Ive heard about fluxbox before, and decided i wanted to test it out for myself. On Ubuntu I started up Synaptic and installed fluxbox, then once finished cntrl+alt+backspaced and loaded into it. I got some of the basics down so far, I cant remember exactly how but I managed to get a desktop wallpaper, and I switched my theme. Heres a list of things id like to know how to set up.

Whats a good way to change the Desktop Wallpaper?

Is there any way to get icons on the Desktop?

Whats a good File Manager? I had to install Thunar, which is nice id like to see some other suggestions.

How do I change the Keyboard Shortcuts? Basicly I just want to make the Windows Key minimize everything.

How do I remove the Desktop Switcher from the Taskbar? I just want to use [one], as the default and only desktop.

How do i remove the X and Y coordinates when moving a window? I dont mind that the window wont show when moving and only an outline but I would like to know how to disable that little box.

Whats a good Terminal to use with it, or is Terminal [Gnome] or Xterm fine?

How do I update Ubuntu and get to the Update Manager? Will it work the same, and come into the application tray when it finds updates available without me checking?

Thank You for your time, I currently have Gnome, KDE4, Fluxbox, and XFCE installed on my Ubuntu distro but to be honest I wanted to like KDE4 and tried it but I just personally didnt like it. My XFCE for some reason wont boot load, I imagine I didnt grab something off synaptic. Fluxbox I do like alot, second to Gnome but I think once I learn more about it like some of the things listed here I will switch over.

Whats a good way to change the Desktop Wallpaper?
feh, fbsetbg, xsetroot, etc.

Is there any way to get icons on the Desktop?
idesk, rox

Whats a good File Manager?
I like thunar, but pcmanfm comes to mind.

How do I change the Keyboard Shortcuts?
~/.fluxbox/keys

How do I remove the Desktop Switcher from the Taskbar?
I believe it's ~/.fluxbox/init

How do i remove the X and Y coordinates when moving a window?
I believe it's ~/.fluxbox/init

Whats a good Terminal to use with it, or is Terminal [Gnome] or Xterm fine?
Those terms are fine, I use urxvt though.

How do I update Ubuntu and get to the Update Manager? Will it work the same, and come into the application tray when it finds updates available without me checking?
Not sure what you mean. Sorry.


It's been a while since I've used flux day to day so some of this may be incorrect. I'm sure markjensen will come along soon and correct me if I'm wrong .

Nice I found out a good way to set it for people wondering, first open a terminal and do fbsetbg "/location/of/wallpaper.jpg" wherever and whatever the file and file extension may be, and it should set as the background.

Next I did "sudo gedit ~/.fluxbox/init" But you can also do sudo thunar to use the file manager to navigate to the file you wana edit as sudo and double click. I image youd have to change gedit also if you dont have the gnome text editor.

then I changed
session.screen0.rootCommand:

to
session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -l

which sets your wallpaper on boot to what you had it set to last, which would of been the fbsetbg "/location/of/wallpaper.jpg"

I found out how to do it here http://fluxbox-wiki.org/index.php/Howto_set_the_background but still took me a bit to get it right.

Idesk is fairly difficult to use, do you know if i could just copy my gnome desktop icons to it and use those?

I havnt yet tried anything else in the init file or changing the keybinds, and Thunar is actually really good for a file manager I was wondering if there might be anything else. As for Updates, I was just wondering how I would access them from fluxbox but If your not on Ubuntu you might not know what im talking about because its probably a little different than Arch if thats what your on.

On Ubuntu the way to update the system would be to open up your terminal of choice and do a "sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade". That is equivalent to what the update manager does, although you'll have to run it manually. There is probably some way to get the update manager working in Fluxbox for those nice automatic update reminders, however I am using Arch with KDE, so I can't be of any more help in that department, sorry.

Here is a guide that I started up on Fluxbox, and was contributed to by many other Neowin members. I think it is quite good.
http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=330008

As for some of your specific points, I don't use idesk or any other such desktop icon stuff. I found that I rather like a clean desktop.

I use Thunar, myself. I also have a fondness for konqueror as a file browser. I think if you are looking for a light 'explorer' then xfe may be what you are after. It is supposed to be lighter than thunar.
http://roland65.free.fr/xfe/

I use xubuntu with fluxbox installed, and I use the standard Ubuntu update manager. It even checks for updates periodically. I added the command to start it in my ~/.fluxbox/startup file, and it sits there in the panel and alerts me if there are updates available, just like other *buntu editions. I think it is called "update-monitor" or some such. I would have to check and post it for you after I confirm it when I get home (I am on a break at work at the moment).

I hope this is helpful to you.

Thanks for the guide, I've looked over it and bookmarked it for when I want to further customize Fluxbox.

Yea idesk can be good if you know how to use it and have the patience, but I think another option would be is it possible to get shortcuts on the taskbar?

Yea Thunar is really good, I have no quirks with it I'm just not so familiar with file managers commonly used for Fluxbox, I've actually tried Rox and it was good but I still personally prefer Thunar although I will give that file manager you linked a try.

As for the update manager I'm not really that concerned with it because for now I'm just setting it up but I will reference the guide you linked to help set it up for future use.

Thank you for your help

Here is the information on the Ubuntu update checking app.

In your ~/.fluxbox/startup file, just add in
update-notifier &
into the spot where you set background and other items before the line that starts fluxbox. That is the 'tray' app that will pop an alert icon in your panel when there are updates available (there is no icon until updates are found).

As for launchers, I am not sure if those can be easily done in the main panel, but I know that the slit can hold little apps that include launchers. I don't use the slit at all. I tried it for maybe a day, but I just didn't much care for it, personally. Here is some information: http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net/docbook/en/.../chap-slit.html

I am not an expert in fluxbox, but I have used it for many years. So if you have any other questions that pop up, just ask.