Mandrake
Note: These instructions are written for installing ROX on Mandrake 9.2. These should still hold true for other versions, but your milege may vary.
For Mandrake 9.0, try 
If you're using Mandrake, it is recommended that you use the Mandrake RPMs packaged by Götz Waschk.
The preferred method of installation is to use Mandrake's urpmi installer. You'll need to add the contribs repository using the following command (as root):
urpmi.addmedia contrib ftp://ftp.vat.tu-dresden.de/pub/Mandrakelinux/official/9.2/contrib/i586 with ../../i586/Mandrake/base/hdlist2.cz
If you want to use another mirror, the program urpmi.setup (also available as web version at
Then you can install the packages (also as root):
urpmi rox-lib
This will install ROX-Filer, the shared-mime-database required by it and the rox-lib package required by ROX applications written in Python. Then you can start ROX-Filer by typing rox on your command prompt.
The contribs repository also contains a preconfigured rox-session package, that will create an entry for ROX in your GDM or KDM display manager.
Doing this only gets you the filer and the ROX-Lib (which is required to run many of the python-based programs developed for ROX), not the whole desktop. You might like to just stick with that for a while (at least you'll still have the old interface too, if you find something difficult with ROX).
If you want the whole desktop:
- Download the other core programs from this site (Wrappers, Edit, Archive, System, any panel applets you want, etc). For System, get the Linux ix86 binaries. Don't worry -- these are all very small.
- Extract them. GNOME has the File-Roller tool for extracting archives and KDE has Ark; or, use the command line (xzf = eXtract gZipped File):
$ tar xzf wrappers.tgz $ tar xzf archive-1.9.2.tgz etc
You should be able to run the extracted applications from ROX-Filer. Use the filer to move the applications where ever you want them.
After installing, you might like to read the Getting Started Guide.
If anything on this page is wrong, or amiss, please, correct it!
How do I install without using urpmi?
If you don't want to use urpmi, you can download the filer and ROX-Lib RPMs from
Filer
ROX-Lib is pure Python... why are there different packages for each architecture?
You'll also need to grab the shared_mime_info RPM for your architecture.
Open your file manager (Konqueror, Nautilus, etc), and simply click on the downloaded RPMs to install in this order:
# shared_mime_info # rox # rox-lib
You could also try the
Mandrake cooker packages.
How do I install ROX-Session if I don't want to use the RPMs?
It's probably better to use the rox-session RPM (above). Otherwise, download ROX-Session from the Software Index page.
To make ROX the default desktop on login, run ROX-Session from the filer. This makes the "default" session listed in GDM start the ROX desktop. Choosing to set another WM as default will prevent you from logging into ROX. This can be remedied by setting ROX as a unique login Session in GDM.
To set ROX as a unique Session in GDM do the following as root:
$ cp ~/.xsession /etc/Xll/gdm/Session/ROX $ chmod 755 ROX
This will create a Session in the GDM login manager for ROX, allowing you to easily switch between ROX and GNOME, KDE, XFCE4, etc.