To build Openbox from CVS you need: A C++ Compiler (GNU GCC/G++ 3.2+ suggested) GNU Gettext 0.11.5 GNU Autoconf 2.50+ GNU Automake 1.7+ (<= 1.4 confirmed to not work) GNU Libtool Xft2 library/headers (devel package) (http://www.fontconfig.org) Xlib library/headers (devel package) Python library/headers (devel package) (http://www.python.org) SWIG 1.3.17+ (http://www.swig.org) I recommend the latest version of all these packages. Do the following to build and install Openbox in CVS: % ./bootstrap % ./configure % make all install Don't try running it from the src/ directory without installing, it won't work. It needs to be installed before it is run. The installed binary is 'openbox3'. ---- Here's the packages from Debian (sid): g++ gettext automake1.7 autoconf libtool libxft2-dev python-dev swig1.3 ---- Check out the Wiki for how to configure Openbox 3: http://icculus.org/openbox/phpwiki/index.php/PythonScripting