Fluxbox 1.3.0 Released

Fluxbox has had its first release since 2008. This release brings me much joy, as a Fluxbox user, it solidifies the point that Fluxbox is still being maintained upstream.

What is fluxbox?
Fluxbox is a windowmanager for X that was based on the Blackbox 0.61.1 code. It is very light on resources and easy to handle but yet full of features to make an easy, and extremely fast, desktop experience.

Here is a list of fixes / changes from fluxbox.org:

Added support for bidirectional text, #2801836.
Allow to override ‘Focus New Windows’ via .fluxbox/apps
New actions:
ActivateTab
ArrangeWindowsVertical
New ‘MoveN’ and ‘ClickN’ action support for keys file
New focus model ‘StrictMouseFocus’. This will affect focus when closing, moving, lowering windows, changing desktops, etc, whereas the ‘MouseFocus’ model will only change focus when you move the mouse.
New “background: unset” property for use in overlays.
Allowing relative paths for background images in style files.
Allowing matching screen number in ClientPattern.
Removed rootcommand from init, as fbsetbg is run automatically nowadays.
Removed line style resources from init file.

Fluxbox 1.3.1 on Fedora 14, 13 or 12

If you’re looking for Fluxbox 1.3.1 on Fedora 14, then you’re in luck. I’ve gone through the .spec and cleaned it up a bit, along with a version bump, and have built the 1.3.1 packages in SUSE Build Service under my home directory.

What is fluxbox?
Fluxbox is a windowmanager for X that was based on the Blackbox 0.61.1 code. It is very light on resources and easy to handle but yet full of features to make an easy, and extremely fast, desktop experience. It is built using C++ and licensed under the MIT-License. (from fluxbox.org)

You can upgrade using the following in your repo file:

[fedora-fluxbox]
name=Fluxbox Packages
baseurl=http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/eclipseagent:/Fluxbox/Fedora_$releasever/
enabled=1
gpgcheck=0

Then install running:

sudo yum update fluxbox

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Fluxbox on openSUSE 11.3

Are you sick of Gnome? KDE? or XFCE? Do you have a very old machine that you want to run Linux on, but the newer Desktop Environments are just too clunky? Well thanks to Linux, you have a choice of which Desktop Environment or Window Manager you want to use.

I personally use Fluxbox as my Window Manager, and have had a great experience with it on Fedora. So, I decided with the recent release of openSUSE 11.3, I’d give it a shot on the new distribution release.

I first started by installing openSUSE 11.3 onto my personal laptop, and opted for the minimal X install so that my machine wouldn’t be cluttered. After the installation I booted into the default Window Manager, TWM.

Next I added the Window Manager repository so that I’d have access to Fluxbox, and also added the X11:Utilities repository so I’d have access to feh, which is a great image viewer, and is also a application that will allow you to set your background while in various Window Managers.

*** Bonus ***
The Display Manager I use is lxdm, previously it was SLIM but SLIM seems to be pretty much abandoned upstream, so I decided to support the LXDE movement.

You can add the said repositories by doing the following:
sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/windowmanagers/openSUSE_11.3/ openSUSE\ 11.3\ WindowManagers

sudo zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/X11:/Utilities/openSUSE_11.3/ openSUSE\ 11.3\ X11\ Utilities

Now, you can install fluxbox, slim and feh using:
sudo zypper in fluxbox feh lxdm

Now you’ll have to configure fluxbox to be your new default Window Manager, and configure LXDM to be your default Display Manager. We can do this using the sysconfig yast2 module, or we can modify the following files in /etc/sysconfig:
windowmanager
displaymanager

You want the following settings in /etc/sysconfig/displaymanager:
DISPLAYMANAGER=”lxdm”

And the following setting in /etc/sysconfig/windowmanager:
DEFAULT_WM=”startfluxbox”

Once you’re done, you can reboot (or just log out) and be greeted to a nice new LXDM installation, and log in to your nice new fluxbox installation.

Fluxbox on openSUSE 11.3

Are you sick of Gnome? KDE? or XFCE? Do you have a very old machine that you want to run Linux on, but the newer Desktop Environments are just too clunky? Well thanks to Linux, you have a choice of which Desktop Environment or Window Manager you want to use.

I personally use Fluxbox as my Window Manager, and have had a great experience with it on Fedora. So, I decided with the recent release of openSUSE 11.3, I’d give it a shot on the new distribution release.

I first started by installing openSUSE 11.3 onto my personal laptop, and opted for the minimal X install so that my machine wouldn’t be cluttered. After the installation I booted into the default Window Manager, TWM.

Next I added the Window Manager repository so that I’d have access to Fluxbox, and also added the X11:Utilities repository so I’d have access to feh, which is a great image viewer, and is also a application that will allow you to set your background while in various Window Managers.