fluxbox help needed

[spowel4]

Calling Blackbelt_Jones (or any other fluxbox fan who can lend a hand ;)):

My laptop, a pentium 4 1.7ghz which I got over 5 years ago, is starting to show its age and it's becoming really slow. I've been running Ubuntu on it (and I still am because I really like Ubuntu) with the default Gnome desktop. But Gnome is getting to be too resource hungry for my old beast and I've decided to switch to Fluxbox since it's much lighter than Gnome. I'm slowly figuring out how to configure the thing and I'm liking it more as I go along.
Anyway, to my question: I can't seem to get firefox to use any themes, it's just stuck with the standard gray colors. Is there any way around this?

[E1PHOTON]

If memory serves me right, I believe Firefox uses it's own theme engine(like gnome uses gtk and kde uses qt. The window border is handled by your window manager but the actually theme that friefox uses is handled by firefox itself. So you'll have to go out and nab, or create, a firefox theme to match your fluxbox theme.

[Calipso]

just curious...why is it getting slow all of a sudden? Or was it always slow and you just used to put up with it?

[blackbelt_jones]

just curious...why is it getting slow all of a sudden? Or was it always slow and you just used to put up with it?

One hypothesis: as computers in general become more powerful, operating systems become more resource-hungry. This trait is more pronounced in Windows, but GNU/Linux is not entirely immune.

I'm sorry, I can't help you much with this. My initial response on reading your post was "My God! Firefox has themes?"

Maybe you can find some way to take firefox's look into your hands using one of the skajillions of available plugins, or extenstions,

Based on something I read once, I have a vague hunch that if firefox was integrating itelf into your gnome themes, gtk mighht have something to do with that.

I can barely hold my head up, gnite.

[xrx]

You could either edit ~/.fluxbox and add:
gnome-settings-daemon &
before the "exec /usr/bin/fluxbox" line, or you could change the GTK theme yourself. Instead of editing the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file manually, it's much easier to use gtk-chtheme, just type in "sudo apt-get install gtk-chtheme", and type gtk-chtheme in a terminal. Choose your old theme, and click on apply.

[spowel4]

just curious...why is it getting slow all of a sudden? Or was it always slow and you just used to put up with it?
It's been gradually getting slower and I've been putting up with it. The switch to fluxbox from gnome was spurred by when I installed ubuntu 8.04 and the laptop was almost unusable it was so slow. So I went back to ubuntu 7.10 and decided to give fluxbox a try.

[spowel4]

You could either edit ~/.fluxbox and add:
gnome-settings-daemon &
before the "exec /usr/bin/fluxbox" line, or you could change the GTK theme yourself. I've got that line in ~/.fluxbox/startup already but apparently it has no effect.

[spowel4]

If memory serves me right, I believe Firefox uses it's own theme engine(like gnome uses gtk and kde uses qt. The window border is handled by your window manager but the actually theme that friefox uses is handled by firefox itself. So you'll have to go out and nab, or create, a firefox theme to match your fluxbox theme. Bingo! Installing a theme for firefox did the trick, thanks! I should have thought of something that simple earlier.

[blackbelt_jones]

:) I'm going to have to try this.

[Calipso]

It's been gradually getting slower and I've been putting up with it. The switch to fluxbox from gnome was spurred by when I installed ubuntu 8.04 and the laptop was almost unusable it was so slow. So I went back to ubuntu 7.10 and decided to give fluxbox a try.

Oh I see. So its every new version just gets slower. I thought you meant that you were running the same OS all along and it just started getting slower.

[mrrangerman43]

I like fluxbox, but I have a oooooold laptop p1 233, trying to run it with Gnome was hopeless Fluxbox made a world of difference, it's at least usable. Then I gave Xfce a try and it made an even more noticable difference. So if you find your laptop is lagging a bit you may give Xfce a try. (I'm not trying to get anything started here) I just found that even for a p1 its still a usable system more so with Xfce as a WM.

[blackbelt_jones]

I like fluxbox, but I have a oooooold laptop p1 233, trying to run it with Gnome was hopeless Fluxbox made a world of difference, it's at least usable. Then I gave Xfce a try and it made an even more noticable difference. So if you find your laptop is lagging a bit you may give Xfce a try. (I'm not trying to get anything started here) I just found that even for a p1 its still a usable system more so with Xfce as a WM.

Well, you won't get any argument from me. I like Fluxbox because of the utter simplicity Iof the single drop-down menu, the attractive look of a nice clear screen and the easy portability of the configuration files. But if it's lightness and speed you want, there are plenty of alternatives. I don't doubt it when IssacKuo says that IceWM is lighter than fluxbox, and I occasionally like to use fvwm and twm.

XCFE is a real desktop environment, which means that it's organized around a "desktop", a persistent GUI interface that endeavors to give the user constant access to files and information of the user's choice. I have been diagnosed with ADHD, and I find Desktop environments to be distracting. Fluxbox is a window manager. There is no chaotic Desktop environment, just a single menu organized simply and naturally, like a Table of Contents, or the outline for a term paper. I find that really helpful, but that's just me.

In my opinion XFCE is the most configurable of the better-known Desktop environments, You can program every item on every drop-down menu, and choose every one. It can be time-consuming, but the end result can be pretty cool.

[panther3e]

I have recently tried wmii window manager. It is a tiling type. Very very simple. I use it when I need to do several heavy duty things at the same time. It is a bit confusing at first, but there is a help window that pops up the first time you run it. After an hour I was completely at ease with. Its worth a look.

Kelean.