Favorite Openbox Configs
Posted on 2015-02-25
As an Openbox user, I like to tinker. This should not surprise anyone who's used this window manager - it's highly configurable, and very easy to customize.
I thought it might be worth sharing some of my favorite customizations from my netbook machine that make it much more usable.
Toggle fullscreen
Netbook space is limited, so I often switch whatever application I'm using to fullscreen, so that every pixel I have is utilized. Since window managers manage windows (shock! horror!), Openbox has this capability. I have it bound to the F11 key using the following lines in my rc.xml:
<keybind key="F11">
<action name="ToggleFullscreen"/>
</keybind>
Application Preferences
Openbox also lets you change settings on a per-application basis. For instance, I use my netbook as an alarm clock, so I always have an xclock running in the upper right corner.
At first, I had xclock launch at startup and manually moved it each day. Now that I've added the following configuration, it automatically appears where it should, doesn't take up space in the pager, appears on all desktops, and has no title bar or window decorations to boot!
<application name="xclock">
<decor>no</decor>
<shade>no</shade>
<skip_pager>yes</skip_pager>
<skip_taskbar>yes</skip_taskbar>
<fullscreen>no</fullscreen>
<maximized>no</maximized>
<desktop>all</desktop>
<position force="yes">
<x>-30</x>
<y>15</y>
</position>
<layer>below</layer>
</application>
If you'd like to see a great Openbox configuration, try out Crunchbang. It is my very favorite distribution, and has the best defaults around.
If you know of any other awesome Openbox tricks, let me know in the comments!
Tags: linux