Ubuntu – How to get Openbox as kde’s window manager

12.04kdemenuopenbox

I successfully installed Openbox on my laptop running Kubuntu 12.04
but when I login using the kde/openbox session, the desktop icons of kde, show me an
"open with ?" pop up, while the kmenu is almost empty and isn't showing any application entries (only leave, command, or favorites).

I couldn't find a way until now to establish a correct behaving of kde/openbox, so I would like to know where to find the method for configuring this.

Best Answer

Testing

Installing the openbox.

Making a new user.

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The KDE Menu is empty.

enter image description here

Trying to fix

Running the kbuildsycoca4 to rebuild the system configuration cache.

:~$ kbuildsycoca4 --help
Usage: kbuildsycoca4 [Qt-options] [KDE-options] [options] 

Rebuilds the system configuration cache.

Generic options:
  --help                    Show help about options
  --help-qt                 Show Qt specific options
  --help-kde                Show KDE specific options
  --help-all                Show all options
  --author                  Show author information
  -v, --version             Show version information
  --license                 Show license information
  --                        End of options

Options:
  --nosignal                Do not signal applications to update
  --noincremental           Disable incremental update, re-read everything
  --checkstamps             Check file timestamps
  --nocheckfiles            Disable checking files (dangerous)
  --global                  Create global database
  --menutest                Perform menu generation test run only
  --track <menu-id>         Track menu id for debug purposes

There is an error - missing files.

enter image description here

Starting the Dolphin file manager with the root rights (kdesudo dolphin).

Browsing to the /etc/xdg/menus/. There is the kde4-applications.menu but not the applications.menu.

Making a softlink / symlink from the applications.menu to the kde4-applications.menu (KDE drag&drop menu "link here").

enter image description here

Running the command:

kbuildsycoca4 --noincremental

again...

The KDE menu is now populated with the available applications.

enter image description here

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to Change the look of Openbox

Debian's OpenBox Page has a lot of what you're after in terms of customisation. Actually, it covers everything you're asking about (icons are part of the theme).

Ubuntu's own OpenBox page isn't bad either! It has a similar amount of information (it does look suspiciously similar!) but there are some Ubuntu-only notes in there too. Some of the information does look a little old (~2006 era), so be careful when basing your changes on the information there.

Ubuntu – How can window snap be enabled in Openbox

I know I can do this with keyboard shortcuts, but not with the mouse unfortunately. I do not think the openbox configuration file have support for a "on drag" mouse event.

<keybind key="W-Left">        # HalfLeftScreen
    <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
    <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><height>97%</height><width>50%</width></action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-Right">       # HalfRightScreen
    <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
    <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>-0</x><y>0</y><height>97%</height><width>50%</width></action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-Up">          # HalfUpperScreen
    <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
    <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>0</y><width>100%</width><height>50%</height></action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="W-Down">        # HalfLowerScreen
    <action name="UnmaximizeFull"/>
    <action name="MoveResizeTo"><x>0</x><y>-0</y><width>100%</width><height>50%</height></action>
</keybind>

If you want to do this with the mouse it will be a lot more tricky, but openbox does have mousebindings, but it does use the same actions. openbox does not really have a binding for dragging to one half of the screen though, so you will need to trigger it from something else.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to Change the look of Openbox

Ubuntu – How can window snap be enabled in Openbox

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