Changing themes in Openbox

Skackware64 14.1, Openbox, tint2, conky, feh.
## After using three month almost only Slackware with my slightly-Steampunk theme, I got bored and recalled idea I had - to make script to start X+OB (without display manager) with visual theme I like at that moment, with choice of others.
So I made it happen. In most primitive bash (me - bash-n00b).

# There are one Chooser and four Swapper scripts (as I have currently four themes):
-- 1. Created conf-number file, like:
if [ ! -f obtheme/theme ]; then echo "1" > 'obtheme/theme' ; fi
Get the number:
theme=$(grep -o '[0-9]*' obtheme/theme)
Every time theme is chosen, new number is also written into theme-file.
Those above are for marking previously chosen theme ('if then echo') - and also to let wallpaper-randomizer script to know which one is current.
Then I set some variables;
did 'while' and 'if' between choices, 'read' those 'if'-s, and 'break'-ed with correct answer;
And final 'if-elif' then does
if ... ; then exec "ob-thx.sh"
with chosen theme-swapper script.

-- 2. Swappers
I Collected everything possible to ~/obtheme/xx folders. Like tint-stuff and wallpapers and conf files to be swapped.
For various reasons - there are either symlinks or files overwritten (respectively 'ln -sf' and 'cp').
- Two gtk confs (.gtkrc-2.0 and .config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini = gtk-theme swap);
- my wallpaper randomizer script for that theme (symlink). But - randomizer can also be modified to pick folder according to already existing theme-file number, and then there is no need to swap it | Edit - Done, see the end of the post |;
- .fehbg in ~/ (to pick up another wallpaper-folder);
- rc.xml (OB-theme swap) and autostart in ./config/openbox. Those are also symlinks which point to theme-specific files. Different tint2 and conky confs are opened from swapped auostart;
- and lastly, 'startx'. Or for debugging - as Slackware without display-manager doesn't want to log X-errors - startx 2>.xsession_errors

So, I now start my X either with alias 'sx' - no change, stright to X;
with 'sxz' - which opens up dialog of theme-change;
or, I can pass that and use aliases for swappers: sx1, sx2... .

For anyone fluent with bash - to make such scripts is totally no issue. What takes time is preparing themes - from various conf changes to actual pic-making or theme-tweaking.
But I have to say - it's most satisfactory to see my whole "desktop" instantly and totally changed.

Addon: Here is a simple script for swapping wallpapers inside the current theme wp-folder. Also, keyboard W+1 is mapped in rc.xml as 'swap desktop to first one and run randwp1.sh'.

#!/bin/bash
## very simple random wallpaper picker, through feh or nitrogen
## --------------------------

sp1="/home/user/obtheme/sp/wp"
sf2="/home/user/obtheme/sf/wp"
fan3="/home/user/obtheme/fan/wp"
nat4="/home/user/obtheme/nat/wp"

# theme number variable from theme file
theme=$(grep -o '[0-9]*' /home/user/obtheme/theme)
echo $theme
# directory containing images
DIR=$(if [ $theme -eq 1 ] ; then echo "$sp1" ; 
 elif [ $theme -eq 2 ] ; then echo "$sf2" ; 
 elif [ $theme -eq 3 ] ; then echo "$fan3" ; 
 elif [ $theme -eq 4 ] ; then echo "$nat4" ; 
 fi)
echo "$DIR"
# select a random jpg from the directory
PIC=$(ls $DIR/*.jpg | shuf -n1)
echo "$PIC"

# use nitrogen to set wallpaper
# nitrogen --set-scaled $PIC
# use feh
feh --bg-scale $PIC

exit 

Tint2 launcher, screwed

... and Conky screwed too

So I played with wallpapering Openbox, one thing led to another and I decided to amuse myself with panel-decorating, bitmapwise.
Tint2 doesn't support adding image as a panel background and consequently - only option is to stick 'panel' onto wallpaper. Easiest to do it is with layered Gimp file - so you can shuffle your wallpapers under panel and then export them as paneled wallpapers.
Now, what I wanted to do, was very slightly steampunkish appearance. Nothing overwhelmingly fancy like brass pipes, cogwheels, rayguns etc. 'Classic' SPs enormously overstuffed spaces are not my cup of tea.
I am not going to explain my confs' parameters here. Tweaking is reasonably easy thing to do - if using material here (tint2), and here (conky), and here (conky).

It came out like that:

-- wallpaper and 'panel'-ribbon below tint and conky are one jpg.

-- Left side, width 71% - is Tint2. All on-top backgrounds and borders are done by tint and so, easily tunable. Launcher has 5 png-icons.
- Left screw in launcher opens Openbox menu (xdotool key super+q
as exec in obmenu.desktop). Desktop file has to be made. Keybind itself has to be also defined, of course, in rc.xml (for 'root-menu', and here the same key is 'W-q'). Xdotool might not be installed by default (it is in Crunchbang and Vsido). In Slackware it is not installed, but can be made from SBO .
- Right screw is 'show/hide desktop', also through xdotool, key 'super+d'('W-d' in rc.xml).
As both those actions are quite pointless (why not to use keybinds stright...), then other tasks can be put here - exit script, weather conky, or whatever.
When making screws or other tiny icons - make png-s bigger with transparent padding, it gives bigger clickable area. Those here are 16px visible, but 24px with transparency.
Whole tint-tuning is simple playing around with numbers and colors (gcolor2 helps with choosing colors). Though, this play-around takes considerable amount of time...
... Of easy tunability - I haven't yet found error-proof way to restart tint (to see changes). For example:
'killall tint2' and start = corrupted taskbar/tasks (double?)
'kill -9 tint2' and start = no systray items
'killall -SIGUSR1 tint2' and start = corrupted systray (double?)
So, after a while I end up doing logout/login, and then decide that's enough of tint ...


-- Right side, 477px wide - Conky. Conky supports background images. So this dark-brown background-with-screws png-file sits in Conky.
I have to say - it took me some time to get Conkys' conf right. Partly because Conky (also) is not loading everything anew when conf is saved and Conky refreshes. Took me some time to realize that... Better to go for killall-method.
Key thing here is to comment those
#own_window_argb_visual yes
#own_window_argb_value 0
#own_window_colour 534821
and leave the next one working and 'yes'
own_window_transparent yes
Beacuse 'argb' things make your image transparent too...

Tuning conky is a bit trickier than tuning tint2. When pressed to this narrow form, quite many numbers have to be expressly '0', like border_inner_margin 0 for example. And see CPU-usage - it has to have spare space to expand. When numbers get into tens, you don't want your whole conky jumping bigger and hitting volumeicon or whatever.
Oh, and those screws here are just decorations.
What complicated things for me was - I didn't want to add panel to every wallpaper. So it turned to balancing act between tint on relatively light panel and tint on relatively dark wallpapers. It boiled down to playing with colors, and using upper layer (tint, conky) backgrounds without very much of transaparency.

And conclusion: oldish-90s-looking panel can be done with tint and conky. Also, I really like the idea of using screws as launchers. :)
Oh, and - do really use those tint and conky links, and info there - as all possible commands are NOT included in default conf files.
| NB! As it was my first time to include pics, I was quite annoyed when I got persistent error with inserting pics (impossible to insert)... Turned out that Googles' spymasters want popups and all cookies enabled... So I installed separate browser, all security-panties down, just for 'insert pic', and nothing else. But cookies will be deleted afterwards anyway. Quite, quite irritating. |

Fluxbox vs Openbox, chaotically compared

Patients: FB + lxpanel + (nitrogen, compton)  vs OB + tint2 + (nitrogen, compton)

I installed Vsido 3. And there is really nothing new to nag or praise over (see review-like of ver 2). ... Only change worth to mention is that Fluxbox is now sole installed WM. See release announcement.
Means - not a big excitement - but, for squeezing some profit out of my install, I spent some (many) hours poking in Fluxbox and comparing it to my beloved Openbox. Here are results:

## lxpanel vs tint2

0 Takes less recourses. But who cares about 10-20 megas of RAM. I don't ... if we talk of two different environments.
- Appearance is markedly less configurable than tint2.
+ At the same time, you can get those fewer options in nicy right-click-on-panel menu.
+/- has panel plugins, tint2 doesn't. How useful they are ... depends on use, and if they function (in Vsido, at least, pagers refused to work. One of them demanded Openbox, other simply crashed the panel). There are bunch of system and hardware monitors - but those would look better in Conky. There is show/hide desktop plugin ... which can be considered useful or not. There is volume control and clock - which are useful alright. I have clock in Conky, though...
+ can create more panels from menu. In tint2 you have to start separate tints for that.
Conclusion: Lxpanel wins in ease of usability. Tint2 wins in looks and flexibility.
I quite like lxpanel - but no swap, I stay with tint2.

## FluxBox vs OpenBox
FB one , two; OB one, two.

- dragging windows's around is strange ... sluggish - cursor moves, but window lags way behind. When releasing mouse button, window jumps. Never observed suchlike in OB. Googling also gives not-a-few mystery lag-problems. No solutions, though.
- window resize is only possible from bottom grips.
- certain theme changes need FB restart. And that's quite annoying - one starts to look for (unexisting) over-rides and ...$$%^$ ... so on.
+ apps' window positions, dimensions, workspaces etc etc: Compared to OB, FB has upper hand here - more options, and those are easy to use by right-clicking window title... plus editing files. There isn't such right-clicky-thing in OB. It is bloody convenient thing to have.
- themes: fewer configurable options. There is 'window.roundCorners' parameter (no such thing in OB) - but this 'roundness' is so pixelated that it looks like major crap.
+ themes: Has ~/.fluxbox/overlay file where it's possible to define your default fonts. Over-rides themes' parameters and gives consistent text-look when using different themes.
+ Menu creation: Manual way is definitely syntactically shorter than in OB. And maybe FBs' menu editor is a bit better than Obmenu.
+ Tabs  - there isn't such thing in OB. However, how needed the feature is, depends again on way-of-use.
0 Wallpaper and changing it. Not an important theme at all - but I decided to investigate/install. Here, both WMs have to use helpers - as they are not DEs.
    Fluxbox first: One way is here.   Then Wally, it's GUI and can get pictures from different sources. Wally needs qt4 installed.
Fluxter: different wallpapers in workspaces plus pager - but it's dead code. That was precisely only way I managed to get it compiled and working. Different wallpapers for workspaces can be set also - and more easely - with FB changeworkspace entry and fsetbg or feh.
    OpenBox wallpapering: with those links here, you can find a bunch of different scripts for random change and/or for different desktops. ...Wally is not OB compatible, though.
AND - I also committed myself with this - see here, a story, with code!
0 Slit, dock-like thing, needs specific dockable apps (above-mentioned fluxter is one). Googling leaves the impression that it's essentially dead. So no pluses or minuses here.

Conclusion.
As I have noticed, there are people who salivate very much over FBs Tabs - so that might be the only real winning feature of FB - if you happen to like/use it. Right-click-title-menu is nice...
At the same time, at least for me, window-drag-lag and bottom-grip-resize are quite unpleasant. I don't use Tabs (honest, I thought about it - and no, I don't know why I should).
Add fancy refresh problems with themes... leads to: No, I am not going to swap to Fluxbox. But it certainly is the second best WM after Openbox.
Merry Christmas.

Slackware 14.0 64bit install - 2: Apps

Xfce in Slackware looks completely stock. And it is that. Good - so we can customize it, and other WM-victims, to our fine tastes and don't have to tear down wimpy vanilla customizing! Alas, that has to wait.
This here is about installing apps and things, and without automatic dependency checks at that! And, if you are Slack-n00b - as you should be if you are reading this - let me stress, there REALLY isn't checks.
slackbuilds.org has dependency info as a comment... mostly. And no, Slakfinders' packages doesn't have dependecies included, but description pages have 'required' field (probably filled).
Those mentioned two ARE essential web-pages for app-hunting: slakfinder.org = sf (binaries from different repos) and slackbuilds.org = sbo (build scripts and links to sources).
Most of following apps were installed either with stright 'installpkg' or through SlackBuild/installpkg (yes-yes - I am going to try out slapt-get, sbopkg and src2pkg. There will be 'Edit' or something about that. Maybe).
So, take the following (partial) list as an example how-to. Oh, and there are some pretty good apps in this list, too. Naturally, it will be Openbox installation - no Kdes' native apps will figure here.

Two commands for checking what we already have out-of-box: slackpkg search xxx, slackpkg file-search yyy. They are very useful. The first one searches packages, the second, naturally, files. You don't have to write whole names, all that fits will be shown.
To business:

- udevil for mounting things, spacefm as the file manager. Those two have their own installers. Worked like charm, no dependencies missing.
After installing, add following line for kernel polling into /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
echo 3000 > /sys/module/block/parameters/events_dfl_poll_msecs
One more thingy - both will be installed in /usr/local/bin. So, if you specify udevil as your 'mount command' in spacefm, don't leave it '/usr/bin' like it is in example there.
- medit sf:slacky.
- webcore-fonts sf:salix64.
Then delete link: /etc/fonts/conf.d/60-liberation.conf
then run: fc-cache -f
- gdm sf:salix64. Needs libgnomecanvas sf:salix64
- libconfig (for compton) sf:salix64.
- compton, get source from https://github.com/chjj/compton and there is Readme too.
make && make docs && make install
- openbox, obconf sf:salix64.
- tint2 - source, v.0.11. How to make svn tint2.
Needs imlib2 sf:slacky.
In essence: in your /tint2 build folder, as user, run and do:
svn checkout http://tint2.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ tint2-read-only
download:https://www.dropbox.com/s/gmko5d6sy8qjpao/tint2patchfiles.tar.gz
and extract the three files to /tint2-read-only
cd tint2-read-only
patch -p0 < src-task-align.patch
patch -p0 < freespace.patch
patch -p0 < launcher_apps_dir-v2.patch
cmake -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr ./
make
make install
- volumeicon sf:salix64.
- wmctrl sf:salix64.
- xdotool sbo: this SlackBuild wants source tar in its folder (not an extracted folder); result goes to /tmp. Copy/move it to your packages folder, do installpkg.
- qbittorrent sf:salix64. Needs libtorrent-rasterbar sf:salix64.
- qpdfview sbo: here is unpacked source-folder OK, resulting package goes to /tmp. Take it, installpkg it.
- nitrogen sf:salix64. Needs gtkmm ... - I probably left some set uninstalled OR the dependency-info in sbo is incorrect, it needs additionally: ... atkmm, pangomm, glibmm, cairomm, sigc++ sf:alien bob.
First 'ldd' said that there was also libgiomm missing - but it came obviously from somewhere... anyway, it wasn't available neither in sf nor in sbo.
- gcolor2 sf:salix.
- xarchiver sf:ponce.
- galculator sf:salix.
- FBReader sf:salix. Needs liblinebreak sf:salix.
- icedtea-web sf:slacky.
- gucharmap out-of-box, but not starting, saying that it's missing schemas. Run:
glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas
Lotsa deprecation-drivel there, but gucharmap started then OK. But whining that it's 'using the memory gsettings backend' - and this means, it needs dconf sf:salix.
By the way, Gthumb for example, also needs dconf for remembering its settings. Stupid gnomish trash...

- When writing Openbox menu, mind that xfce4-terminal is called Terminal.
- there is no ~/.bashrc - and terminal prompt looks...errr... boring. Either you have to write your color-code or copy relevant parts from some debian distro, for example. bash_completion works alright, but some added aliases should be fun too.
And so on.
It seems to me OK method to check dependencies through sf and sbo - they list only those that are missing in vanilla Slackware install (sbo at least does, not so sure about sf). If app is not in sf or sbo - or still doesn't start, try 'ldd' command and/or homes of app for info.

Everything I installed to this point works OK. I have still blue-flowery pukey gdm for login and already mid-customized dark science fictionish OB 'desktop'.
... I might even add third part, 'Installing non-native package managers and what crap happened then'.
See also 'Slackware install  part 1'.

Salix 14.0 + Openbox

Yeah, doing openboxing a third time, now on Slackware - after Xubuntu and Debian. I was kinda interested how this one might differ... Openbox is not stock for Salix (and Slackware), and Slacks' repos are not as big by far as Debian ones.

As it appeared, installing Openbox itself went quite as usual, with slight differences. But some pre-install preparations almost drove me nuts. Whole process took twice as long as in Debian.

1. Pre-installing things:
Let's start with simple.
- Nitrogen for wallpaper, with slapt. No problems. First I had a plan to use Spacefm as desktop manager (and wallpaper-provider) - but Spacefm somehow prevented Conky from starting.
- Conky, with slapt, no problems.
- Volumeicon, with slapt, no problems.
- copied session-exit-script from my Vsido install, once again. And as later was seen, it worked without a hitch.
- Also installed wmctrl (slapt) and xdotool (from source), without problems.
Now, not so simple things.
- Tint2 - available through Sourcery. Only thing I had to install before was Cmake. Then it compiled and worked... unfortunately it wasn't SVN-version (no launchers). Then I went and took source from Tints' home. Made, installed - and found that it's the same one - no launchers.
After some digging around I found this. The writer, by the way, is the same guy who makes Vsido. So thanks, Vastone, for all good things. Tutorial worked like a charm, and I soon had nice patched SVN version of Tint running, with launchers and all.
- Compton (sweat, blood and tears). Not available in repos at all, have to get the source from Comptons' home and compile. List of dependencies is quite long, as we know...
What was surprising that only missing dep in Salix was libconfig. Even asciidoc was already installed! But the joy was short-lived - libconfig also has to be searched out from web. My first attempt to install it was unsuccessful. Thing appeared to exist, but pkg-config refused to recognize it. And Compton refused to make, citing missing libconfig as a culprit. Apparently I had unwittingly brought home a where-libconfig...
More searching in web and I found other and better place to get it. Differently of the first one, it was already compiled for Slack.
So I only had to run  
sh doinst.sh (and replace user/lib64 in this file with /usr/lib64, otherways it couldn't find folders, as install-package was not in root).
Then I checked, somewhat fearfully:
pkg-config libconfig --libs . It's not there, then
echo $PKG_CONFIG_PATH, and path appears to be wrong (compared where libconfig.pc really is, then
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/lib/pkgconfig (that's my conf, of course). Anyway, after correcting the path, libconfig was found AND Compton was now happy to make and make install too.
As for now, I used exactly the same start conf as in debian install. Works alright, no tearing observed yet.
Edit | When installing libconfig, I was yet such a moron that I didn't know of SlackBuilds... Correct way, of course should have been to run: libconfig.SlackBuild, and then installpkg libconfig...gz. But I leave this example of stupidity to be - as there are some useful hints how to check and correct library paths. Also - there are ready-made binaries available in slakfinder.org :) |

2. Installing OB, a lot less dramatic part:
Main packages for Openbox - openbox and obconf - are available with slapt, as is lxappearance. There are also obmenu and some other helpful stuff to take - but I didn't bother.
slapt-get -i openbox obconf
Logout and login to fresh openbox session.
Right-click menu was bizarre, consisting mostly unexistent items. Those what did exist, refused to open.
Back to Xfce, copy Openbox conf files to .config/openbox, add some quick (real) links to menu, back to Openbox. Now things (real ones) in menu opened ... so, I presume that the first time rebellion was because of lack of confs in user folder.
Still, 90% of this default menu was taken out of thin air. Fancy. I should have used dmenu to generate something more valid. Well, I forgot to install it.
One more surprise was that xfce4-terminal is named as 'Terminal'. Bloody why? Couple of more minutes down to drain when investigating why terminal 'does not exist'...
After that it was usual copy/paste of various confs, fixing this and that, 2 hours lovingly pimping the menu, and removing couple of last unwanted apps. Everything seems fine and working. Checked also .xsession-errors - nothing of interest there too, only gtk stupid deprecation-drivel.
Now, if I happen to finally succeed in compiling Medit, then the situation could be called a bliss.

Add Openbox session to Xubuntu

Collected notes and Walkthrough - how I did it.
 
For help and info, excellent places are: Crunchbang forum and Openbox Wiki.

I already had configured / tweaked Xfce side of Xubuntu - so 'restricted extras', Icedtea etc were already installed, as were done other 'first things'.

In Xfce session, open your terminal and type:
sudo apt-get install openbox obconf
Logout and login to new Openbox session.
What you find is black, empty screen. It is like that - so fearlessly right-click on blackness, open terminal and continue:

sudo apt-get install menu
cp /var/lib/openbox/debian-menu.xml ~/.config/openbox/debian-menu.xml
cp /etc/xdg/openbox/menu.xml ~/.config/openbox/menu.xml
cp /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml
openbox --reconfigure
# previous part installed debian menu and copied all 
relevant menu files to your home.
# now, install also Openbox menu editor
sudo apt-get install obmenu

Take a look at your ./config/openbox/rc.xml - there are various parts of interest; like key and mouse bindings, general window conf and reference (a must) to menu.xml file. Investigate.
Then open up menu.xml - either in freshly installed obmenu or in editor. That's almost empty too! Right, it is - and you can proceed now in several ways:
1. Create new menu section from debian-menu (where things are distributed in most bizarre way). Re-arrange items to their proper places in the menu. It takes time..., --reconfigure often and take a look what happens - copy/paste errors are easy to come.
2. There are menu-related pipemenus in Openbox Wiki. Unfortunately I didn't install them but, maybe they are of help when creating your menu.
3. I took most of menu from my installed Vsido (tweaked already, of course, according to my installs/uninstalls), and pasted it into new menu.xml. Had to make some 10 corrections in items (no sweat). Also, I had 'iconified' whole Vsido menu before (2-3 hours of hard work), I really didn't want to do that again...
Syntacs for adding icons: item icon="/home/yourname/.icons/themename/apps/iconname.png" label="Appname".
Simply add your icon=absol.address into item tags. Easy, but yes, it takes time.

It's reasonable to pair your menu-building with installing - so you don't forget what you added.
1. Things to add what should have been already installed in Xfce (here are also things I personally like and install - question of choice):
synaptic, spacefm (a file manager better than Thunar, has to be taken from here), medit (an editor better than Leafpad), xfce4-terminal, xfce4-taskmanager, icedtea, bum (Bootup Manager, lets you add and remove early startup things), bleachbit (cleaner), gdebi-gtk (might be already installed out-of-box), gparted.
2. Install now: gtk-chtheme and/or lxappearance, update-alternatives, xxkb (how to here), volumeicon-alsa (if going for alsa).
Additionally: ipkungfu firewall (how to), maybe clamav+clamtk antivirus - to be in safe side with usb-s. Also - for more nerdy pro-look: htop. And for syncing and backups and creating your own distro: gsync, fsarchiver, remastersys (looong and complicated theme, do google).

When finished with menu - to great satisfaction and even greater relief, start with other bits of desktop: open ./config/openbox/autostart and start-up some more apps.
Install: tint2 (panel, if one doesn't want to use already present Xfce-panel), nitrogen (wallpaper manager), conky (fancy graphical systeminfo on desktop), compton (compositor). They all have manual config editing only, but there are lot of tutorials/help available.
Config files go: ./config/tint2/tint2rc, ./config/nitrogen/nitrogen.cfg (I think it was auto-created), .conkyrc, .compton.conf. It's probably best to find those files in web and then tweak them according to your fancy. I, again, ripped them from my Vsido installation.
Then you have to stick proper commands to autostart file. Here is one autostart which has almost all included - tweak and shape it according to your situation. Both Tint and Conky take -c parameter for pointing to conf file, like:
(sleep 1s && -c ~/.conkyrc_upleft) &
So you can make several conf files and switch between them.
Spacefm can be started as daemon (helps start speed, with mounting and unmounting and whatnot): spacefm -d. Or, it can be used as (minimal) desktop manager.
For Conky you probably have to install lm-sensors (terminal command is 'sensors', by the way).
Logout/login... ? Sure, everything looks good and somehow more presentable. That's it for first phaze.

Now, what else to install? Openbox themes, of course. Which are easily tweakable... gcolor2 helps to find new exciting colors. Crystalcursors? Suckless-tools to go for more nerdiness?
Or, more practically, wicd (network tool) and/or samba (network tool for linux+windows mixed)?

One more interesting thing to do. Let's make Main Menu to launch from Tints' Launchers and let's make sure that right click on desktop opens our whole menu.
Your rc.xml has to have, and sorry - I can't show xml here, whole thing goes crazy... :
keybind key="A-C-q" with menu-def root-menu.
And also mousebind action="Press" button="Right" with menu-def root-menu.
Now install: sudo apt-get install xdotool wmctrl
Create a folder ./config/tint2/.tint2launchers. Create launchers you want to appear in your Tint launcher there (copy them from your .local/share/applications). Only one that really has to be created is your menu.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Openbox Menu
Exec=xdotool key ctrl+alt+q
Icon=yourfavoritemenuicon.png
NoDisplay=false

Edit tint2rc file: there has to be 'L' in panel defs block (L=Launcher); and under Launchers block: launcher_apps_dir = /home/yourname/.config/tint2/
It's also possible to use a launcher-script for more 'docky' behaviour. 
And with the same method you can create missing 'show desktop' launcher-icon (exec=xdotool key super+d)

Additionally: Read about relations/fixes of Compton and multimedia. 
I tend to remove pulseaudio, and install alsa only. How to here. 

AND FINALLY: Logout and a bunch.
Fresh Openbox comes with Restart and Exit items at bottom of the Menu. The first one didn't work for me at all, the second one did (and it means 'logout', by the way). Missing, obviously, are Shutdown (and Suspend + Hibernate, if we talk of laptops).
I installed script called Oblogout, but also, only thing that worked was Logout. Then I copied 'vsido-exit' script from /usr/bin/ of my Vsido install. And it worked like charm. It's not fancy-looking and missing Hibernate, but it's OK with me. Abstractedly, in Xubuntu, you have to have a script that doesn't have bits like 'gdm' and 'hal' in it. 'dbus', of the contrary, is a desirable bit.

That's it. Except strange case of two apps persistently missing few icons, everything is mint for me.