After a bit of trial and error, I finally have Fluxbox 0.9.9-2 running under Fedora Core 2. The hardest part was getting the dependencies met.

Now that I am up and running, there are a few questions I need to find the answers to before I consider the migration from Gnome to Fluxbox complete:

1) How to start programs with the Window Manager ( Fluxbox )

2) Taskbar ( dockable ) solution for Winamp and a datetime/calendar widget

3) Dockable system resource monitor

4) Rotating wallpaper ( i.e. select a group of picture files, then have an application that changes to a random ( or non-random ) picture after a set interval )

5) Graceful way to close application with I click on exit, and ( optionally ) have each application store its window position/size so it starts back up in the same position/size the next time Flux starts.

6) Graceful way to keep Fluxbox from opening the same applications again if I start another session on the same computer. So if login on term 1 and start a XWindow session, then log onto terminal 2 ( same computer ) and start another session , don't start the same applications that are already running in the first session. Generally this isn't a problem except for IRC( mine automatically connects to server and joins channels on startup ), VMware ( can't run multiples of the same virtual machine at the same time ), and Mozilla ( if Mozilla is already open, it will prompt you for a profile as the same profile cannot be opened twice...I wish Mozilla would find a good solution for this issue ).

7) Find a terminal application that supports transparency.

8) Choose a good file browser to use inside of Fluxbox. Nautilus and Konqueror crash on me quite often.

So far I am very impressed with Fluxbox, and can't wait to learn more about it. On thing I think they could do to improve the configuration files is to make them all XML format so a nice XML editor that group tags together could be used for editing config files. Why make your own config file format when a well-support one already exists?

Thank you in advance for taking time to read this post!

Oh, and if you have any Fluxbox-related suggestions, even if they don't cover the 7 items above, I am all ears.

8) Choose a good file browser to use inside of Fluxbox. Nautilus and Konqueror crash on me quite often.


Hm Ive never had a problem with Naut. Maybe theres something wrong with your disk?

2 & 3: this website has tons of dockable apps: http://www.bensinclair.com/dockapp/

7: use aterm

1) Use you menu (right click on desktop). You can edit the menu file, ~/.fluxbox/menu -- you should be able to figure it out, if not check fluxbox.org
2) not sure what you mean? Check out gdesklets perhaps.
3) gkrellm or gdesklets
4) You could use while [ "a" ]; do fbsetbg -r ~/wallpaper/directory; sleep 3600; done
5) Not sure about how to remember the position....
6) Wouldn't call it graceful, but: if [ "`ps -u $UID | grep programx`" == "" ]; then programx; fi
-- Where programx is the name of the program.
7) aterm (although I prefer xterm because it supports antialiased fonts even though no transparecny or background pic.)
8) ROX

http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook.php

You can also start applications with hotkeys (keys file).
Window position and size can be stored in the apps file.

1) How to start programs with the Window Manager ( Fluxbox )
What I meant was to have applications automatically startup with the WM starts ( ala Windows startup folder ). I discover the "~/.fluxbox/apps" folder fit the bill well.

2) Taskbar ( dockable ) solution for Winamp and a datetime/calendar widget
I found "WMxmms" to dock XMMS with ( I mean XMMS and not Winamp ), for calendar I am using the "wmfishtime" for dockable date/time display ( with Fish! ).

3) Dockable system resource monitor
Still looking of the Dockapps and I heard gKrellm is pretty popular.

4) Rotating wallpaper ( i.e. select a group of picture files, then have an application that changes to a random ( or non-random ) picture after a set interval )
Chgbg all the way, it randomly selects backgrounds from the list of files I gave it ( from many different folders ) , does special effects, and scales/centers the images if you want it to.

5) Graceful way to close application with I click on exit, and ( optionally ) have each application store its window position/size so it starts back up in the same position/size the next time Flux starts.
Still looking for this.

6) Graceful way to keep Fluxbox from opening the same applications again if I start another session on the same computer. So if login on term 1 and start a XWindow session, then log onto terminal 2 ( same computer ) and start another session , don't start the same applications that are already running in the first session. Generally this isn't a problem except for IRC( mine automatically connects to server and joins channels on startup ), VMware ( can't run multiples of the same virtual machine at the same time ), and Mozilla ( if Mozilla is already open, it will prompt you for a profile as the same profile cannot be opened twice...I wish Mozilla would find a good solution for this issue ).
Still looking for this. Scripting it is an option, but I am still open for other solutions.


7) Find a terminal application that supports transparency.
aterm. I found the command syntax to specify transparent and font color. Works well.


8) Choose a good file browser to use inside of Fluxbox. Nautilus and Konqueror crash on me quite often.
Still looking. I am trying out Endeavor2. ROX doesn't look like it is Hierarchial like Nautius/Konquere, so I have no tried it.


Thanks to everyone who has replied so far.!

I use krusader for file manager.

for 8, you could use midnight commander run mc. its very crude when you first run it but i have seen impressive screenshots of it. transparency, ect. you can really configure it.

1) How to start programs with the Window Manager ( Fluxbox )
What I meant was to have applications automatically startup with the WM starts ( ala Windows startup folder ). I discover the "~/.fluxbox/apps" folder fit the bill well.

2) Taskbar ( dockable ) solution for Winamp and a datetime/calendar widget
I found "WMxmms" to dock XMMS with ( I mean XMMS and not Winamp ), for calendar I am using the "wmfishtime" for dockable date/time display ( with Fish! ).

3) Dockable system resource monitor
Still looking of the Dockapps and I heard gKrellm is pretty popular.

4) Rotating wallpaper ( i.e. select a group of picture files, then have an application that changes to a random ( or non-random ) picture after a set interval )
Chgbg all the way, it randomly selects backgrounds from the list of files I gave it ( from many different folders ) , does special effects, and scales/centers the images if you want it to.

5) Graceful way to close application with I click on exit, and ( optionally ) have each application store its window position/size so it starts back up in the same position/size the next time Flux starts.
Still looking for this.

6) Graceful way to keep Fluxbox from opening the same applications again if I start another session on the same computer. So if login on term 1 and start a XWindow session, then log onto terminal 2 ( same computer ) and start another session , don't start the same applications that are already running in the first session. Generally this isn't a problem except for IRC( mine automatically connects to server and joins channels on startup ), VMware ( can't run multiples of the same virtual machine at the same time ), and Mozilla ( if Mozilla is already open, it will prompt you for a profile as the same profile cannot be opened twice...I wish Mozilla would find a good solution for this issue ).
Still looking for this. Scripting it is an option, but I am still open for other solutions.


7) Find a terminal application that supports transparency.
aterm. I found the command syntax to specify transparent and font color. Works well.


8) Choose a good file browser to use inside of Fluxbox. Nautilus and Konqueror crash on me quite often.
I tried ROX-filer, neat idea but it isn't for me to use. For sure I need something with a navigation panel that shows the directory tree, and multiple panels are a close to being mandatory, also. I also tried Endeavor2 which isn't too bad, I do wish it had panes though. I am going to stick with Konqueror until I find something better.

One extra item I found was to use xscreensaver for locking the screen. I added the xscreensaver-command -lock command to my top-level menu so that it is easy to lock the screen.

8) Choose a good file browser to use inside of Fluxbox. Nautilus and Konqueror crash on me quite often.

I'm in the same boat. I'm using fluxbox, and would like to make mc my default file manager (ran in to an issue with gnome-commander). Does anyone know the fluxbox menu syntax to open up in a terminal. (can be aterm, xterm, whatever).

http://www.obsession.se/gentoo/ - gentoo file manager (nothing to do with Gentoo Linux)
http://emelfm.sourceforge.net/ - emelfm
http://emelfm2.org/ - emelfm2 (uses gtk2)
the above are popular dual pane filemanagers. Have a look at them if you haven't yet.