Openbox in GNOME - setting the keyboard shortcuts

As the “window manager” Openbox being much more responsive than the default one called Metacity - it proved to be a great replacement expecially on my slower notebook. Much faster/responsive when doing all kinds of gui tasks - opening/closing a window, switching workspaces, etc.

Install on Ubuntu 10.04

sudo apt-get install openbox obconf

Starting Openbox

Press Alt-F2 and enter:

openbox --replace

However, as using the keyboard is at times much faster than using the mouse, some normal GNOME/metacity shortcuts are missing - I did as below to add the main keyboard shortcuts I use:

Add the section below to your openbox config file:

gedit ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

Find the </keyboard> line and add the following in a new line just above it:

<!-- my custom Keybindings -->
<keybind key="A-F1">
  <action name="execute">
    <execute>gnome-panel-control --main-menu</execute>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="A-F2">
  <action name="execute">
    <execute>gnome-panel-control --run-dialog</execute>
  </action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="A-F10">
  <action name="ToggleMaximizeFull"/>
</keybind>
<keybind key="A-F9">
  <action name="Iconify"/>
</keybind>
<keybind key="A-F7">
  <action name="Move"/>
</keybind>
<keybind key="A-F8">
  <action name="Resize"/>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-A-d">
  <action name="ToggleShowDesktop"/>
</keybind>
<keybind key="C-A-t">
  <action name="execute">
    <execute>gnome-terminal</execute>
  </action>
</keybind>

Let openbox reload your settings:

openbox --reconfigure

Done.

Adjusting the window manager theme

Go to System > Preferences > Openbox Configuration Mnanager

Auto start openbox

Go to System > Preferences > Startup Applications, press Add, enter some name, in the command, enter:

openbox --replace

Thanks to:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=75471

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Actions

http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:GNOME/Openbox



blog comments powered by Disqus

This ClearEvo.com blog is powered by Debian GNU/Linux, running lighttpd, generated using jekyll on Ubuntu.

Subscribe for new updates