[openbox] Fighting Gnome

[Robbie Smith]

On 13/07/13 04:49, Johan Vromans wrote:
> Robbie Smith <zoqaeski at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> I use `systemd --user` as my session manager, so everything in
>> ~/.xinitrc is commented out, ~/.xprofile starts iBus (though that
>> could be put in ~/.config/openbox/environment), and my autostart file
>> starts systemd, sets my keyboard layout (xkb), starts the screensaver
>> daemon and orage for a calendar. It’s very tidy and easy to control.
>
> This sounds attractive, but I cannot quite work out how you did it.
>
>   - xinit starts X and runs ~/.xinitrc
>
>   - ~/.xinitrc is empty (commented out)
>
>   - ???
>
> Assuming you run openbox from ~/.xinitrc:
>
>   - OpenBox is started
>
>   - OpenBox runs autostart
>
>   - autostart runs systemd --user
>
>   - ???
>
> Please help.
>
> -- Johan

It’s pretty involved to set up, but I wrote a “tutorial” here:
https://github.com/zoqaeski/systemd-user-units

You’ll (probably) need the latest and most up-to-date versions of 
everything (I don’t know what version of systemd et al your distribution 
ships; I use Arch Linux) or the features might not be available. Even on 
the current stable release all this stuff is considered somewhat 
experimental, i.e. it works and probably won’t crash, but it’s not fully 
supported and there’s next to no documentation.

I use a login manager (lightdm). While it is theoretically possible to 
start X itself with your own systemd session, I’ve never bothered with 
it. Lightdm runs a few system-wide xinitrc scripts, starts Openbox, and 
then Openbox’s autostart starts `systemd --user`. There are a few 
userland daemons I have which systemd cannot control properly, 
Pulseaudio being one of them.

Your mileage may vary.