[openbox] Backgrounds

[Tim Riley]

El jue, 25-09-2003 a las 13:44, Michael Rasile escribió:
> Greetings! 
> Just wondering if I set a background during an ob3 session. How do I get
> next session to start with the same background I finished with? Or don't
> I?  Thanks for anything.

Esteemed Michael:

Hi how are you?  I am well.  I hope this message finds you in good
health.

Openbox has no automatic way of saving the background.  This makes
sense, when you think about it.  Openbox is a window manager and only a
window manager, insofar as it manages windows and nothing else.  Yes,
the background is actually the root window, you say, but I never said
openbox manages what is _inside_ the windows.

So, we have ourselves now in a situation in which we must look outside
openbox in order to achieve our goal of a persistent desktop
background.  You know, it's kind of funny, because the name of the
window manager is openbox, and we are about to "step outside the box" in
our solution.  I know, I know, I am a sucker for irony, you say, but
that's just me.

Your question, when I read it first, seemed very familiar.  Initially, I
thought it was just a glitch in the Matrix, but when I searched my
extensive email archives, I found this, dated Sunday 2003-09-07 at
15:27:

On Sun, 2003-09-07 at 15:27, Michael Rasile wrote:
> And, finally (his last question for a while) is there a way to start
> with the same background that  has been set from the menu? Well,
> that's it for a while. Again, thanks for all your help.

Remember that, Michael?  Good, then it's not just me.  Phew!  You asked
about keeping backgrounds set using the bgmenu persistent.  A solution
to this problem would be much the same as the question you ask now.  Let
us, then, see what I wrote in response to your initial question: 

"To set a background when you start up openbox, there are many ways, but
one of these is just to put the command to set the background in your
.xinitrc or .xsession, whichever of these files you use.  At the moment
the bgmenu does not modify these files, so it can't, in this manner,
make the background persistent across settings.

"However, I have a suggestion that you might like to try.  You could
modify the bsetbg source for it to print the command that it uses to set
the background into a file (eg. ~/.bsetbg-last-background or something
like that).  This way, whenever the bsetbg command is run, it updates
this file.  Then, you could `source ~/.bsetbg-last-background` in your
.xinitrc so that it will automatically display the most recently used
background on startup.

"bsetbg is written in Bash, so writing this modification would not be
difficult.  If you succeed, I'm sure many people would be interested in
using it too!"

Well, Michael, that is what I wrote.  As I said, since openbox itself
does not handle the background, we must do it ourself, to whichever
degree of style we deem appropriate.  The example I gave was simply to
add one or two lines to a bash script (bsetbg), which would work to
serve your purpose simply and reliably.

Alternatively, we could go for a more highly engineered solution.  That
is, of course, to run openbox inside a GNOME session (ie., but running
gnome-session in your .xinitrc).  GNOME sessions automatically include a
running daemon called the gnome-settings-daemon.  This charming little
process does such handy things as setting your desktop background, and
remembering it on the next session startup.  You can get this little
fellow to change the background by using the GNOME background
preferences window (packaged generally with the GNOME control-centre),
or by using bsetbg with the --gnome argument (ie., put bsetbg --gnome
inside a pipe menu entry in your menu file).

So, there you have it, dear old friend.  Two ways of moving "outside the
box" and achieving your goal of a persistent desktop background in
perfect harmony with the openbox window manager.  Good luck with your
endeavours, and please do not hesistate to keep us informed of your
progress and to ask many, many more questions.

To infinity and beyond!

- Tim
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