openbox (1) - Linux Manuals

NAME

openbox --- A minimalistic, highly configurable, next generation window manager with extensive standards support.

SYNOPSIS

openbox [--help] [--version] [--replace] [--reconfigure] [--restart] [--sm-disable] [--sync] [--debug] [--debug-focus] [--debug-xinerama]

DESCRIPTION

Openbox is minimalistic, highly configurable, next generation window manager with extensive standards support.

You can start Openbox in three ways:

If you run a display manager such as GDM, you will find 3 entries in the login session type menu for Openbox: GNOME/Openbox, KDE/Openbox and Openbox. If you want to use Openbox within GNOME or KDE, you can choose the appropriate entry, and it will launch GNOME or KDE with Openbox as the window manager.

The third option at log in, which is Openbox without a session manager, uses the openbox-session command to start Openbox. On log in, openbox will run the ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh script if it exists, and will run the system-wide script /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart.sh otherwise. You may place anything you want to run automatically in those files, for example:
 

xsetroot -solid grey & 
gnome-settings-daemon & 

Make sure that each line is followed by a "&" or else the script will stop there and further commands will not be executed. You can use the /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart.sh file as an example for creating your own.

The default /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart.sh runs a number of things with Openbox.

Lastly, if you use startx to launch your X session, you can set up a ~/.xinitrc file to run openbox-session and follow the same directions as above regarding the autostart.sh file.

You can use the obconf tool to configure Openbox easily with a graphical interface, however more in-depth configuration is possible by editing the configuration files by hand.

The default configuration and menu files are installed in /etc/xdg/openbox/, and the user configuration is placed in ~/.config/openbox/. You can copy the default configuration and menus to ~/.config/openbox and edit it to your liking.

OPTIONS

These are the possible options that openbox accepts:

--help

Show a summary of the command line options available and exit.

--version

Show the version of the program and exit.

--replace

Replace the currently running window manager.

--config-file FILE

Specify the path to the config file to use.

--reconfigure

If Openbox is already running on the display, tell it to reload its configuration.

--restart

If Openbox is already running on the display, tell it to restart. This is useful if you have upgraded Openbox and don't want to restart X.

--exit

Exit Openbox.

--sm-disable

Do not connect to the session manager.

--sync

Run in synchronous mode (for debugging).

--startup CMD

Run CMD after starting.

--debug

Display debugging output.

--debug-focus

Display debugging output for focus handling.

--debug-session

Display debugging output for session management.

--debug-xinerama

Split the display into two fake xinerama regions, if xinerama is not already enabled. This is for debugging xinerama support.