FluxBox Select fluxbox

H

Haines

I'm new to FreeBSD. My aim is to switch its default twm window manager to fluxbox. I installed xorg and fluxbox. I can start X system OK.
I created a .xinitrc file for both root and user and entered the line: exec /usr/local/bin/startfirefox. But when I startX I only get the twm window
manager. # pkg info indicates that fluxbox is installed but installation did not create a .fluxbox directory. With FreeBSD does fluxbox
installation automatically create the .fluxbox directory? Do I need to check to see if all the dependencies are installed?
 
If that's not a typo, that's what happened. You put startfirefox which isn't a command and so it starts twm by default.

It should be
Code: 
exec startfluxbox
 
T-Daemon said:
Is that a typo in your posting or do you have startfirefox set there instead of startfluxbox?
Click to expand...
That was indeed a typo. Sorry. Problem starting fluxbox is that twm starts before it does. Where is the default window manager selected?
I do not run any desktop environment.
 
Thanks T-Daemon. That did it. I had never looked at man startx to realize its capabilities. Incidentally I see that
starting fluxbox does create its .fluxbox directory. I found that I already had x11/xinit installed, and so in xinitrc I simply
commented the twm line and added line with path to startfluxbox. But startx by itself fails to load fluxbox. One problem
seems to be absence of a .serverath file in user's home directory, this did not seem to hat the loading process. But thern
xinit: connection to X server lost. I find that my fluxbox manager on FreeBSD lacks a right mouse button menu
needed to configure fluxbox.
 
The serverauth file generates error messages but shouldn't stop it from starting. The startx command does a lot of things, and may, for example, take awhile if it can't find the hostname. What happens if you just do
Code: 
xinit
instead of startx?

Also, do you have the usual files inside your ~/.fluxbox directory such as menu?
 
Haines said:
I found that I already had x11/xinit installed, and so in xinitrc I simply
commented the twm line and added line with path to startfluxbox.
Click to expand...
That's not the place to set your window manager to start. The appropriate place is the users home directory, in .xinitrc, unless a login manager is used. When x11/xinit is updated that file you are using now will be overwritten.

Haines said:
But startx by itself fails to load fluxbox.
Click to expand...
How do you start Fluxbox then?

Haines said:
I find that my fluxbox manager on FreeBSD lacks a right mouse button menu
needed to configure fluxbox.
Click to expand...
Test installed Fluxbox, right mouse button menu present.
 
Darn, I missed that one. As T-Daemon says, the xinitrc file should be in your home directory, usually abbreviated as ~ or $HOME. It should also have a dot in front of it, making it a hidden file. So you should have a $HOME/.xinitrc with, at least
Code: 
exec startfluxbox
in it.
 
T-Daemon said:
That's not the place to set your window manager to start. The appropriate place is the users home directory, in .xinitrc, unless a login manager is used. When x11/xinit is updated that file you are using now will be overwritten.


How do you start Fluxbox then?


Test installed Fluxbox, right mouse button menu present.
Click to expand...
I managed to start fluxbox by replacing .~/xinit with ~/.xinitrc. Menu problem persists, but I won't pursue because that should be another thread. I modified init, startup and keys files
with effect. It is only menu that fails to work. There is a ~/.fluxbox/init file that has line: session.menuFile: ~.fluxbox/menu. The menu file does exist. I created a ~.fluxbox/usermenu file
and modified init to use it, but still no go. But not a game changer, for I use fluxbox keys rather than its menu.
 
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