Tile windows in Openbox

This is something I had almost completely forgotten, until I saw this thread this morning in the Gutsy Idea Pool.

Tiling windows is something I loved about Windows systems, and missed sorely when I started using Ubuntu. Forgive me, but I like things lined up neatly and precisely on my desktop, no matter what operating system I’m using. I’m definitely not one of those splattered-desktop Mac-type people.

So for me, to be able to tile windows from the command line would be a wonderful thing. Here’s a teeny little package that will do just that.

http://ftp.unixdev.net/pub/debian-udev/pool/main/t/tile/

Install with sudo dpkg -i; trigger from the command line with tile. Use the --help flag to get information on the tiling options, then throw it into your Openbox menu. Instant tiled windows, as easy as pie. :)

A note: Arch users will have to compile from source, but to be honest, that will only take you about 15 seconds. It’s that small. ;)

Edit, 08-07-26: The original source link is 404′ing, but an enterprising Arch user uploaded it to an AUR page. Enjoy.

6 Responses to “Tile windows in Openbox”


  1. 1 finferflu August 20, 2007 at 4:40 am

    Ahrrr! too bad, that link seems to time out… I reaaaally wanted tiled windows on openbox :(

  2. 2 finferflu August 20, 2007 at 6:59 pm

    Ok, it works now! :)

  3. 3 K.Mandla August 20, 2007 at 10:07 pm

    Okay, that’s good. I’m downloading a package and stuffing it away in a corner. When you said it was timing out, I panicked and realized I hadn’t kept a copy. I try to hold on to stuff I like, so I don’t have to keep downloading it.

  4. 4 finferflu August 21, 2007 at 1:19 am

    Yes, you’re right! especially with those small apps. I’m keeping a copy of tile and visibility as well, since it seems it’s disappeared from the net…
    Anyway, one minute after I downloaded the file, the server timed out again, so if you had or have problems downloading, just tell me and I’ll send you the package ;)

    By the way, with tile I have a couple of issues:

    1. On OpenBox I have some margin at the top and at the bottom; I have specified those variables in my custom profile, but only the bottom one seems to be recognised. Any similar issue?

    2. It would be nice to un-tile the windows as well, do you know of anything able to do that?

    Thanks! :)

  5. 5 K.Mandla August 21, 2007 at 8:54 am

    1. If it’s the new Openbox (3.4.4), there are margin settings in Obconf (I’m sure you know that, though). Aside from that, you might tweak the dock settings, and see if that’s interfering with the margins at all. Those are the only things I can think of.

    I also noticed that the margins only seem to apply if you spawn a new maximized window from scratch. And sometimes it seems like the margin settings are ignored if there are already windows open on the desktop. But that might just be my imagination. ;)

    2. Not that I’m aware of. I’ll have to check the help cues for tile; perhaps it will cascade windows too. I’m not sure though.

  6. 6 finferflu August 21, 2007 at 10:04 am

    1. Yes, I do use those margins, but tile seems to ignore them, so I have to set them in the config file, and still they get ignored. I run conky on the top of the screen, visibility and docker at the bottom…

    2. thanks for the effort :)

Leave a Reply




Welcome!

Most recent desktops


September 2, 2008
IceWM-lite on Ubuntu 8.0.4.1
1Ghz Pentium III 512Mb PC133


August 14, 2008
Openbox 3.4.7.2 on Arch Linux
750Mhz Celeron 128Mb PC100


August 27, 2008
Openbox 3.4.7.2 on Crux Linux
550Mhz Celeron 192Mb PC100


June 22, 2008
IceWM 1.2.35 on Arch Linux
OLPC XO-1

Most recent game


StellaX 2.6.1 on Crux Linux
1Ghz Pentium III 512Mb PC133

Be counted!

License

This work is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Please see the About page for details.

Blogs worth watching

Ubuntu Feeds

RSS Planet Ubuntu Users

  • An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.

Blog Stats

  • 749,006 hits

Categories