Overview

The Openbox Window Manager is designed to be highly configurable and customisable. This includes the ability to create your own custom keybindings - that is combinations of key presses - to undertake virtually any action. This includes the ability to create keybindings that can be used to manually control the brightness of your screen.

Although the Manjaro Openbox flavour provides a user-friendly graphical interface that may be used to alter or create custom keybindings, as the intention is to bind control of the screen brightness to the actual keys designed for this purpose, in this instance it will be necessary to manually edit the Openbox rc.xml file. This file - amongst other essential functions - serves to store and enable keybindings in the Openbox environment.

Step 1: Opening the rc.xml File

Note

It is not necessary to use the 'sudo' or 'gksu' commands, as you already have full permission to edit and amend the rc.xml file.

You will need to first open your terminal in order to edit the rc.xml file. The syntax of the command to edit this is:

[text editor] ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

For example, if you wish to edit the file within the terminal using nano (a standard terminal-based text editor) then enter:

nano ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

Otherwise - if you have installed the full version of Manjaro (i.e. not the NET-Edition) - you may find it easier to use a text editor like Gedit or Leafpad instead. This will create and open the rc.xml file up as a document, making it easier to read and edit. To use Gedit instead, the command is:

gedit ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml

Step 2: Editing the rc.xml file

Tip

If you know what you are doing, then feel free to change the intended keys. Just ensure that they are not already being used for another purpose.

Once the file has been opened, you will be presented with a substantial amount of commands contained within it. Don't worry about this, as you will only need to add a new block of code, rather than amend anything that is there. The code that must be added to enable full control over the screen brightness is as follows:

<keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessUp">
<action name="Execute">
        <command>xbacklight +15</command>
</action>
</keybind>
<keybind key="XF86MonBrightnessDown">
<action name="Execute">
        <command>xbacklight -15</command>
</action>
</keybind>