleration
can be specified as an integer, or as a simple fraction. The
mouse, or whatever pointer the machine is connected to, will go
`acceleration' times as fast when it travels more than `thresh-
old' pixels in a short time. This way, the mouse can be used
for precise alignment when it is moved slowly, yet it can be
set to travel across the screen in a flick of the wrist when
desired. One or both parameters for the m option can be omit-
ted, but if only one is given, it will be interpreted as the
acceleration. If no parameters or the flag 'default' is used,
the system defaults will be set.

So you have to mess with it and do things like:

xset -m 5 2

Its basically a trial and error thing to get it the way you like.

Thank you very much Crashed_Again,

this was just what I was looking for!

Woohoo....gotta love fluxbox!! lol

You can try some of the threads about adding Flux to your dm from the Fluxbox Help forum, and the Fluxbox FAQ

My suggestion was 2 staged:
Firstly you find an rpm of Fluxbox 0.1.14 for your distro, and install it. No different to any other rpm, and this should set up the Fluxbox link in your graphical login.
Then if you download 0.9.x and ./configure, make and make install correctly the newly compiled Fluxbox files will overwrite your old 0.1.14 ones, and the graphical login entries are intact.
For at least RedHat and Mandrake, you should ./configure --prefix=/usr. See ./configure --help for more info.

I'll look into that and keep you updated hehe..thanks again!

hey Proud,

I remember that I tried the RPM at the beginning before I decided to use the tarball and i didn't see any kind of entry within the login manager. I was sure I installed it right.

I also tried to follow the steps off fluxbox's FAQ section and I don't seem to get it to work or don't probalby really understand what they want me to do. I might have to deal with logging in as FAILSAFE until I figure out a way to get it to work as I want it to.

Thanks for your help tho...appreciate it!