Configuring i3wm

Packages we will need

• i3wm

  sudo pacman -S i3-gaps i3status i3lock dmenu    # Arch
  
  sudo apt install i3-gaps i3status i3lock dmenu    # Ubuntu

• terminal

  sudo pacman -S alacritty
  
  sudo apt install alacritty

• X utilities

  sudo pacman -S xorg-xset xorg-xrandr   # Arch
  
  sudo apt install xorg-xset xorg-xrandr   # Ubuntu

• autotiling

  yay -S autotiling   # AUR only

Note

If you want autotiling on Ubuntu or another distro head over to there github and grab the python file

autotiling

Config

Put this stuff in your .xprofile

# Stop screen from going blank
xset s off
xset -dpms
xset s noblank
# Faster key repeat and delay
xset r rate 210 40

I recommend pulling down my config to get started

git clone https://github.com/ChristianChiarulli/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles

We can grab some of my config like this:

mv ~/.config/i3/config ~/.config/i3/config.old

mv ~/dotfiles/.config/i3/config ~/.config/i3/config

mkdir ~/.config/alacritty

mv ~/dotfiles/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.yml

Add status bar

bar {
  position top
  status_command i3status
}

Commands

For a list of all your commands open the ~/.config/i3/config file and look under each character to see what they do

Extending i3

You can checkout the i3ipc library for python if you're interested

Why use i3wm instead of any other?

I use i3wm because it was the first WM I was introduced to. I'm sure the other ones are great too.

It also has a very big community and lots of documentation.

Some other options to consider are:

• dwm
• xmonad
• bspwm
• awesome
• spectrwm

Links

ArchWiki

i3 extras