While the iconless Openbox system is powerful and efficient to use once you get used to it, it can be unsettling to new users at first. For those of us who want a desktop with icons, there are a few different methods available.
Currently, there seem to be a few unresolved issues with some of these methods.
If you can help add to this page with a solution / better method / other alternatives, please do so!
File manager with ability to add desktop:
* There seems to be an issue with using pcmanFM to handle desktop icons, as it creates a second “desktop” on top of your previous desktop, covering conky. Anyone know a way to solve this?
- Conky draws on the “root” desktop, so pcmanfm and xfdesktop4, presumably Nautilus too, will cover it. Conky can be brought to the top layer of the desktop by changing the “own_window_type” setting to “normal”.
xfdesktop4 works well with Thunar, Crunchbang's current default file manager, and draws the contents of your ~/Desktop folder over a background wallpaper. This might be the easiest way to get desktop icons with openbox.
(If you are using the XFCE version of Crunchbang you are already using xfdesktop4.)
To install:
sudo apt-get install xfdesktop4
Then edit your ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh file. Comment out the line calling nitrogen, and replace with xfdesktop, thus:
## Set desktop wallpaper #nitrogen --restore & xfdesktop &
(NB while the app name is xfdesktop4, the command is xfdesktop!)
* It looks as if XFCE 4.10 will transfer this function from xfdesktop4 to thunar, possibly in 2012, outdating these instructions.
* Don't forget to edit your ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs file:
Change
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME"
to
XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
otherwise you will have the contents of your home folder on the desktop.
* xfdesktop4 will replace openbox's right-click menu with xfce's menu but you can still call the openbox menu from the tint2 panel and/or from the keyboard.
tint2: edit ~/.config/tint2/tint2rc and make sure the wm_menu option reads
wm_menu = 1
You can then right-click the panel to get the openbox menu.
Keyboard: the default is Win + Space, but the “Menu” key might also be appropriate. Add this code to the <keyboard> section of ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml:
<keybind key="Menu">
<action name="ShowMenu">
<menu>root-menu</menu>
</action>
</keybind>
Using an application such as iDesk will give you access to highly customizeable icons with a very light resource usage footprint.
Other known applications for adding desktop icons: