openbox autostart only works partially

Question

I'm new to openbox but have already found great appreciation in using it. I've however got some troubles with my autostart file. My ~/.config/openbox/autostart looks like:

  tint2
  dbus-launch xfce4-power-manager
  dbus-launch nm-applet
  feh --bg-fill ~/Pictures/wallpaper/Matrix-Wallpaper-001.jpg

and while tint2 starts properly, none of the other commands get executed. For troubleshooting I shrank it to:

  tint2
  xfce4-power-manager
  nm-applet

but still, only tint2... can anyone help out?

Answer 1

You should run the commands in background, otherwise the next'll wait until the previous command has finished.

To run a shell command in background just attach & – like that:

tint2 &
dbus-launch xfce4-power-manager &
dbus-launch nm-applet &
feh --bg-fill ~/Pictures/wallpaper/Matrix-Wallpaper-001.jpg &

Answer 2

This has been pointed out on the openbox wiki Help:Autostart page:

# Programs that will run after Openbox has started

# Set the wallpaper
hsetroot ~/wallpaper.png &

# Run a Composite manager
xcompmgr -c -t-5 -l-5 -r4.2 -o.55 &

# SCIM support (for typing non-english characters)
scim -d &

# A panel for good times
fbpanel &

To run commands for all users system-wide, place them in a similar file in /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart.

Make sure that you end any commands with "&" so that they are run in the background, or any programs after it will not run.