Blackbox in Mandrake

[mrBen]

OK - I've been fiddling about with Blackbox on my Mandy 7.2 box, and it's sweet. :) Problem is that I can't seem to change any settings. Mandrakes menu program sets up the menu automatically and the blackbox man page tells me not te edit that. So I have been editing the .blackboxrc file in my home directory. I tried to change the style line to use a different style (say gnoid) but when I restart blackbox the file returns to the way it was before.

Any ideas?

Oh, BTW, I really like blackbox but I have no documentation and the documentation linked on the website is at bb.themes.org, and doesn't appear to be there anymore. Anyone know where a mirror is?

[X_console]

You can't edit the .blackboxrc when blackbox is running. You need to do it when blackbox is not running, so drop off X and edit it and then make the change. However, I don't see why you can't make the change in Style by simply using the menu. That should automatically update the changes. If Mandrake is changing it for you at bootup, find the offending line that does it in the configuration files and comment it out.

[mrBen]

Aha. Thanks for that.

The styles menu. Hmmm - I've heard of that. It appears, however, that Mandrake hasn't! While I really like MenuDrake, and automatically getting the same menu on all window managers, it appears that in this instance they have failed. I have no styles menu :( In fact, I have no configuration details at all, and only a tiny man page, which makes the whole thing rather difficult. I still only have the grey grid as a background - I could do with some nice wallpaper!!

[kozumo]

Blackbox's configuration is supposed to be simple. Even if you can't find what you want on the manpage, you can probably find some example .blackboxrc or menu files on the web (try google).

Secondly, it sounds like what's happening is that whenever you fire up blackbox it uses the default .blackboxrc which is located at /etc/X11/blackbox (usually), which you cannot modify unless you are root (and you don't want to do that). However, you should still be able to change to other styles regardless of permissions (but of course check that the permissions for the other styles are readable).

The best solution is to make your own .blackboxrc in your home directory, then specify which menu file you want (i.e., the system's, namely /etc/X11/blackbox/menu or your own).

You can either store the styles in your home directory ~/.blackbox/styles or use the system's.

Hope that helps!
Blackbox is so simple, you should be able to whip up your own styles in no time!

[z0mbix]

Try this page (http://www.xs4all.nl/~wbsoft/linux/blackbox/blackbox.1.html). It seems to cover most bb things.

:D

[mrBen]

Way to say RTFM Cheeky Zombie :p

For your info (ie I don't need more replies, thanx for all your help :D ) the man page I have seems to be a cut down version, which has no useful info. I think Mandrake must've been playing with it. I was previously using the .blackboxrc file from my home directory, but hadn't exited Blackbox to edit it. I think what I will do is set up a script that copies the Mandrake menu file, which is generated automagically, and adds it to a menu that I have configured, so that I get the best of both worlds.

[I won't be using Mandrake much longer. As soon as I get my new harddrive I shall be switching to SuSE for a while, as I got 7.1 professional edition free!! Which reminds me, I must change my sig ;) Debian is still :cool: though]