That is all.

This guide has been tested on Ubuntu Server 7.10 and 8.04.

Step One: Install X.org, openbox and pypanel:

sudo aptitude install xorg openbox openbox-themes obconf pypanel rxvt


Step Two: Now go to NoMachine and download NX Server Free edition. Chose i386 or x86_64 depending on your architecture, and download and install nxclient, nxnode, and nxserver.

wget http://64.34.161.181/download/3.2.0/Linux/nxclient_3.2.0-14_i386.deb http://64.34.161.181/download/3.2.0/Linux/nxnode_3.2.0-11_i386.deb http://64.34.161.181/download/3.2.0/Linux/FE/nxserver_3.2.0-13_i386.deb

sudo aptitude install libaudiofile0 && sudo dpkg -i nxclient_*.deb nxnode_*.deb nxserver_*.deb

Step Three: On the machine you want to connect from, download and install nxclient for your OS here. When you run it the Connection Wizard will appear:

1. Click Next
2. Enter a name for the session, and the IP address or hostname of your server. You may want to change the internet connection type to LAN if the server is local. Click Next.
3. In the drop-down boxes, choose “Unix”, “Custom”, and click Settings. Under application click the box next to “Run the following command” and type openbox-session in the box below. Under Options click the box next to “New Virtual Desktop”. Click OK.
4. Set the size of the remote desktop to “Available area”. Click Next.
5. Tick the option to create a shortcut if you wish, then click Finish.

Step Four: Back on the server, set rxvt as the default terminal emulator:

sudo update-alternatives --set x-terminal-emulator /usr/bin/rxvt-xterm

Install update-notifier, Epiphany, conky and thunar:

sudo aptitude install update-notifier epiphany-browser conky thunar

Epiphany is the Gnome web browser, and is less resource-hungry than Firefox. However feel free to install a different browser such as Firefox, Opera (not available in the standard repos) or (if you want really light-weight) Dillo.

Step Five: Configure openbox and pypanel.

Using nxclient, log in to the server. Right-click on the desktop to see the Openbox Menu, and run ObConf. To give you more productive space on the desktop, set one of the simple-* themes, reduce the font sizes by 1 point and change the number of desktops to 1.

Add startup programs to ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh

pypanel &
conky &
update-notifier &

Download the .pypanelrc file below, and save it in your home directory.

.pypanelrc

This changes the font colour and panel layout, and sets up some launcher icons on the left of the panel.

Step Six: Install ObMenu

For Ubuntu 7.10:

Download from here

tar xvfz obmenu-*.tar.gz

cd obmenu-*

sudo python setup.py install

For Ubuntu 8.04:

sudo aptitude install obmenu

Then:

cp /etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml ~/.config/openbox/

Run ObMenu from a terminal, and set up menu entries, including one for Ob Menu itself.

Step Seven: Configure conky

Download the file below and save to your home directory

.conkyrc

You may need to edit it to change the filesystems for which you want conky to show free space.

Step Eight: Set up thunar SMB browsing.

Adapted from here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=304131

1. Install samba and fusesmb
2. Edit /etc/samba/smb.conf and set WORKGROUP = <YOUR-DOMAIN>
3. sudo adduser <username> fuse
4. mkdir ~/network
5. Reboot
6. add “fusesmb /home/<username>/network” to .config/openbox/autostart.sh
7. Open Thunar, and navigate to the parent folder of your mountpoint… then drag the ‘mounpoint folder’ to the places (shortcut) pane of thunar.

Well, that’s how I like to do it. Please leave comments, suggestions, abuse etc.

Alexander

The most important news is this little man (previously referred to as Project Thor). Alexander Perrie Atkins was born on 11th February 2008, and has spent most of the time since eating, crying, gurgling and making much mess. He is also absolutely fantastic.

Blog

I grew tired of the shared web hosting at Dreamhost, especially after the incident when they accidentally billed their customers a total of several billion dollars due to a typo, then treated the whole thing as a joke. As a result, this blog is now running on a Virtual Private Server hosted by the lovely people at BitFolk. Because this is my server it allows me more freedom in the config, so if it blows up it’s also all my fault.

The blog has also been migrated to Wordpress 2.5, which means nothing to anyone except me, as it now has a nicer admin interface.

I’m going to try and post a bit more often from now on, which is great news for my regular reader, if he or she exists. One thing I want to do is a few technical posts on how to do various things under Linux. Once I’ve worked something out I need to make a note of how I’ve done it, and if I do that here then it may be useful for someone else, but if not then at least I know where to find my notes.

I think that’s about everything for now. Keep ‘em peeled…

• There are now two sidebars, which means I don’t have to scroll any more to get to the login link.
• I’ve removed the photos page as the plugin that generated it kept breaking with wordpress upgrades. All the photos are still on flickr.
• Since removing the flickr plugin also meant I lost the little box in the sidebar that showed random photos, I’ve found another plugin that does the same thing, except you can now choose which photosets you want to see pictures from. You lucky people.
• The picture at the top is smaller, so you now see more of my wise words when you visit the site (not that anyone really does…)
• I added a page for Terrance the Shoe, just for John.