launching fbanel from the menu doesn't work. Is there a way to just add a "start button" to the current fluxbox panel(might be the slit, I'm not fully sure what the slit is)? I don't have a ~/.fluxbox/startup file. What does .Xresources do?

You have not read the Fluxbox Docs like I recommended. If you would take the time to read the provided how-to's and information, you would begin to answer your own questions.

From the Docs:

"The slit is one of the many parts of Fluxbox that has been inherited from Blackbox. It is designed to hold WindowMaker Dockapps, (and anything that runs in that mode which is called 'withdrawn' or (less often) 'swallowed'). Such applications often have a -w option, but some are automatically in withdrawn mode.
e it if it interferes with some other software you use.

Other than that, You can run any 'dockable' application. (This is also known as running in 'withdrawn' mode). As an example, xmms ships with the wmxmms application. Simply run wmxmms &, and it will appear in the slit. As mentioned above, some applications (for example gkrellm) need the -w command line switch to appear in the Slit."

</snip>


Again, please attempt to read the online information.
From the Fluxbox Wiki: How-To Create & Edit the Startup File

The Xresources file is read by your .xsession file when you log in. There are several command line options that can be given when an X client is run (see the man page for xterm for example.) Each of these command line options can be specified in the Xresources file. If the command line option is not specified, then the specification in the Xresources file is used as a default.

Also "man X" will give you information about .Xresources.

You can try to start fbpanel from aterm (just type "fbpanel"). If this doesn't start fbpanel, it should give you some reason why the application fails to start.

Some applications need to have a configuration file in your home directory before they start. "man fbpanel" will tell you where fbpanel expects to find its config file. Often the config file is somewhere under /etc but sometimes there's only an example of the config file in /usr/share/doc/<packagename> and you need to copy this config file to your home directory in case you want to make any local changes.

acutally I have read the documentation. I spent a lot of time last night reading the documentation, and I've gotten keybindings set up. Granted, I don't have it printed out and memorized, but I have read it. I've also spent a lot of time on the wiki, and it's helped tremendously. The understanding that I have of the slit is that it's the little bar at the bottom of my screen that has the time, and the workspace that I'm currently in, as well as any open windows showing. How do gdesklets work? is it just something you install, or does it need to be compiled as a separate program? So basically .Xresources sets the default lauch parameters for the programs (e.g. 'aterm -tr -fg black' as opposed to basic 'aterm')?

If fbpanel doesn't work for you... I think pypanel is a great panel.
I used it with openbox for a while, preferred it to fbpanel but don't remember why.

Actually I don't understand why you would want a panel in fluxbox as I think there is already one.

Some people like the "start button", which fluxbox's native panel doesn't have.

Fluxbox's "slit" is a special space reserved for useful little "dockapps" like Mixer.app, mount.app etc. Install some dockapps and start them from menu to see how "slit" works. Run "apt-cache search dockapp" to see a list of the available dockapps.

Maybe its not of any value, but if you use wdm instead of xdm, and you have wmanager installed, it might be wise to:$wmanagerrc-update, in a term, if this does not work:#wmanagerrc-update ,many of your problems might be solved after this. Also if you run a plain debian, you have to $update-menus after adding progs, else they will not be visible...if you have difficulties with fluxbox, try
#apt-get install icewm icewm-themes iceme , or search for them in synaptic.

I've got gdm installed at the moment, but that might change once I get flux configured correctly. So the slit is just a section of the screen? not an actual 'slit'? Thanks for the info, I'll have to try these when I get home(at school right now).

when I run fbpanel in the CLI I get the errror
Also, the ~/.fluxbox/startup is called ~/.fluxbox/init in debian. I'm not sure why.

Is there any to set an application to start in a specified workspace?

Looks like there's some kind of problem with the Debian menu. Does the menu show OK, with all your installed programs, if you right-click fluxbox's desktop?

yes, it does. What is the command I should put in ~/.fluxbox/keys to get the fluxbox menu? If I can figure this out, I may not need fbpanel. How about getting specific programs to open in specific workspaces with keybindings? suggestions?

So you want to make the menu visible by pressing some keys on your keyboard? That's a good idea. Setting keybindings for actions, like switching between windows and workspaces and launching apps, is the most convenient and fastest way of doing things.

I usually bind the key combination Shift-Escape to menu, and I switch workspaces by pressing Ctrl-Alt and right/left arrow key. These settings can be added to ~/.fluxbox/keys with the following three lines:
Furthermore, I bind Shift with function keys (F1, F2 ...) to quick-launch my most often used apps. This is way faster and more convenient than clicking desktop icons. Like this:
Well, I haven't actually used this feature myself but I think this is possible to set in fluxbox. You should first open the application you want to configure to open in a specific workspace, and then right-click the title bar of that application and see what settings you can configure from the menu that the right-click opened. Then open ~/.fluxbox/apps and see what settings fluxbox has saved there. The man page has probably something more to say about this. Keybindings you can set in ~/.fluxbox/keys, like described above. I'm sure you'll figure it out.

You guys are really and truly evil. After spending a few hours yesterday configuring icewm...

http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~chapman/im...aker_small.png (96k, cropped)
http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~chapman/im...get-wmaker.png (189k, fullscreen)

I've figure it out(how to get windows to open in specific workspaces). You need to right click on the
This will save the location of the windows that you have open, and open them in the same spot next time you open them

If you add fbpanel to your ~/.xsession, it will fly.

Example:

#!/bin/sh

fbpanel &
xscreensaver &

#exec icewm
#exec pekwm
exec fluxbox

logout/login