Help:Upgrading to 3.4

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(New page: There are a huge number of improvements and changes made in Openbox 3.4. This guide goes through all these changes and what they mean for users and themers. = The "I don't have time give ...)

Revision as of 20:23, 19 May 2007

There are a huge number of improvements and changes made in Openbox 3.4. This guide goes through all these changes and what they mean for users and themers.

Contents

The "I don't have time give me something fast" approach

There are a number of new things that you won't be able to take advantage of without updating your configuration file. One quick and easy way to get these features is to just delete your ~/.config/openbox/rc configuration file and set your config back up from there with Obconf:About or by hand.

What's new in version 3.4 ?

Bug fixes

During the development cycle for Openbox 3.4, we fixed and closed every bug listed in the bug tracker from previous versions. There's a big list of the bugs in the Openbox:Changelog, and we're not going to go through them all here. We're going to talk about the new things.


Menus

Combined client list menu

(thumbnail)
The new combined client list menu in Openbox 3.4

We've added a new client list menu. Instead of having a submenu for each desktop, it combines all your desktops into one menu. This menu is used by middle click on the desktop in the default configuration.

To show this menu, put the following into a keyboard or mouse binding:

<action name="ShowMenu"><menu>client-list-combined-menu</menu></action>
  • (link STARTUP) add startup notification support to the menus <startupnotify> . mention how this helps with focus stealing prevention. default to disabled for old apps though. DONT set it for older terminal programs, it will mess up anything that you launch from them.
  • combined client menu
  • no menu titles - instead separators with labels.
  • improved client menu - placement, the options in it, icon in all desktops menu
  • keyboard shortcuts in menus, by highlighted letter or by the first letter
  • menus dont jump around, are always placed on screen. better placement
  • menus can be infinite size, openbox will always display them all, "More..." entry
  • disabled menu items can be selected now (not used tho)
  • ()'s instead of separator for client list menus


Usability

  • new Root context, for if you want something to only work if there is no desktop window (like nautilus or kdesktop or rox desktop) in the way. desktop context still applies to the root window too.
  • new "alt-tab" focus switching dialog
  • openbox-session command and log-in option which provides autostart capability.
  • SCIM support in the default Openbox session
  • faster, more reliable
  • handle X server's clock going backwards, without locking up. sometimes the server can still lock up though, not recommended to do this!
  • better handling of window types (click focus docks and stuff)
    • utility windows move with the main windows
  • faster.. so much faster
  • better language support thru pango which is now mandatory
  • support windows which use true transparency
  • (link RESIZE) resize grips for the top, left, and right of the window frame -> need bindings in rc
  • smarter about keeping windows on the screen without invading user's capabilities
  • Add MoveFromEdge* actions corresponding to MoveToEdge* but aligns far edges instead of near edges, so if you have two overlapping windows you can easily put them side by side.
  • improved startup notification
  • (link STARTUP) add startup notification support to the menus <startupnotify> . mention how this helps with focus stealing prevention. default to disabled for old apps though. DONT set it for older terminal programs, it will mess up anything that you launch from them.
  • focus stealing prevention is the bomb
  • improve window placement across multiple monitors
  • more reliable focus handling? seems to lose it sometimes still/again..
  • 8 bit truecolor visuals (such as in vncserver)
  • better more friendly support for omnipresent windows
  • full support for EWMH 1.4-draft2
  • iconify/restore animation !
  • improved support for running openbox with multiple screens (non-xinerama) - focus handling
  • support for more cursors through XCursor, means that startup notification can use a pointer+watch cursor if you are using an XCursor theme
  • fully maximize terminal windows
  • show the hostname of clients running on remote computers in the titlebar
  • (link PANELS) add <panels> and <desktop> options to NextWindow PreviousWindow NextWindowNorth etc..
  • sync request resizing syncs with the application
  • smarter subdivision of windows into 9 sections for resizing
  • set default icon on windows
  • better support for programs that are on more than one desktop (multiple firefox windows for example)
  • (link CHROOT) chroots and quoting (vnc example)
  • new keychains popup, to show where you are in a keychain
  • improved show-desktop mode. when you open a new window, the old windows are not all restored
  • (link ALLDESK) add <allDesktops> option to NextWindow and PreviousWindow. the desktop name will be shown in the focus cycling popup
  • dynamically size the window and desktop dialogs. desktop layouts that aren't horizontal and tings.
  • support for legacy fullscreen applications such as vlc
  • session support for old clients that do not use the session management protocol
  • desktop setup is only changed on startup, so as to not overwrite settings from other apps like pagers
  • take advantage of ksmserver (KDE Session Manager) features
  • KDE/Openbox and GNOME/Openbox options for display manager GDM/KDM. Use openbox-gnome-session and openbox-kde-session to run a GNOME/KDE session with Openbox.
  • (link BUTTONS) titlebar buttons autohide (removed the option from config file)
  • user time window, which is good for laptops. laptop-friendly yay.
  • legacy windows raise themselves - make it activate them - firefox
  • don't show handles on windows that cant resize. minimalism yay.
  • move maximized windows between xinerama screens
  • improve application awareness of focus, e.g. kopete and firefox

Themes

  • improvements in the distributed themes
  • add new Clearlooks and Clearlooks-Olive themes by John McKnight
  • (link FONTS) fonts no longer loaded from theme.. load from the rc.xml config file.
    • shadows are still loaded from the theme though
  • distributed theme names have been renamed with Capitalization
  • menu.items.activedisabled.text.color
  • menu.border.color
  • window.active.border.color
  • window.inactive.border.color (note that globbing might set these properties when you didnt mean to)
  • menu.border.width
  • guarantee that titlebar buttons are even sized, so even sized icons (button masks) will be centered
  • default xbms in /usr/share/doc/openbox

Config File

  • (link RESIZE) new mouse binding contexts Left, Right, TLCorner, TRCorner and Top. These need bindings in config file to be useful. Also new context Bottom which is synonym for Handle.
  • (link FONTS) fonts no longer loaded from theme.. load from the rc.xml config file.
    • activeiwndow inactivewindow, menuheader, menuitem, onscreendisplay
  • (link PANELS) add <panels> and <desktop> options to NextWindow PreviousWindow NextWindowNorth etc..
  • (link CHROOT) chrooting for key chains
    • new BreakChroot action to break out of the current chroot
  • W is no longer for Mod4.. it is for Super. which is usually bound to mod4. xmodmap for details.
  • (link ALLDESK) add <allDesktops> option to NextWindow and PreviousWindow. the desktop name will be shown in the focus cycling popup
  • the per-app setting <head> has been renamed to <monitor>
  • can use "default" for any thing in per-app settings
  • (link BUTTONS) titlebar buttons autohide (removed the option from config file)
  • removed "edges_hit_layers_below" option

Extra stuff

  • --reconfigure command line
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