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.