Blackbox FAQ/Add Ons

This FAQ section covers questions related to various BlackboxAddons (but not limited to what's listed there). If you're having trouble using an add-on with Blackbox, look for answers here. Add-ons include keyboard handlers, dockapps, applets, panels, tickers and so on.

Do not add new questions here. Add them to /NewQuestions instead, so they can be reviewed and answered first.

However, feel free to add more answers to any question. Place your answer after any other answers, mark it with a bold A: and add a number if there is already at least one other answer (ie. A1:, A2:).

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1 Does Blackbox offer a system tray aka notification area, for applications like Gaim to place their icons in?

2 Is there a way to configure BBkeys (or any other plugin) to enter a certain string when I press a hotkey? E.g. entering my email in online forms.

3 How do I run Gnome applets with Blackbox?

4 Why doesn't my bbkeys configuration get applied?

5 How can I make arbitrary applications go into the slit?

6 Is there any application to simulate the system clipboard (e.g. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V in KDE) within Blackbox?

7 How do I change the theme for fbpanel?

8 Is there or will there be a new version of BBconf, for Blackbox 0.70+?

9 How do I stop the root window appearing in the fbpanel workspace switcher?

10 What is The Right Way to run bbkeys?

1) Does Blackbox offer a system tray aka notification area, for applications like Gaim to place their icons in?

A: Yes, although not directly. The systray/notification area is a part of a common standard, which is only indirectly related to the job of a window manager. Blackbox offers StandardsCompliance, so the support is there. But you need applications that will actually implement a systray, because Blackbox doesn't (it's job is to manage windows, period). You can use various 3rd party panels or dockapps, and as long as they respect the standards they will work fine. See BlackboxAddons for suggestions.

2) Is there a way to configure BBkeys (or any other plugin) to enter a certain string when I press a hotkey? E.g. entering my email in online forms.

A1: bbkeys cannot do this, since it is designed to only produce X events (such as maximizing a window or changing workspace).

A2: You can use xclip* for a workaround. First, configure bbkeys to run echo "your@email"|xclip when you press a certain key combination. This will insert your address in the X clipboard. Then just use Ctrl-V or Shift-Ins to paste from the clipboard into the form.

3) How do I run Gnome applets with Blackbox?

A: (WalterDnes?) You need to have Gnome installed the usual way. Except that you're not going to launch the entire desktop, only gnome-panel. Once gnome-panel is running, Gnome applets will find it and use it. The entire Gnome desktop can be a resource hog, but just gnome-panel in combination with Blackbox will perform well even with low resources.

Here's an example ~/.xinitrc. Note that this applies to people who use startx to start their X session. Other people may need to look into ~/.Xsession or similar files.

#!/bin/bash
/usr/bin/bbkeys -i &
/usr/bin/blackbox &
exec /usr/bin/gnome-panel

Adapt the above as you see fit. You may notice that gnome-panel is the application that controls X, not Blackbox. This way, using "logout" from the panel will end the X session.

4) Why doesn't my bbkeys configuration get applied?

A: For your bbkeys configuration to get actually read you have to have bbkeys running. This means you have to add bbkeys to your .xinitrc or whatever file your have that starts up blackbox, so it should look like this:

...
bbkeys &
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/blackbox

5) How can I make arbitrary applications go into the slit?

A1: First of all, just to clear any confusion, as explained here, the Blackbox slit does not serve as a system tray. In order to obtain a system tray a.k.a. notification area there are various addons you can use, more than just Docker (ex: gnome-panel, fbpanel). Please note however that standards implemented in versions prior to 0.70 are not the latest and support for such advanced features may be crippled. For full system tray support consider getting 0.70 or later.

A2: There is a slit dockapp called wmswallow* which can be used to load any desktop application into the slit.

6) Is there any application to simulate the system clipboard (e.g. Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V in KDE) within Blackbox?

A: Both X clipboards (Ctrl-C/Ctrl-V as well as mouse select/middle click) are managed by X directly, and it's the various applications' job to make use of it. Blackbox has nothing to do with this.

7) How do I change the theme for fbpanel?

A: fbpanel is a Gnome/GTK application. If you change the Gnome/GTK theme, fbpanel will use it. You may need to stop and restart it before the changes are visible. To stop fbpanel you can use this command in a terminal: killall fbpanel. To start it again you run it like this: fbpanel & (don't forget the ampersand). Note that you may need to specify a certain configuration file if you wrote one that isn't the default, but if you did that you probably know how to do it. If you're having trouble remembering, grep your ~/.xinitrc or ~/.Xsession for "fbpanel", you'll find the exact command it uses to start usually.

8) Is there or will there be a new version of BBconf, for Blackbox 0.70+?

A: The current maintainer, Jason 'vanRijn' Kasper, says that bbconf is not abandoned*, but severe lack of spare time prevents him from updating it to work with the 0.70.x series. Since that statement dates from February 2005, it's probably safe to say that unless someone with more time on their hands steps in, it won't be upgraded too soon. Anybody interested, please see the website, contact the author and talk to him about helping. BBConf is written using C++ and Qt and features very clean code and a smart plugin system.

9) How do I stop the root window appearing in the fbpanel workspace switcher?

A: The root window should not appear in fbpanel. It's either (1) a bug in an older version of fbpanel, or (2) it's not the X root window, but a simulated root window from another desktop application (such as RoX). The latter is more likely. Upgrade your fbpanel, just in case.

10) What is The Right Way to run bbkeys?

A1: The classical way to start bbkeys along with Blackbox is to add a line saying bbkeys & to your ~/.xinitrc or ~/.xsession, depending on whether you start X via startx or a session manager.

A2: bbkeys is a tool completely separate from Blackbox. It implements keyboard shortcuts by itself, while Blackbox does almost no keyboard grabbing at all. They work together well because they both respect the NetWM standard. Please see the first 3 questions under BlackboxFAQ/UsageAndFeatures for further details as to why it's done like this.