A new contender for my desktop - Fluxbox - part 1

I've recently started using fluxbox as my main desktop, and 'fluxbox' "is a stacking window manager for the X Window System, which started as a fork of Blackbox 0.61.1 in 2001, with the same aim to be lightweight. Its user interface has only a taskbar, a pop-up menu accessible by right-clicking on the desktop, and minimal support for graphical icons. All basic configurations are controlled by text files, including the construction of menus and the mapping of keybindings." {source ; wikipedia 2013}. When you first start using it, it is a bit disconcerting to have a totally blank desktop, and it feels weird having to right-click on the desktop to get a menu to show. But now, after several weeks of using it to the detriment of the other desktops it feels quite natural and useful. It does take a bit of configuring to get things set up just right, but here are my configuration files - but do bear in mind that they are a work in progress and they frequently change. IOW, what works today may be broken tomorrow! But, as the 'root menu' is so important it will be in a separate post.

The startup file is very important and this is mine;-

 1
 2
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7
 8
 9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37

#!/bin/sh
#
# fluxbox startup-script:
#
# Lines starting with a '#' are ignored.

# Change your keymap:
#xmodmap "/home/boudiccas/.Xmodmap"

# Applications you want to run with fluxbox.
# MAKE SURE THAT APPS THAT KEEP RUNNING HAVE AN ''&'' AT THE END.
#
# unclutter -idle 2 &
# wmnd &
# wmsmixer -w &
# idesk &

clipit &
urxvt -e tmux &
xscreensaver -no-splash &
ulimit -c unlimited && exec /usr/local/bin/fluxbox -log ~/.fluxbox/log.txt &
lxlock &
#
# Debian-local change:
#   - fbautostart has been added with a quick hack to check to see if it
#     exists. If it does, we'll start it up by default.
which fbautostart > /dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    fbautostart
fi

# And last but not least we start fluxbox.
# Because it is the last app you have to run it with ''exec'' before it.

exec fluxbox -log "/home/boudiccas/.fluxbox/log"
# or if you want to keep a log:
# exec fluxbox -log "/home/boudiccas/.fluxbox/log"

This is saved as /home/boudiccas/.fluxbox/startup.

But, whilst using it I have encountered several problems, one of which was a real show-stopper in that it locked me out of the desktop for several hours until it was solved! It involved .X0-lock in /tmp being owned and writable by root. This effectively stopped me using any desktop as USER but I could as ROOT! It took quite a bit of time to track it down and required the help of #debian on irc.freenode.net, which is a very good resource and I highly recommend it. But once I'd regained control of my computer it was full steam ahead again.