Linux: i3 Windows Manager

A look into i3 WM, a tiling window manager still actively maintained and heavily customizable

Rphl-Mstl
Tech notes and Geek stuff
3 min readDec 2, 2017

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i3 desktop after a few tweaks

In computing, a tiling window manager is a window manager with an organization of the screen into mutually non-overlapping frames, as opposed to the more popular approach of coordinate-based stacking of overlapping objects (windows) that tries to fully emulate the desktop metaphor. (Wikipedia)

Installing i3

First of all let's install i3, its statusbar, lock screen, program launcher and wallpaper manager.

Prepare your i3 configuration file:

This config file will allow you to customize every bit of your i3 environment, appearance as shortcuts.

Customize font

You may use XFT or TTF fonts. In this example will use a square pixel XFT font named Artwiz Snap. You'll find XFT fonts from repo or the Artwiz font via this link.

You'll have a code line similar to this one:

You may launch any startup applications through the config file: graphic daemon, wallpaper manager and such. Just add an 'exec' line as follow:

Shortcuts

Every shortcuts is customizable following this syntax:

You'll find in the i3 documentation webpage everything you need to know on shortcuts and keyboard navigation.

To customize dmenu, add the usual options:

Statusline

Copy the .i3status.conf to your ~/.i3/folder for convenience, then find and modify the statusline bar section in your config file:

Modify the i3statut.conf file to add or remove elements from the statusline.

Lock screen

Once i3lock installed you may want to use a simple lock screen shortcut, as this one:

Theming i3

I recommend using a small script to easily theme i3, available on Github, j4-make-config:

The purpose of this script for the i3 windowmanager is to easily switch between several sets of configuration options ("themes"), but also to easily put together a complete config from several different configuration parts, depending on the environment you are currently working in.

Download the folder:

  • copy the j4-make-config to your ~/bin/folder (or somewhere in your path)
  • copy the themes/folder to your .i3/folder
  • Edit your .i3/config file and insert this line at the end :
  • Open a terminal and execute:

Choose your theme among the pre-configured ones, or create your own.

Resources

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Rphl-Mstl
Tech notes and Geek stuff

OS explorer, UI & UX passionate, Voxels crafter, code lover, Video Games player, Podcasts listener, Music amateur // Digital Publishing professional