Easy Set Up Of Openbox To Use As A Desktop.

Openbox is a window manager that comes with the LXDE desktop and and sometimes with LXQT. But it can also be used on it's own without any desktop. They are many way to convert Openbox into a desktop. It is not a desktop environment but like IceWM which I have also covered here. It is easy to set up and does not involve having to use any terminal commands or editing any files. But first a little bit about Openbox.

Openbox Inside Of Gnome Flashback, Mate,Xfce And LXQT Desktop.

One easy way to use Openbox and experience all of it's themes and features it has to offer is of course to use it inside of your desktop environment. Such as in Mate, Gnome Flashback or with Xfce desktop. Which if you have Compiz installed you can switch to Openbox using Compiz Fusion and run it inside your desktop. So you will have all of those nice Openbox themes and everything. 

Debian does have an Openbox Gnome and and Openbox KDE package. Which you can run with KDE and Gnome Flashback. Which is supposed to load the panel and everything else inside your desktop. But this has not worked in years and certainly not on KDE Plasma 5 or 6 which no longer supports change of window managers. Although Gnome Flashback does but the log in sessions does not let you log in. So if you are going to use Openbox inside of Gnome Flashback,Mate,Xfce or another desktop. It is better to just install the Openbox package NOT the Openbox Gnome or Openbox KDE package.

Then if you have Compiz installed you can just switch to Openbox inside of Gnome Flashback,Mate,Xfce or LXQT desktops. Using Compiz Fusion to do this but this won't work on Main Gnome,Cinnamon KDE or on Budgie desktops. Because these desktops don't support change of window managers or Compiz but the other desktops I have listed do. You can also run Compiz on LXDE and LXQT as well as on Gnome Flashback, Mate and Xfce but that is another topic. Now about Openbox you can run it with the desktop environments I have listed here.

If you have LXDE Openbox is already install but it is not installed on LXQT on Debian and Ubuntu. AS they use Xfwm4 from Xfce but I think Fedora LXQT Spin comes with Openbox. But I am not sure in any case if not then you can install it from your package manager. Then use it inside your desktop or as a stand alone session. Which also works and means that you can set up your desktop to look the way you want it. There are many ways to do this but mine is the easy way I think. So here is how to set up a stand alone Openbox session or desktop without having to have any other desktop environment installed. 

Although I advise you to install Openbox alongside you existing desktop environment and then set it up. The reason is that it is a lot more easy to do it that way. Because Openbox will pick up your settings and most of the main start up programs from your desktop. Although not al of them but most of them. So you won't have to deal with missing items from your start menu or missing personal Home Folders such as Documents,Pictures,Downloads and others. Although this is easy to sort out. Installing and setting it up with a desktop already installed avoids this problem. But you will still have to add some things to start up yourself. So here is how to set up Openbox step by step. It is not as simple as with IceWM because Openbox does not come with any wallpapers or desktop background. So it can be quite of putting to first log in and see a black screen with nothing on it but a right click menu. But we can change all of that so here goes. If you already have a desktop environment and are installing Openbox alongside of it. Then you won't have to deal with that at all. So asuming that you do have a desktop installed in my case I installed Openbox alongside of the Cinnamon Desktop on Debian 13 in virtual Machine. Well Virt Manager to be exact. I found that everything worked as expected.

Things You Will Need.

The first thing to install is of course Openbox which on Debian and Ubuntu also installs Openbox Configuration Manager which is the graphical settings manager and some Openbox themes.

Once that is done I installed Lxappearence to change the themes, icons and fonts and font size.  Openbox Settings also has the option to change more font sizes and also the other themes and features as well. Such as how many workspaces you want and the window boarder themes.

So the list of thins I installed are as follows:

Lxappearance for themes and icons.

PCManFM file Manager to draw both the wallpaper and desktop icons. If you are using LXQT you can use PCManFM-QT to do this but only if you have LXQT. Becaude otherwise installing PCMan-QT on Cinnamon and another other desktop pulls in the whole of the LXQT desktop. Which is probably not what you want. So PCManFM is the best one to install or SpaceFM which also draws both the desktops background and desktop icons But the problem with SpaceFM is that it does not have a Trash folder. So once you delete a file it is gone. So PCManFM is the one I recommend if you want both Desktop icons and wallpaper,

The other alternative is to use another file manager such as Nemo, Caja or Thunar but then you won't get any desktop icons. So you will have to install Nitrogen which draws the wallpaper but it won't draw the desktop icons. But if you don't icons on the desktop that will also work. But PCManFM is better I think because it does both.

Mate-Polkit and also Lxpolkit. Must also be installed. So that you can run admin tools such as Synaptic Package Manager or your software centre. Because you won't be able to install or remove software or do any admin tasks without those. Both must also be enabled at startup in the Openbox autostart file which I will talk about soon.

Mate Power Manager or Xfce4 Power Manager. To control the screen brightness and battery and enable the brightness keys to work. Either one will work but you need to edit the desktop file in /usr/share/applications/folder to remove the OnlyShowInMate or Xfce text. So that they will show up in Openbox. You need to open your /usr folder as Root to do this.

If you are on Xfce or Mate desktop you will already this installed anyway. If not then you will have to install either Xfce or Mate Power Manager. Because Cinnamon, Gnome, KDE and LXQT Power Manager don't work outside of their own desktop. 

Mate Notifications Daemon or Xfce4 Notify if you want to have pop up notifications. Either one will work. It depends if you like the themes in Mate Pop Up Notifications. Or the ones in Xfce4 Notfy which are more modern than Mate. But either one will work. If you are on the Xfce or Mate desktop you will already have one of these but you still need to edit the desktop file in /usr/share/applications. To remove the OnlyShowInMate or Xfce test. the same as you have to do for the power managers if you want them to show up in Openbox. Unless you don't want to have pop Up notifications as some people don't. But you will need the power manager.  

Tint2 Panel which gives you a nice panel. If you prefer you can use a dock such as Plank dock but I like a panel Tint2 is the best one. Tint2 can also be used on any desktop environment as well as an extra panel. There are a lot of way to customise and theme it. Tint2 has a graphical settings manager that makes it very easy for you to do this. 

Xfce4-Appfinder for my start menu. It looks like a real start menu and it has some theme options I could have gone with JGMenu which also comes with some themes. But I did not like it or the themes. So I choose Xfce4-Appfinder which I added to my Tint2 Panel.You need to go to your desktop file in /usr/share/applications and if the OnlyShowIn Xfce test is there then remove it. So that Appfinder will show up in Openbox as we did before.

Lxsesion-Logout or QShutdown.  Openbox does have a log out option in the right click menu but I like t have a shutdown and restart option. So I installed Lxsesion-Logout then created a shortcut to it in my start menu. Then I also added it as a button to my Tint2 Panel to get this. But there is also QShutdown which also works if you prefer that.

PNMixer volume control. Which gives you an icon in the taskbar to control volume settings. It also has additional settings to map your sound keys so that you can use them to control the volume. Which enables the sound keys to work. It also has the option to select which sound control you want to open. Which is either Pavucontol or AlsamixerGUI which I had installed.

You also need to have Xorg, X11-Utils which is installed on Debian and Ubuntu anyway. If not then you need to install those. Debian and Ubuntu also comes with Alsa-Utils,Pulseaudio and Pipewire installed. So you most probably have that already. Unless you have done a minimal install in which case you will have to install that yourself.

Set Up Openbox.

Once everything you want to use in Openbox is installed we now have to set up Openbox. Which I did while still in my Cinnamon desktop. First you have to copy the Openbox system folder into your Home/.config folder. These are hidden folder as you first have to enable show hidden folders in my case in Nemo my file manager. Once that is done you need to go to /etc/xdg/openbox then copy that folder into Home/.comfig.

Create An Autostart file.

One you have copied the Openbox folder from /etc/xdg/openbox you need to create an autostart file. There is already one in there but it is a dummy file which just shows you examples of what to put in. So you can either rename that file to something like autostart2 or delete it. Now we have to create our own autostart file. To do this open Gedit or whatever test editor you have install then name that file autostart save it and move it to your Home/.config/openbox folder.

Once that is done you need to add all of the thing you want to start up in openbox. For example:

lxpolkit & 

pcmanfm --desktop &

nm-applet &

See my screenshot of how my autostart file is written out and you must put the & after each item to enable them to start up in Openbox when you log in. You then need to make the autostart file executable so that it runs at start up. To do this click properties on the text file and tick "make executable"save and close.

Now we are ready to log into Openbox. So now restart your computer and you should see it listed on the logon screen. Once you log in if you have done the first steps correct then everything should be working as shown here. This is my Openbox desktop.

As you can see I am running Openbox with what looks like a full desktop. Lxappearence gives me the option to change my icons and themes. 

PCManFM also makes it easy to change both the wallpaper and set a plain desktop background. It enables you to choose what icons appear on the desktop.

I also have a very nice start menu with Xfce4 Appfinder.

Tint2 panel is very easy to customise to look however you want it to. It also has lots of themes which you can create and save. Using the graphical settings manager that comes with Tint2.

Not only that but you can also add items to your panel by selecting them under launchers as shown here.

I have added both my start menu which is Xfce4 Appfinder and Synapse my search box to my panel.

Openbox also has it's own graphical settings manager to make it easy for you to edit the themes and alsi fonts and make the test larger. Which I also did. As shown here.

Here is PCManFM again running in Openbox.

 

I also added a Logout button for Lxappearance in Tint2 as shown here and it works.

Finally I want to explain how to create a Root login session. So that if ever you do need to log in as Root you get a graphical desktop and not just a black screen. To do this you simply copy your Openbox folder from your Home/.config/folder and paste it into the Root/Home/.config folder and that's it. You need to have the Root account enabled to do this. Both to open the Root Home folder as Root and to be able to log in as Root in order to use the Root session. You will also have to go the same thing if you are setting up Openbox for other users accounts on your computer. 

So that is how I set up Openbox and unlike other window managers that are impossible to set up. Openbox is not so hard to do, Because all you have to do is just create the autostart file, ad the things you want to start up. Then make the file executable save it and that is all there is to it. I have also made a video about this as well.

How Set Up IceWM The Easy Way.

Here is a step by step tutorial on how to set up IceWM window manager without having to use any terminal commands or edit any files. IceWM is used on some Linux operating systems such as OpenSuse and others as a fallback desktop. So that in case your main desktop should crash or you cannot log into it. You then have another graphical session to log into to fix things. But it is also a desktop in it's own right. Although it's not really a full desktop environment IceWM unlike most window managers is very much like one. Because it has a taskbar, it's own start menu and also themes and comes with wallpapers.

So you don't have to do very much at all to set it up. You simply add a start up file which you create yourself in your text edit. But there are a few things you have to do first to get the important things such as network manager and others to run when you log into IceWM. So here is how to set up IceWM.

IceWM can be used on it's own without any desktop environment but it is better to install it alongside a desktop environment. Because it then picks up most of your settings such as your start menu applications and Home folders such as Documents and others. Which will be visible when you log into IceWM. IceWM can also be used inside of other desktop environments that support change of window managers such as the Mate desktop, Gnome Flashback, LXDE,LXQT and Xfce desktops.  If you have Compiz installed which you can then switch to IceWM as the selected window manager using Compiz Fusion. But here we will focus on how to set up IceWM to run on it's own as a desktop. Well sort of anyway.

First thing you have to do is install IceWM from your package manager or software center or using the terminal. As I installed it on Debian 13 Trixie with the Cinnamon desktop I go into my system folder in Nemo. The Icewm folder is in your /usr/share folder. So you need to go to /user/share and look for a folder called icewm. Then copy that folder to your Home folder. You need to do this to edit the files to ad items to start up. Once you have coped the icewm folder to your home. You must rename that folder to .icewm which then makes it a hidden folder in Home. Then in your file manager (in my case) Nemo I tick show hidden files in the settings. To show the hidden files.

Things you will need.

This is what I used to set up my IceWM.

I will list those here.

Lxappearence to change both the themes, the fonts and the icon themes.

Lxpolkit which you must install in order to be able t run admin tools.

MatePolkit which you must also have in order to run most other system tools that depend on it the same as you do with your main desktop environment. So both must be installed and if not then you do need to install them.

PCManFM File manager or PCManFM-QT (if using IceWM alongside LXQT desktop) to draw both the desktop icons and desktop background and wallpaper.

SpaceFM file manager can also be used but it is not as user friendly and does not have a Trash folder. Which is why it's PCManFM which I use.

You can also use other file managers such as Nemo, Caja or Thunar but they won't draw the desktop background. As Nemo can only draw the desktop icons. So if you do you another file manager you will either have to install Nitrogen to change the wallpaper. Or use the default wallpapers provided in IceWM which in this case are the Debian Wallpapers. But then you won't have the desktop icons.

So PCManFM is the best one to use as it will give you both.

Mate- Power-Manager- or Xfce4-Power-Manager to enable screen brightness and battery control. If you have the Mate or Xfce desktop then you will already have this. But if not then you do need to install it because the Gnome, Cinnamon and KDE Power Managers won't work outside their own desktop environments. So won't work in IceWM neither will LXQT Power Manager. So either the Mate or Xfce Power Manager will need to be installed.

One they are you then need to go into the desktop file in /user/share/applications to remove the line in it that says OnlyShowIn Mate or XFCE. You also need to open the /usr folder as Root to do this. Once that is done they should show up in IceWM but you must also add then to your startup file as I have done.

Mate Notifications Daemon or Xfce4 Notify to get pop up notifications although some people don't want them. But if you do then you need either Mate or Xfce4 Notify and again you need to edit the desktop file to remove the OnlyShowInMate orXfce so that they show up in IceWM and then add them to startup.

 

PNMixer which is a system tray sound control mixer which enables you to both set your keybinding for the sound keys on your keyboad to work. As well as choose what sound mixer you want which is either Pavucontrol or AlsaMixerGUI or any sound mixer you have installed. Again you ad this to your startup file. You will most likely have Alsa Utils as well as Pulseaudio and Pipewire installed.

If you are running Debian, Ubuntu or Fedora because that is what comes with most Linux operating systems. Unless you have done a minimal install in which case you may have to install those yourself.

Debian and Ubuntu also come with Xorg and X11-Utils which are also needed to run IceWM as IceWM is X11. So that should also be installed if not then you need to install those as well.

Create A Startup File.

Then what you have to do is to create a start up file called startup. You can do this with Gedit.Pluma, or any text editor you have. Then to add items to the startup up file such as network manager you add then as follows. Here is an example file:

nm-applet &

pcmanfm --desktop &

So you type the actual system file command into your start up file then the & after it as shown above. To find out what the command or package name of the application you want to ad to start up is. You can just right click on Nemo or what ever file manager you have which will tell you this.

Above is my startup file and how it should look. Once that is done you must then make the file executable. To do this just right click on your text file in Gedit and click properties then tick "make executable" and that is it. You must do this so that your programs will run at start up.

You need to also make sure that Mate-Polkit and Lxpolkit is installed and enabled at startup. So that you will be able to run your admin tools such as Synaptic Package Manager and your software center. To be able to install and remove software. And to be able to use other system tools such as Users Admin and others. Otherwise they will not work in IceWM. As you can see in my startup file everything is set up and ready to run in IceWM.

Enable System Notification Sounds(Optional.)

IceWM also has the option to enable system notification sounds including a startup and shutdown sound. So that every time you open or close a window or application or have notifications it will play a sound. Which is something we don't get on other window managers but we do on IceWM. This is optional and if you don't want this. Then you can skip this step. But here is how to enable sounds if you want them.

The IcewWM website has sound themes that you can download and use in IceWM. But you can use any sound theme you want. The only thing is that if you want to you the Ubuntu or Linux Mint sound theme for example. You will have to rename or convert the ogg or oga file to wav files. Because Icesound which is the settings daemon that plays the sounds in IceWM can only play wav files. 

So to enable systems sounds in IceWM you fist have to add IceSound to startup. You do this by typing the following into the start up file that you created:

icesound &

Then save the file and close.

Then you need to create a new folder in .icewm folder in Home called sounds then copy and paste the sound files you want into that folder as you can see here. Any edit files from your other sound themes must be named as you can see in the picture. As Icesound does not read them as the Freedesktop files are read on your main desktop such as Mate or Cinnamon. So any sound files you copy from Linux Mint sound theme must be remamed exactly as the Ice files are. Example, WindowMin.wav WindowMax.wav so that they will play in IceWM. Here is my screenshot of my sound files for IceWM.

This is how your IceWM folder should look with your system sounds enabled. To create a startup and shutdown sound you just add paplay  /path to sound file & to your start up file. 

Then for the shutdown sound which will play when you log out, restart and shutdown your computer you simply create a shutdown file using your text edit. Then add the paplay command (which is pulseaudio) to that test file example paplay /path to sound file & save then make the text file executable as we did with the startupfile by clicking properties then tick "make executable" save and close.

My shutdown file for the shutdown sound is here.

I have chosen the Linux Mint logout sound for this but it can be any sound you want and it will play at logout and shutdown.

This is how your IceWM folder should look in your Home folder.

Now we are ready to log into IceWM. So you can now restart your computer and IceWM should listed on your logon screen. I am using Lightdm With the Slick Greeter which supports all desktops but any greeter should work.

This is IceWM and as this is Debian it uses the Debian wallpapers. Which Debian have added to the themes which are not very nice. But it's a wallpaper and you can use the desktop as it is. Or you can edit the default theme file and change the path to the wallpaper with that of your own. But the easy way is to just use PCManFM or Nitrogen to do this. Then you don't have to edit any theme files at all. We also don't get icons on the desktop with the default theme. I am just showing you how it looks when you log in with the Debian set up. Which I have not yet added PCManFM to start up but after I add it the desktop now looks much better.

Default Debian Theme.

IceWM With PCManFM.

As you can see the IceWm desktop looks much better with PCManFM added to start up. We can now change the wallpaper and also select a plain desktop background. We can also add what icons we want to the desktop. So we now have desktop icons.

This is IceWM with PCManFM. It also gives you the option to have a plain desktop background if that is what you want.

We also have Lxappearence which enables you to change the theme,icons and fonts. 

IceWM also has it's own themes which you can change from the start menu as you can see here.

So that is how to set up IceWM without having to edit any files or anything. As IceWM is a fully functional desktop and has almost everything you get in a real desktop. It can be used alongside your desktop environment or on it's own without a desktop environment. The only thing is that if you install this without on it's own you may find some items missing from the start menu. You may also find your personal folders in Home such as the Documents folder missing. 

In which case you can run  this command that IceWM has to update the menu. To do this open your terminal and type the following command: icewm-menu-fdo then restart your computer.

You should now see your items in the start menu and you can also create the folders in Home such as Documents and others yourself. But if you installed IceWM alongside your desktop environment which is what I recommend then everything should be there in IceWM.

Finally I want to explain how to create a Root login session. So that if you ever do need to log in as Root you then have a working session. To do this you just copy the .icewm folder from your Home folder then paste it in the Root/Home folder and that is it. You now have a Root login session if you do need to use it. But you do need to have the Rot acount enabled to do this and to open the Root Home folder as Root.

IceWM can be installed from your package manager. The IceWM manual which is how I found out how to enable extras such as system notification sound can be found here:

IceWM manual

The sound themes can be downloaded from here:

Sound Themes

I also found out how to set up IceWM from this blog post here. It's old but it helped me a lot so you may want to read that here:

https://celettu.wordpress.com/icewm-guide

I have also made a video about my IceWM Set on as well. So IceWM is easy to set up and it also has a lot of nice features. It is a good alternative if you want to use it as a fallback if you are running Debian Sid for example where you might need a spare desktop. Or if you don't want to use Wayland as IceWM is X11. So it is another alternative. Either way it is very easy to use and has all of the features of a full desktop.

How To Get The Computer Icon Back In Nautilus In Gnome 47.

Debian Trixie which is Debian Testing has recently been updated from Gnome 46 to Gnome 47. With it comes new features which I welcome. One of the not so good features is that for some strange reason Gnome have removed the link to the computer folder in Nautilus the file manager which I think is a stupid idea. As most people including myself like to view their Computer folder. As it is where all of the system files are stored. In previous versions of Gnome the Computer folder was called "Other Locations" and it was here you could view both your computer drive and your system files.

Other Alternative To Software And Updates Tool In Debian.

The software And Updates graphical tool also known as Software Properties GTK or Software Properties QT (if you are using the KDE or LXQT Desktop) is included in Ubuntu. It is a very handy tool that enables you to view and manage your software repositories, and update settings all in one place. Linux Mint has their own version of the tool which is only for Linux Mint. Debian have also had this tool in Debian but it has been removed from Debian Trixie (Debian Testing) and no longer works in Debian Sid (Debian Unstable.) It can still be installed in Debian Sid but does nothing so I think Debian have either disabled it or it is no longer compatible with later versions of Debian. Which is what I am running. I have Debian Sid on one laptop and Debian Trixie on my other laptops.

Fix For Openshot Video Editor And Appimages Not Working In Debian And Ubuntu.

 Here is my video tutorial of how to fix Appimages not working in Debian and Ubuntu. 

You need to install libfuse2 which you can do from either Synaptic Package Manager or the terminal.

How To Fix Openshot And Appimages Not Working On Debian And Ubuntu.

 I am running Debian 12 Bookworm with the Mate desktop and I use Openshot Video Editor Appimage version. Because the version that both Ubuntu and Debian provides in the package manager is so old which I don't like. As I would rather have the latest version which is updated. Unfortunately the only way to get that on Debian, and Ubuntu is to install the Appimage version. As there is no Deb File and I found that after I updated my system that Openshot no longer worked. It just wouldn't run although other Appimages I had on my system did.

Get The Updated Version Of XScreensaver On Linux Mint And Ubuntu.

Here is my video of how to install the latest version of XScreen saver which is 6.08 on Ubuntu and Linux Mint. This also works on Debian Bookworm and other Ubuntu and Debian based distros.