I'm really a Linux novice, but just recently I managed to install Gentoo and fluxbox, but am having a few issues. 1. First, when the machine boots and the kernel starts, everything is fine, except for some small error regarding a file system. Unfortunately, it scrolls too fast to catch, but I'm sure there's a log of the output, where can I find it? 2. From what I understand /usr/share/fluxbox/ holds global settings while /home/myaccount/.fluxbox contains personal settings, is this correct? 3. I copied init and menu from fluxbox/ in /usr to .fluxbox. I emerged fbdesk, but can't for the life of me figure out how to use it to get some icons on the desktop. Does anyone know?

Quote: Original post by outRider
2. From what I understand /usr/share/fluxbox/ holds global settings while /home/myaccount/.fluxbox contains personal settings, is this correct?

Global settings are generally stored under /etc. I don't see why fluxbox would do it differently.

If you don't get answers to your questions here, search gentoo forums or post there if you can't find an answer. They generally have great community until the conversation leads to Microsoft. Then they lose all shadow of reason.

/usr/share is generally for files shared between users that almost never need changing. You'll often find things such as documentation ( man, info, html, etc ), pictures ( icons, toolbar images, etc ) and other data files ( wav sounds, keymaps, fonts, etc ) stored there.

Quote: Original post by outRider
1. First, when the machine boots and the kernel starts, everything is fine, except for some small error regarding a file system. Unfortunately, it scrolls too fast to catch, but I'm sure there's a log of the output, where can I find it?

Run dmesg to see the kernel's startup message. You can also use shift + pgup to scroll up from your initial screen even before you login (unless you have a graphical login).

Quote:
2. From what I understand /usr/share/fluxbox/ holds global settings while /home/myaccount/.fluxbox contains personal settings, is this correct?

Just to clarify the previous answers: fluxbox keeps common styles and settings in /usr/share/fluxbox your data in ~/.fluxbox overrides it so it will not process the init in share if it exists in your directory.

"more /var/log/messages" to view them boot messages. Scroll down with Enter.

Fluxbox, by default, does not have the ability to put icons on the desktop. I'm sure there's a plugin somewhere to allow this if you want, though.

I believe it was called fbDesk. You can find it here.

Yeah, I figured out how to use fbdesk. Too bad it's quite boring in its display of said icons, and doesn't support .xpm icons. I tried the Rox-Filer desktop but that doesn't behave at all with fluxbox.

For some reason my display seems a bit slow. Maybe its the ATI binary driver, which I hear is buggy. I installed it easily enough, and it does provide hardware acceleration. I have vsync on in xorg.conf, I set my monitor's timings in the Monitor0 HorizSync and VertRefresh params, but it's definitely not as responsive as the Windows desktop when it comes to minizing/maximizing and switching to other windows.