i3 Migration Guide

Today I decided to ditch GNOME.

I know, I know, you probably expect yet another rage post about why GNOME is shit, and why MATE is better and other opinionated raging comments - but nope, I'm not gonna do that.

In my case a minor update occured to 3.38.1, which led to mozjs not being able to run without a segfault on my laptop anymore.

Turns out, pretty much everything in the GNOME ecocystem depends on gjs to function properly, so not even GDM was able to run without a segfault.

Tiling Window Manager(s)

As I've maintained my own GNOME shell extension for a while to get a somewhat tiling window manager functionality, I thought I'll give another window manager a try again.

Back in the days before even XFCE or LXDE were cool, I was using openbox and fluxbox for a long time, because I never liked KDE's approach to being a Windows look and feel and GNOME wasn't ready for daily usage at the time.

Eversince GNOME 3 came out I switched to it, and got stuck with it for the sake of simplicity. First as an apt shadow on Debian and Ubuntu - and later as an Arch user.

Nonetheless I decided to try out i3wm again, because last time it was in its very early development phase and I thought it would be fair to give it another chance.

i3 Installation

It's best to install the i3 window manager along with dmenu and i3status as they are very nicely integrated.

On a laptop with a modifiable brightness function (Fn) keys, it is highly recommended to install brightnessctl . brightnessctl allows incrementing and decrementing the brightness in percentages, so you don't have to build your own wrapper script for that.

For networking, I decided to stay with network-manager , as I'm using it in combination with modem-manager all the time for 4G internet access. In order to make this work, network-manager-applet will help.

On a machine with Bluetooth, blueman also includes an applet that can be used similar to the Network Manager Applet.

All in all, these were the necessary base packages to get going :

sudo pacman -S i3-wm i3status dmenu brightnessctl blueman network-manager-applet;
					

Xorg Configuration

In order to use i3wm, you'll need a couple of things.

As i3 is not a Desktop Environment and only a window manager, you'll have to configure X11 (Xorg) first in order to use it with multiple screens.

The details of the currently connected monitors can be gathered by using the xrandr tool. The output will show all connected (and disconnected) displays and their supported resolutions, whereas by default they'll use the maximum resolution available.

Quick important sidenotes :

• Xorg/X11 is using the width x height + offset_left + offset_top syntax.
• If the monitors are setup incorrectly, all monitors appear with a ...+0+0 output.
• If the monitors are setup correctly, they appear all with a different offset like in the example.

If the monitors are connected and not configured as multiple screens, they'll appear like this if you execute xrandr :

$ xrandr
(...)
HDMI1 connected 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 540mm x 300mm
(...)
HDMI2 connected 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 540mm x 300mm
(...)
HDMI3 connected 1920x1080+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 540mm x 300mm
					

In my case the monitors are connected next to each other in a horizontal line, from left to right. The /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-monitors.conf file therefore has to look like this :

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier "HDMI1"
	Option "Primary" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier "HDMI2"
	Option "LeftOf" "HDMI3"
	Option "RightOf" "HDMI1"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier "HDMI3"
	Option "RightOf" "HDMI2"
EndSection
					

i3 Configuration

The default setup of i3wm is pretty straight-forward as a baseline.

The first time you start an i3 session, it will ask you to create a config file with the defaults and the file will be located at ~/.config/i3/config .

Keyboard Shortcuts

All keyboards are different, but in my case I wanted the same integration with the Windows key that I had before, so I chose to use the Mod4 key.

Most Function (Fn) keys are prefixed with XF86 and you can detect them by running xev and pressing the keys on the keyboard.

I also didn't like the VIM-style arrow key bindings (h/j/k/l) because well, I have an opinion on that.

Emojis in Status Bar

The config file of i3 supports emoji rendering, which is quite nice if you want to show icons next to the information.

In order to use that, you'll need Google Noto(fu) Fonts installed, along with DejaVu Sans or any other full-range UTF8/UTF16 compatible font.

sudo pacman -S ttf-dejavu noto-fonts noto-fonts-emoji noto-fonts-extra;
					

i3 uses Pango as a text rendering library. In order to select the correct font, you'll need to use the syntax font pango: Font-Identifier SizeInPt .

In my case I decided to go with DejaVu Sans Mono with a 12 pt font size to make emojis available in the i3status bar.

i3 Config

In my case, the setup looks like this :

• Use the Windows key as Modifier.
• Integration with pulseaudio ( pactl ).
• Integration with brightnessctl .
• Integration with networkmanager ( nm-applet ) that appears in the systray.
• Change the key refresh rate to 250ms delay and 50 keys/second afterwards.
• Bind [Win]+[D] to open dmenu to search for a Desktop Application.
• Bind [Win]+[Q] to close an application window.
• Bind [Win]+[Enter] to open a Kitty terminal window.
• Everything else is pretty much defaulted key bindings.

set $mod Mod4

default_border pixel 2
hide_edge_borders smart

font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 12

exec --no-startup-id blueman-applet
exec --no-startup-id nm-applet
exec --no-startup-id xset r rate 250 50

set $refresh_i3status killall -SIGUSR1 i3status

bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +10% && $refresh_i3status
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ -10% && $refresh_i3status
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec --no-startup-id pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ toggle && $refresh_i3status
bindsym XF86AudioMicMute exec --no-startup-id pactl set-source-mute @DEFAULT_SOURCE@ toggle && $refresh_i3status
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec --no-startup-id brightnessctl set "2%+"
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec --no-startup-id brightnessctl set "2%-"

floating_modifier $mod

bindsym $mod+Return exec kitty
bindsym $mod+q kill
bindsym $mod+d exec --no-startup-id i3-dmenu-desktop

bindsym $mod+Left focus left
bindsym $mod+Down focus down
bindsym $mod+Up focus up
bindsym $mod+Right focus right

bindsym $mod+Shift+Left move left
bindsym $mod+Shift+Down move down
bindsym $mod+Shift+Up move up
bindsym $mod+Shift+Right move right

bindsym $mod+h split h
bindsym $mod+v split v
bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle

bindsym $mod+Shift+space floating toggle
bindsym $mod+space focus mode_toggle

set $ws1 "1"
set $ws2 "2"
set $ws3 "3"
set $ws4 "4"
set $ws5 "5"
set $ws6 "6"
set $ws7 "7"
set $ws8 "8"
set $ws9 "9"
set $ws10 "10"

bindsym $mod+1 workspace number $ws1
bindsym $mod+2 workspace number $ws2
bindsym $mod+3 workspace number $ws3
bindsym $mod+4 workspace number $ws4
bindsym $mod+5 workspace number $ws5
bindsym $mod+6 workspace number $ws6
bindsym $mod+7 workspace number $ws7
bindsym $mod+8 workspace number $ws8
bindsym $mod+9 workspace number $ws9
bindsym $mod+0 workspace number $ws10

bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace number $ws1
bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace number $ws2
bindsym $mod+Shift+3 move container to workspace number $ws3
bindsym $mod+Shift+4 move container to workspace number $ws4
bindsym $mod+Shift+5 move container to workspace number $ws5
bindsym $mod+Shift+6 move container to workspace number $ws6
bindsym $mod+Shift+7 move container to workspace number $ws7
bindsym $mod+Shift+8 move container to workspace number $ws8
bindsym $mod+Shift+9 move container to workspace number $ws9
bindsym $mod+Shift+0 move container to workspace number $ws10

bindsym $mod+Shift+c reload
bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart
bindsym $mod+Shift+Escape exec "i3-nagbar -t warning -m 'Exit i3?' -B 'Yes, exit nao.' 'i3-msg exit'"

mode "resize" {

	bindsym Left resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
	bindsym Down resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
	bindsym Up resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
	bindsym Right resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt

	bindsym Escape mode "default"
	bindsym $mod+r mode "default"

}

bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"

bar {
	status_command i3status
}
					

i3status Config

The i3status bar is configurable based on the idea that either internal modules are provided for quick and easy status integrations - or that external programs are run on a regular basis (e.g. every 10 seconds) in order to provide the status message.

In fact, if you run i3status in the Terminal you'll see the details of what's being rendered in a JSON formatted output.

The order string (array?) is generated by calling the modules from left to right in order to render the status bar.

Wi-Fi and Ethernet

Internal Modules of i3status can be reused multiple times with a different identifier. For example, there can be wireless wlan0 and wireless wlp0s3 in parallel.

In order to make Modules work on different machines, I decided to use the _first_ identifier for both Wi-Fi and Ethernet, so that the first interface will be automatically selected no matter if it's named wlan0 or wlp0s0 or otherwise.

CPU temperature

The cpu_temperature module depends on the temp1_input file in /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.X/hwmon/hwmonY/ wherease X and Y may vary depending on the CPU used in the system.

Potential pitfall might be that your system doesn't have a CPU temperature sensor for the first core, and only the second one, so you would need to verify that manually.

[$] cat /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon4/temp1_input;
58000
					

The output of that file should be in millidegree Celcius, which means that the example represents 58.00 C.

Audio Volume Levels

The volume levels are a different story. As pulseaudio is very dynamic in nature, there's no easy way to predict an audio setup.

In my case I decided to go with the master stream, which is the one that's being used for the primary analog output (aka Laptop speakers or headphones connected via cable).

But, in case you want to integrate a Bluetooth speaker, this might not be as easy. In order to find out the configuration you need pactl installed (and probably pavucontrol while you're at it, too).

The format of the configuration file is pulse: audio sink id or pulse: audio sink name .

In my case, that means that the pulse:0 stands for the Sink #0 which is the alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo device.

[$] pactl list sinks;
Sink #0
	State: SUSPENDED
	Name: alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
	(...)
					

Bluetooth Audio

If you connect your bluetooth headphones via the blueman-applet , they'll start to appear as sinks in pactl with a unique identifier that is per-device as it encodes the BT MAC address.

[$] pactl list sinks;
Sink #17
	State: IDLE
	Name: bluez_sink.AB_CD_EF_12_34_56.a2dp_sink
	(...)
					

So, in order to integrate their volume with the i3status bar, you'll have to use the pulse: audio sink name syntax, which I'm not totally happy with right now because it's a bit redundant to have multiple volumes in the status bar being displayed.

Microphone Volume Level

What I haven't figured out so far is how to integrate my microphone volume level into the status bar. As the microphone is part of my Built-In Audio Analog Stereo device, but a different port than master, it seems that i3status cannot integrate this.

Even when using the correct source identifier, it is always at 0% which seems to be the default value for the pulseaudio module.

But I'll have to dig into the codebase to be absolutely sure about this. So far most stackoverflow posts have been not helpful at all.

i3status Config

general {
	output_format = "i3bar"
	colors = true
	interval = 10
}

order += "wireless _first_"
order += "ethernet _first_"
order += "battery 0"
order += "cpu_temperature 0"
order += "volume microphone"
order += "volume speakers"
order += "volume bluetooth"
order += "memory"
order += "tztime local"
order += "tztime berlin"

wireless _first_ {
	format_up = "📡%quality at %essid, %bitrate"
	format_down = "📡 down"
}

ethernet _first_ {
	format_up = "🖥️ %speed"
	format_down = "🖥️ down"
}

battery 0 {
	format = "%status %percentage %remaining %emptytime"
	format_down = "No battery"
	status_chr = "⚡"
	status_bat = "🔋"
	status_unk = "❓"
	status_full = "☢️"
	path = "/sys/class/power_supply/BAT%d/uevent"
	low_threshold = 10
}

cpu_temperature 0 {
	format = "🌡️ %degrees°C"
	path = "/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon4/temp1_input"
}

volume bluetooth {
	format = "🎧🔊 %volume"
	format_muted = "🎧🔊🔇"
	device = "pulse:bluez_sink.FC_58_FA_78_33_42.a2dp_sink"
}

volume microphone {
	format = "💻🎤 %volume"
	format_muted = "💻🎤🔇"
	device = "pulse:alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo"
}

volume speakers {
	format = "💻🔊 %volume"
	format_muted = "💻🔊🔇"
	device = "pulse:alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo"
}

memory {
	format = "♻️ %used"
	threshold_degraded = "10%"
	format_degraded = "MEMORY: %free"
}

tztime local {
	format = "📅 %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S"
}

tztime berlin {
	format = "📅 %Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S %Z"
	timezone = "Europe/Berlin"
	hide_if_equals_localtime = true
}
					

Cursors, Icons, and Themes

The cursor theme for Xorg is located in /usr/share/icons/default , but it sometimes isn't applied correctly. A quick fix here is to create a symbolic link inside your home folder to it :

mkdir -p $HOME/.icons/default;
ln -s /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme $HOME/.icons/default/index.theme;
					

If you want to change the GTK theme and GTK icon theme for GTK-based applications, I would recommend to use the lxappearance tool. It allows to select all themes, color schemes, fonts, cursors and other accessibility related settings - and it does not have any third-party dependencies.

After lxappearance has saved the Theme settings, it's creating the GTK settings file located at ~/.gtkrc-2.0 .

gtk-theme-name="Arc-Dark"
gtk-icon-theme-name="Numix"
gtk-font-name="Cantarell 12"
gtk-cursor-theme-name="Breeze"
gtk-cursor-theme-size=0
gtk-toolbar-style=GTK_TOOLBAR_BOTH
gtk-toolbar-icon-size=GTK_ICON_SIZE_LARGE_TOOLBAR
gtk-button-images=1
gtk-menu-images=1
gtk-enable-event-sounds=1
gtk-enable-input-feedback-sounds=1
gtk-xft-antialias=1
gtk-xft-hinting=1
gtk-xft-hintstyle="hintfull"
					

Other Software

As above setup isn't really a complete Desktop Environment, I would recommend some other software due to better integrations with common tasks.

• celluloid as a Media Player.
• file-roller as an Archive tool.
• gpicview-gtk3 as an Image Viewer.
• keepassxc as a Password and OTP Manager.
• kitty as a Terminal Emulator.
• ly as a Login Manager.
• nemo as a File Manager.