To build Openbox from git you need: A C Compiler (GNU GCC 3.2+ suggested) -GNU Gettext 0.14.4 -GNU Autoconf 2.50+ -GNU Automake 1.11+ -GNU Libtool -Xlib library/headers (devel package) -Pkg-Config -Glib 2.0+ library/headers (devel package) (http://www.gtk.org) -libxml2 2.0+ library/headers (devel package) -Pango 1.10+ library/headers (devel package) -cvs or git or neither, depending on how gettext was installed* Also you will probably want: -Imlib2 library/headers (devel package) -X Cursor library/headers (devel package) -Startup Notification library/headers 0.8+ (devel package) We recommend the latest versions of all these packages. *) for versions below 0.18.1 cvs is needed, above that, see autopoint --version Do the following to build and install Openbox in git: % ./bootstrap % ./configure % make su to root and % make install or % sudo make install Don't try running it from the openbox/ directory without installing, it won't work. It needs to be installed before it is run. The following commands will be available: openbox-session, openbox-gnome-session, openbox-kde-session, and openbox. See the man pages for details about them. If you want to run Openbox on its own, you probably want to run "openbox-session". ---- In Ubuntu, you want these packages: gcc gettext automake autoconf libtool libpango1.0-dev pkg-config libglib2.0-dev libxml2-dev libstartup-notification0-dev xorg-dev libimlib2-dev ----