Fluxbox ignores my menu changes

[Silent Bob]

I have just installed fluxbox via apt-get (I am using debian woody but I got the testing version of fluxbox). And I don't like the default layout of the menu. So I start editing ~/.fluxbox/menu save it and restart fluxbox.

No effect.

So I check if my menufile is as I left it. It is.
Also I no longer have the extra workspaces I added.

Is there somewhere funny that debian keeps it's fluxbox config that overrides what I have set in my home directory?

I had a look in /etc/X11/fluxbox and found files named fluxbox-menu, init and keys.

The fluxbox docs said that init contains a line which points to the menu file to use so I had a look at init and sure enough it points to ~/.fluxbox/menu

fluxbox-menu contains the default debian fluxbox menu, but it isn't called anywhere in init.

the version of fluxbox that I have is 0.1.10-2

I am lost at the moment :)

thanks


I just edited /etc/X11/fluxbox/fluxbox-menu and the changes took effect!
This isn't what the docs siad would happen, they said that my ~/.fluxbox/menu should be used instead :confused:

[TacKat]

In your .fluxbox/init file, you need to set the appropriate path to your menu file, ie. ~/.fluxbox/menu (actually IIRC you need to expand ~ to /home/whatever/).

[smokybobo]

That is because debian has its own menu system for X programs. To get a leg up on this system, you can read this (http://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/menu.html/).

If you want your own custom menu (like how it looks on my desktop below), you will need to override the default menu files for fluxbox as per the debian docs at the above link.

[Silent Bob]

Thanks smokybobo, just what I was looking for.

though how do you put entries in the 'root' menu? When I leave the section= entry blank update-menus complains that there needs to be a section entry.

[smokybobo]

Originally posted by Silent Bob
Thanks smokybobo, just what I was looking for.

though how do you put entries in the 'root' menu? When I leave the section= entry blank update-menus complains that there needs to be a section entry.

You just specify "/" for example:

?package(local.custom-menu):needs=x11 section="/" title="Galeon - News" command="galeon -l news" priority="a3"


btw, if you want entries to be "above" the default debian entries, you will need to implement sorting (which is what the priority attribute does in the above example but not by default... you'll have to enable it in ~/.menu-methods/fluxbox).

[philip42]

smokybobo,
Was that a desktop pager I saw in the slit on your screenie? Where'd that come from? I want one of my own! :D

[smokybobo]

Originally posted by philip42
smokybobo,
Was that a desktop pager I saw in the slit on your screenie? Where'd that come from? I want one of my own! :D

Yes, that's bbpager. Most distros should have a package of it, but if you like compiling your own, you can go to http://bbtools.thelinuxcommunity.org/ and download the source for it and other utilities for blackbox and blackbox-related window managers.