would someone please give me step by step help on installing fluxbox?

What distro, which version, from what are you trying to install?


Cheers,
Tink

mandrake (mandrivia) 10.1

And the other two questions? :}

i do not yet have fluxbox, i was hoping someone would point me (a serious newb) in the right direction

my kernel is version 2.6.12

Well ... I meant which version of Fluxbox you're after ...

But I believe that MDK has fluxbox rpms on the CDs?
Have a look in your package installation tool.

Alternatively, look here:
http://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2htm...ake+10.1&arch=


Cheers,
Tink

when i run the RPM i get this

Some package requested cannot be installed:
fluxbox-0.9.12-2mdk.i586 (due to unsatisfied X11R6-contrib)
do you agree ?

I suppose it would be best if other MDK users jumped in
here now, I have no idea what X11-R6 contrib does, and
don't want to recommend to you to d/l and install all that's
listed as missing lest you break your machine...


Cheers,
Tink

moving to mandriva

X11-R6 contrib contains a bunch of small X utilities, etc. It's available on the Mandriva installation CD's, at least it is on mine for Mandrake [sic] 10.1 OE.

As to Fluxbox--I could never get it to run quite right with my Mandrake installations, till YESTERDAY, when I installed it from the tar package available on the Fluxbox website. Compiling and installation went without a hitch, and it seems to work perfectly for the first time. I seriously think that, as with several other programs I've had bad luck with, the Mandrake (Mandriva) RPM's are sometimes flawed. After all, just because programs are packaged as RPM's doesn't mean they'll work...

So if your RPM installation doesn't work right (but I hope it does), you might want to go to the Fluxbox home page and get the version there. Once you get used to using tar packages they're not so terrifying. Usually the worst thing that can happen is that THEY won't work, either--or else they won't compile in the first place.

You'll need some development tools if you start doing that...they, too, are on the Mandriva CD's.

Good luck. Fluxbox is a beautiful and useful and VERY FAST window manager. My first choice is IceWM and has been for over two years, but Fluxbox (and Blackbox) are just as fast and maybe a little smaller if memory is a consideration.

I have a small issue with my fluxbox installation: it installed alright, but it's not showing up in my drop-down menu of window managers when I go to log in. How can I get it to show up there?

(I'm running MDK 10.1)

If you use a utility like IceWM Control Panel (tricky to install, but very useful afterwards), you can change your menus via a GUI. But you can also go into your ~/.icewm directory and edit the "menus" file by hand, following the examples you see there for various entries. Make a backup of the file first (if your text editor doesn't automatically do it) so that if you do mess up, you can just restore the original one until you want to work on it again.

The syntax is completely unforgiving in the menu file, but if you carefully type just like an item similar to what you want, you should be able to tailor the menus to your heart's content.

I've done that a little, but since I did get IceWM Control Panel to work, I generally use it--much easier.