Blackbox FAQ

Blackbox FAQ

A Russian translated version is available at http://gazette.linux.ru.net/etc/bb-faq.html. (Previously at http://alterart.boom.ru/linux/bb-faq.html.) (Thanks to Pavel < cobalt @ non-conformism.com >.)

Information compiled from mailing list.... John Kennis, Gregory J. Barlow, beef(niggard.org), Brett Williams, Bradley T. Hughes, Steve Carter, Chris Brown, Aaron M., David W. Talmage, Kevin Miller, Brock Sides, Jesse Becker, Jan Ruediger, Matthew R. Briggs, Mark Charlebois, and probably others... (The official website is at http://blackbox.alug.org/.)

I have used Blackbox for over two years and I have not tried all the options, tools or patches. Please send any clarifications and suggestions for this FAQ to jeremy@reedmedia.net. Please do not send questions to me, unless you have an answer with it; consider reading this FAQ and the manual page, and then asking the mailing list if you have questions.

Key Grabs

1 Why can't I use my keys to change windows? My Modifiers won't work.
2 How do I choose my own keystrokes for changing windows?
3 What is Mod1?
4 What are the common mouse and keystroke commands?
5 I am losing keystrokes, for example CTRL-S won't save in nedit.

Installation

1 What if I want to launch ??? automatically?
2 How can I compile under Solaris?

Miscellaneous

1 Can you put icons on a blackbox desktop?
2 Window moves and redrawing are really slow. What can I do?

Usage

1 How can I change the background?
2 What is the (Un)Stick menu item used for in the window menu?
3 How can I get a minimized window (or app) back?
4 How do I resize the toolbar? How can I move the toolbar?
5 Can I get rid of the toolbar?

Support for other Desktop Environments

1 Kpanel (or other KDE apps) don't work correctly.
2 What about GNOME support?

The Slit

1 What is the Slit?
2 How do I enable the Slit?
3 What does the menu do when you click in the slit? and How do you specify where the slit is drawn?

Configuration

1 How can I have blank seperator line in menus?
2 What are the focus models (focusModel)?
3 How can I have the window come to the front after it holds the focus for, say 500ms?
4 How do you get the toolbar to display the date and time?

Patches

1 What about extras (patches) to Blackbox?
2 How do I use a patch?

Themes/Styles

1 Where can I find more styles or themes?

Key Grabs

1 Why can't I use my keys to change windows? My Modifiers won't work.

My hotkeys won't work. What happened to the key grab support? Since version 0.60.x, Blackbox does not handle the keyboard. You should use an external program like bbkeys (http://movingparts.thelinuxcommunity.org/bbkeys.shtml). Blackbox is attempting to be ICCCM (Inter-Client Communications Conventions Manual) compatible.

2 How do I choose my own keystrokes for changing windows?

For example, in your .blackboxrc file:

session.windowCycleModifier:    Mod1

Possibilities: Shift, Lock, Control, Mod1, Mod2, Mod3, Mod4, Mod5

3 What is Mod1?

Mod1 is usually Alt. It is the modifier used for switching windows and desktops, on your machine it may be Alt by default.

4 What are the common mouse and keystroke commands?

Alt-TAB in the root window cycles through the open windows, bringing one to the front each time Alt-TAB is pressed.

Shift-Alt-TAB in the root window is like Alt-TAB but it cycles windows in the reverse direction.

Double-Button1 on the titlebar of a window toggles the windowshade effect.

Ctrl-Button1 on the titlebar of a window has the same effect as Double-Button1.

Ctrl-Alt-{Left,Right}Arrow in the root window cycles through the workspaces.

Button3 or Ctrl-Button3 on the workspace name in the toolbar lets you change the name of the current workspace.

Button3 in the root window displays the application menu.

Button3 on the titlebar of a window displays the window function menu.

Middle click on the maximize button and it maximizes vertically. Left click maximizes horizontally.

Middleclick on titlebars lowers window.

Button 3 is the menu hide button.

5 I am losing keystrokes, for example CTRL-S won't save in nedit.

Try turning off the Num-lock and Caps-lock from within the application having the troubles.

Installation

1 What if I want to launch ??? automatically?

You can start it from your .xinitrc or .xsession before you start Blackbox.

For example, my ~/.xsession file:

#!/bin/sh

loadmeter -override -geom 40x94+1+382 &
rxvt -fn 6x13 -geometry 80x24+45+25 &

exec blackbox

2 How can I compile under Solaris?

In the Makefile, add -fpermissive to the CXXFLAGS.

Apparently, gcc doesn't like the old-style Sun X headers. You may be able to work around this problem, by making a local copy of the headers and fix them (by adding the missing int return type to all the prototypes). Then use:
./configure --x-includes=<your_new_directory>

Miscellaneous

1 Can you put icons on a blackbox desktop?

Use: kfm (KDE filemanager), gmc (GNOME filemanager), xfm (X filemanager) ...

2 Window moves and redrawing are really slow. What can I do?

If your style uses a gradient for your window.frame resource, the rendering may be slow on low-end machines. Changing the window.frame resource to a Raised Solid (or something similar) will greatly increase the speed.

Also... edit the style file you're using, e.g. /usr/local/share/Blackbox/styles/default, and set moveStyle to Wire instead of Opaque.

You may also be able to speed up Blackbox by:

strip blackbox

Usage

1 How can I change the background?

Use wmsetbg, XV, xsetroot, or ... For example:

xv -root -quit -max -smooth ~/blackbox/styles/LoveHewett/Love1.jpg

2 What is the (Un)Stick menu item used for in the window menu?

It sticks (unsticks) the application onto the desktop, so it is visible on all desktops (workspaces).

3 How can I get a minimized window (or app) back?

Mouse 2 brings up menu, of which a submenu will be 'Icons'. Select from this list.

4 How do I resize the toolbar? How can I move the toolbar?

Is there a way to configure Blackbox, so that you can have the toolbar at the top of your screen opposed to the bottom? (In your .blackboxrc file:)

session.screen0.toolbarWidthPercent:    [0-100] ; percentage
session.screen0.toolbarPlacement:       [bottom|top]

5 Can I get rid of the toolbar?

A patch for removing the toolbar is available at http://blackbox.linuxbox.com/. - How can I have Blackbox automatically create a second workspace by default on startup? Blackbox saves the workspace-info on restart and exit. So if you have created a new workspace, it will be there on the next startup. Middle-click on the root window (that's the background). If you have a two-button mouse, clicking both the right and left buttons of the mouse should be equivalent to a double-click. A menu should pop up. Select "New Workspace." That new workspace should still be there the next time you start X.

Support for other Desktop Environments

1 Kpanel (or other KDE apps) don't work correctly.

Compile Blackbox with KDE support:

./configure --enable-kde

If you have Blackbox with kde-support and kpanel doesn't work you can try:

kpanel -no-KDE-compliant-window-manager

For more information about using KDE with blackbox, read the Integrating KDE and Blackbox HOWTO at http://www.draknor.net/kbb/howto/index.html.

2 What about GNOME support?

You can add minimal GNOME support by applying a patch you can get at gnome.windsofstorm.net.

The Slit

1 What is the Slit?

The slit is another window on the screen for placing WindowMaker-type dockapps -- and you will only see it if you are running dockapps.

A WindowMaker 'dockapp' is a program just like any other that you would run. Usually, they do a *single* thing, like display the current time, or show CPU usage. You can (usually) run them by themselves, and they will pop up in a small window controlled by whatever window-manager you happen to be using.

What makes dockapps special is that they can be 'swallowed' under certain circumstances. This means that they loose some of the usual properties that most windows have: stuff like title-bars, scrollbars, resize handles, and the like. The flip side of this is that they (usually) get placed into the Wharf/Dock/Slit. This tends to mean a few things: they are always present on your desktop, regardless of what 'workspace' you are currently using; they are grouped together, so that you don't have to go hunting all over the place to find them; sometimes, depending on the implementation, they can be 'always on top.'

Dockapps are available at:
http://bbtools.windsofstorm.net
http://bensinclair.com/dockapp/
http://windowmaker.mezaway.org/

Screenshots:
http://blackbox.wiw.org/screenshots/blackbox-theme.{gif,jpg,tif}
http://themes.org/current/FORTYoz-current.jpg
http://home.midsouth.rr.com/biermans/ (located on the far right side, center screen.)

2 How do I enable the Slit?

To enable the slit, you need to [--enable-slit] when you compile blackbox.

3 What does the menu do when you click in the slit? and How do you specify where the slit is drawn?

In the slit menu you can choose the position of the slit. Possible positions are Top left, Center left, Bottom left, Top right, Center right and bottom right

Configuration

1 How can I have blank seperator line in menus?

Use [nop] as in:

[nop] (--------)

[nop]

2 What are the focus models (focusModel)?

ClickToFocus
SloppyFocus
FocusFollowsMouse ??
AutoRaiseSloppyFocus

3 How can I have the window come to the front after it holds the focus for, say 500ms?

(Set in your ~/.blackboxrc and restart blackbox)

session.screen#.focusModel: AutoRaiseSloppyFocus
session.autoRaiseDelay: 500

4 How do you get the toolbar to display the date and time?

Edit ~/.blackboxrc using format from date (man date or man strftime) to change.
%D will also give you mm/dd/yy.

session.screen0.strftimeFormat: %I:%M%P %m/%d/%y

session.screen0.strftimeFormat: %I:%M %p

Patches

1 What about extras (patches) to Blackbox?

http://blackbox.linuxbox.com/
http://www.holoweb.net/ubb/
http://www4.ncsu.edu/~rjmorris/blackbox
http://www.draknor.net/kbb/

2 How do I use a patch?

First change to your Blackbox compile directory. For a normal (an unzipped, untarred format, plain text) patch:

patch -p0 < name.patch

Or for a gzip patch do :

gzip -cd name.patch.gz | patch -p0

The -p0 could be -p1 or -p2 or even greater, this option just strips parts of the paths of the filenames defined in the patch file. For example. if path is /src/Window.cc

-p0 : blackbox/src/Window.cc
-p1 : src/Window.cc
-p2 : Window.cc

(If -p0 patch complains it cannot find filename, try -p1 etc.) Then make and optionally make install.

Themes/Styles

1 Where can I find more styles or themes?

You can find over 450 blackbox styles or themes via http://bb.themes.org/.

Please send any clarifications and suggestions for this FAQ to jeremy@reedmedia.net. Please do not send questions to me, unless you have an answer with it; consider reading this FAQ and the manual page, and then asking the mailing list if you have questions.