[openbox] Problems on Debian

[Michael M.]

Michael M. wrote:
> I would like to try Openbox, but I can't get v3.2 working on Debian 
> Sarge.  I installed the openbox and openbox-themes packages using 
> aptitude.  When I tried to start it (from .xinitrc, using "startx"), I 
> got a blank desktop, no default theme loaded, and an empty menu.  I 
> tried copying over rc.xml and menu.xml to ~/.config/openbox, which 
> didn't make any difference.  Then I tried editing the files as best I 
> could, eventually removing any reference to menus from 
> ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml (which the doc says will make Openbox look for 
> menu.xml), and any reference to the debian-menu.xml from 
> ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml.  None of that helped.  The Debian menu 
> existed where rc.xml specified, but Openbox wasn't loading it.  It 
> didn't seem like it was even looking in ~/.config/openbox.
> 
> So I guess something went wrong with the install or post-install, but I 
> haven't a clue what or how to fix it.  I have since purged Openbox and 
> would like to try again, but there's not much point if I can't figure 
> out what's going wrong.  Can anyone give me some help?
> 
> BTW, I have since installed Gnome and GDM ... don't know if that will 
> help or not.  I'm not particularly looking to use Openbox as a 
> substitute for Metacity, (I think) I'd rather use Openbox on it's own.
> 

Just to follow-up, I migrated to Debian Etch and tried installing 
Openbox again.  This time it worked.  I don't know whether it was the 
presence of Gnome or switching to testing that did the trick.  I'd file 
a bug report, but I still don't know what went wrong.  Maybe it was just 
a fluke.  I'm not a very advanced user, especially of Linux, but I do 
know how apt works, have a basic understanding of how OB works, and I 
know what should've happened but didn't.  Anyway, happy OB user now. :-)

I'm going to try selectively removing some Gnome components (it really 
is a beast!) and hope nothing goes wrong.

Cheers & thanks for a great WM.

-- 
Michael