i3

Created søndag 18 december 2016

Installation

# Local configurations for many of these applications can be found at Github

FROM THE OFFICIAL REPOSITORY

# Install the i3 package group
$ pacman -S i3

# dmenu will launch applications on the fly. Here is a nice drop-in for dmenu
$ pacman -S rofi

# My logout script requires polkit too (Github)
$ pacman -S polkit

# An Authentication Agent helps authenticate the user, and is a common thing in DEs.
$ pacman -S polkit-gnome

# For the $mod+l lock screen you need imagemagick and scrot (Github)
# You also need a icon (https://www.iconfinder.com) and correct it in the i3 config.
$ pacman -S imagemagick scrot

# (Statusbar) The temp. indicator in the statusbar needs lm-sensors
$ pacman -S lm_sensors

# (Statusbar) Battery indicator needs ACPI
$ pacman -S acpi

# (Statusbar) CPU monitor needs sysstat
$ pacman -S sysstat

FROM THE AUR

# You need the i3blocks for your i3status bar
$ yaourt -S i3blocks

# i3-gaps are needed to make a gap between windows, when there's more than 1 window
$ yaourt -S i3-gaps

# The screen locker needs xss-lock (auto lock/ 10min.)
# You can change the background image for the lockscreen in the i3 config
$ yaourt -S xss-lock-git

# You need font-awesome to display icons in the workspace bar
$ yaourt -S ttf-font-awesome

NOTE

# Also install the ttf-font-package that you chose and correct in i3 config.

Configuration

# A complete user guide for i3 can be fount at https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.htm
# Launch i3 on login with xinitrc. Add the following to your ~/.xinitrc file.

exec i3 

# First time i3 is run it'll provide you with a configuration wizard.
# Quit the wizard and copy your config to ~/.config/i3/config

i3status

# Local i3status configuration at Github.
# This file is read from ~/.config/i3status/config (can be defined in i3 configuration)
# A default version of this file can be fount at /etc/i3status.conf

Getting Window Information

# Should you change your applications and want information for key-binding etc
# Install the xorg-xprop package
$ pacman -S xorg-xprop

# Run xprop and watch your cursor turn into a corsair.
# Now click the Window you want information about.
# The WM_CLASS(STRING) = "Navigator", "Firefox" (etc) is probably what you are looking for.

Icons in Workspace bar

# You should have the font-awesome package installed.
# A nice cheat-sheet for these icons can be found here http://fontawesome.io/cheatsheet/
# Then just copy the icon you'd like into the string in the configuration file.

Saving & Restoring Workspace Layout

# Requires perl-anyevent-i3 and perl-json-xs
$ pacman -S perl-anyevent-i3 perl-json-xs

Save Workspace Layout

# Navigate to the workspace
# Then open and arrange the programs the way you'd like it to be restore
# Then save that layout to a json file.
# N = workspace (numeric).
$ i3-save-tree --workspace N > ~/dotfiles/.config/i3/layouts/workspace_N.json

# Once the workspace files has been created, they need to be edited
# Open it with your favorite editor and look for the following

"swallows": [
				   {
				   // "class": "",
				   // "instance": "",
				   // "title": "",
				   // "transient_for": ""
				   }
				]

# We just need class and instance so remove the bottom two lines and comment out the two needed
# Also note the trailing , (comma) after instance - remove this too

"swallows": [
		   {
			  "class": "",
			  "instance": ""
		]

# Note, that the instance variable is for named windows.
# You could ex specify something like; "instance": "Special"
# Now only windows open with the name Special will correspond. Ex; urxvt -name Special

Load Workspace Layout

# Once the workspace layout has been saved (as showed above),
# create a script that will load the layout and run the applications
# Change N accordingly; ~/dotfiles/.config/i3/layouts/load_workspace_N.json

#!/bin/bash
# First we append the saved layout to the workspace - Change N accordingly 
i3-msg "workspace N; append_layout ~/dotfiles/.config/i3/layouts/workspace_N.json"

# Then run the programs, Ex
(urxvt &)
(firefox &)
(zim &)

# Make the Shell files executable
$ chmod u+x ~/.config/i3/layouts/load_layout_N.sh

# You can now run the Shell scripts - or add them to your i3 config