Image credit: Clair Ching, 2009.

I wanted something different from GNOME. So I switched back to Openbox. How I missed the way you could just edit things in a text editor when it comes to settings. Well, there’s still nifty tools like Obmenu to help you write the options in your right-click menu.

Things to do when you want a similar setup:
1. Install Openbox, Obmenu, grun.
I’ve been using GNOME before so I already had Gnome panel installed already. O also had Gnome-do so I am actually using it a lot.
2. After installing them, start tweaking with your setup.
You need to edit the following files:
a. ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml – your menu when you right click
b. ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml – keyboard shortcuts, mouse shortcuts are here
c. ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh – the apps would you like to start automatically when you log in

You could find some sample files in /etc/xdg/openbox :) You could just copy the files from there and stick with the defaults. Or tweak them as you see fit. :)

Editing the menu is easier with Obmenu because when you run Obmenu, you have a graphical user interface with everything on it. You could add the applications you want to launch via the right click menu. The part where it says command is where you type the command to launch the application.

In the menu.xml file, it’s the part with the “execute” tags. Whatever’s in between is your command.

The keyboard shortcuts are fun to think about in the rc.xml file. It really depends on your choice. I created a new keybinding in the keyboard section:

<!-- Keybindings for running grun -->
<keybind key="A-F2">
<action name="Execute">
<command>/usr/bin/grun</command>
</action>
</keybind>


When I press Alt-F2, the run dialog is launched. Even if you don’t have Gnome-do, at least you have a launcher of applications from there.

As for autostart.sh, I made sure that Gnome-panel would run once I log in so I appended this towards the end of the file:
gnome-panel &

I hope it works out for you :)