Openbox keybindings not taking effect after --reconfigure or restarting X

Question

 273     <keybind key="W-Return">
 274       <action name="Execute">
 275         <command>lxterminal</command>
 276       </action>
 277     </keybind>
 278     <keybind key="W-Up">
 279       <action name="ToggleMaximizeFull"/>
 280     </keybind>
 281     <keybind key="W-Left">
 282       <action name="MoveToEdgeWest"/>
 283     </keybind>
 284     <keybind key="W-Right">
 285       <action name="MoveToEdgeEast"/>
 286     </keybind>

I added these lines in between the default last </keybind> and </keyboard> in my ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml file (the line numbers are from vim). However, neither restarting X nor issuing an openbox --reconfigure applies these settings.

What am I doing wrong? I'm using Arch with all the default LXDE packages.

Did you receive any error dialog ? If so, the configure xml file is malformed — daisy, Aug 19 '12 at 00:35
Pastebin and link to the complete `rc.xml` - a fragment is not that useful... — jasonwryan, Aug 19 '12 at 01:41

syntaxerror · Answer 1 · 2015-04-21T22:08:42.627

19

There is also

$ openbox --restart

Since it was not mentioned yet, I will do it. This will not restart X as well. Presumably --restart is "more powerful" than --reconfigure.

edited Apr 21 '15 at 22:08

answered Oct 12 '14 at 23:07

syntaxerror

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Does this close the running GUI applications? – golimar Feb 26 '19 at 16:00
To answer question in comment, it did not restart my GUI browser on openbox restart. – LuxZg Dec 10 '20 at 10:28

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 25 '12 at 12:53

11

On LXDE ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml config is used instead.

To check how openbox was started you can do:

$ ps ax | grep openbox
 2109 ?        S      0:29 openbox --config-file /home/marcin/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml

answered Aug 25 '12 at 12:53

marcin

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on `lxqt` it is `lxqt-rc.xml`. btw you can either use `a` or `x` flag with `ps` – Timo Apr 26 '21 at 19:21

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 19 '12 at 17:02

0

Make sure you use the path in your home directory

.config/openbox/rc.xml

not

~./config/openbox/rc.xml

answered Jul 19 '12 at 17:02

pedrosaurio

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That is where it is; I made a typo in the OP. – Randall Ma Jul 19 '12 at 21:39
Does it work now? If yes, you can mark the answer as the correct one. – pedrosaurio Jul 23 '12 at 10:57
Nope. Nevertheless, I've gone ahead and switched to xfwm4, but if this question accumulates more answers I'll go and test them. Thanks for your help. – Randall Ma Jul 23 '12 at 17:15

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Nov 20 '12 at 15:26

i've been struggling with the same problem for an hour now and the answer i'm afraid is quite silly and straightforward. You should locate you keybinds within the keyboard block inside the rc.xml other wise they won't work.

I hope i answered your question :).

Openbox keybindings not taking effect after --reconfigure or restarting X

4 Answers4