Openbox Window Manager

Openbox is a lightweight window manager for Linux and BSD.

openbox on Debian trixie

Installation

sudo apt install openbox

To add a status bar, I use polybar

sudo apt install polybar

Openbox global configuration stored in /etc/xdg/openbox, just create a local configuration bay copying to user config folder

mkdir -p ~/.config/openbox
cp -a /etc/xdg/openbox ~/.config/

The main configuration of openbox is ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml, it can use to set a keyboard shortcut. I modify several shorcuts

Open dmenu using Control + Alt + space :

<keybind key="C-A-space">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>dmenu_run</command>
	</action>
</keybind>

Open xfce4-terminal using Control + Alt + t :

<keybind key="C-A-t">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>xfce4-terminal</command>
	</action>
</keybind>

Take a screenshoot using xfce4-screenshooter with Print key :

<keybind key="Print">
	<action name="Execute">
		<command>xfce4-screenshooter</command>
	</action>
</keybind>

Open Thunar file manager using Windows key + E :

<keybind key="W-e">
    <action name="Execute">
		<command>thunar</command>
	</action>
</keybind>

autostart file is used to automatically start applications after login to Openbox.

This is the script to set wallpaper randomly from Pictures folder using feh and run polybar

feh --randomize --bg-fill ~/Pictures/* &
polybar &