I3

USE flags

Emerge

Additional software

Starting i3

Most users will probably want i3 started via the X server's ~/.xinitrc file:

<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">exec i3</syntaxhighlight>

After this code has been added to a user's .xinitrc file, running startx will start i3.

It should be noted that when not using a login manager, security issues arise when relying on a screen lock program such as i3lock. While locking the screen will prevent someone from accessing the running X session, it does not prevent them from going to the tty where X was launched, killing X, and gaining access to the logged in user's account. To prevent this, simply use the following:

This will ensure that if X is terminated for any reason, the user will be logged out.

Default keybinding

Additional keybinding information can be found on upstream's website.

Adding commands

In the user config file, adding a keyboard command is as simple as adding a line. For example, adding the following to the end of the config will open the firefox utility when Ctrl+Shift+Escape is pressed:

bindsym Ctrl+Shift+Escape exec firefox

You can also have it use the default key that all other commands use by using the built-in variable:

bindsym $mod+f exec firefox

You can also set you own variable names or override values of variables. It works by replacing text, like the c pre-processor, and has no concept other than strings.

set $someVarName SomeValue

Changing default terminal

Default terminal can be configured in /home/̩$USER/.config/i3/config by changing bindsym $mod+Return exec i3-sensible-terminal on terminal of your choice. Alternatively, you can set the TERMINAL environment variable.

Adding modes

You can also add in what is called a mode. An example is the resize mode for floating windows. This changes what keyboard commands are bound and will be able to run. This is useful if there is a large set of commands often run together, or that override the keys on the keyboard as in the example below which takes over the arrow keys and the vim-style movement keys.

mode "resize" {
        # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode

        # Pressing left will shrink the window’s width.
        # Pressing right will grow the window’s width.
        # Pressing up will shrink the window’s height.
        # Pressing down will grow the window’s height.
        bindsym j resize shrink width 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym k resize grow height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym l resize shrink height 10 px or 10 ppt
        bindsym semicolon resize grow width 10 px or 10 ppt

        # same bindings, but for the arrow keys
        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

        # back to normal: Enter or Escape
        bindsym Return mode "default"
        bindsym Escape mode "default"
}
# A binding to change over into the resize mode
bindsym $mod+r mode "resize"

Enabling multimedia keys

You can add multimedia key bindings in your i3 config. Below are example of working multimedia keys with i3wm.

# Put this in your i3 config file
             
# Alsa key bindings (need media-sound/alsa-utils for amixer.)
bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec amixer -q set Master 10%+ unmute
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec amixer -q set Master 10%- unmute
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec amixer -q set Master toggle

# PulseAudio key bindings (need USE flag "pulseaudio", will pull in media-sound/pulseaudio automatically.)
bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec amixer -D pulse sset Master 10%+ unmute
bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec amixer -D pulse sset Master 10%- unmute
bindsym XF86AudioMute exec amixer -D pulse sset Master toggle

# Media player key bindings (need media-sound/playerctl for playerctl.)
bindsym XF86AudioPlay exec playerctl play
bindsym XF86AudioPause exec playerctl pause
bindsym XF86AudioNext exec playerctl next
bindsym XF86AudioPrev exec playerctl previous
       
# Brightness key bindings (need x11-apps/xbacklight for xbacklight.)
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec xbacklight -inc 10
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec xbacklight -dec 10

For a complete reference, visit the i3 official user guide.

Setting a wallpaper

A wallpaper can be easily set using Feh. Example configuration line: exec --no-startup-id feh --bg-scale /path/to/wallpaper.

Transparent background

i3 do not provide compositing. Install x11-misc/xcompmgr to add window transparency and animation effects support for i3. Example configuration line: exec --no-startup-id xcompmgr

Adding Alt+Tab functionality

Add the first 2 lines to your i3 config file to enable META + TAB to switch to next open workspace and META + SHIFT + TAB to switch to the previous one. The third line uses META + ` to jump back to your last used workspace:

# enable Alt+Tab Functionality
bindsym $mod+Tab workspace next
bindsym $mod+Shift+Tab workspace prev

# jump to last used workspace
bindsym $mod+grave workspace back_and_forth

The Scratchpad (i3's solution to minimising windows)

The i3 wm has an invisible workspace called the Scratchpad workspace. Users can move windows to and from it to hide them from the main workspaces. The i3 commands move scratchpad and scratchpad show hide and show windows respectively. It may be useful to bind these to keys within your config:

# Make the currently focused window a scratchpad
bindsym $mod+minus move scratchpad

# Show the first scratchpad window
bindsym $mod+plus scratchpad show

Configuring gaps between tiled windows (i3-gaps only)

A detailed description of i3-gaps can be found on the [Github page].

The following lines remove the window decorations and add gaps between the windows. smart_gaps on will disable the gaps if only one window is present on a workspace.

Change the values for preference. This will put a 5px gap between all containers and the edge of the screen.

gaps inner sets the distance between adjacent containers. gaps outer sets the distance between containers and the edge of the screen. It is worth noting that the actual distance from the containers to the edge of the screen is the sum of the inner and outer values. The actual distance between adjacent containers is the inner value alone.

for_window [class="^.*"] border pixel 0
gaps inner 5
gaps outer 0
smart_gaps on

i3 softbricks if xrandr with scale is used

i3 softbricks if xrandr --scale 1.1x1.1 (or any scale above 1.1x1.1) is invoked.

Partially solved?, resolving on https://github.com/i3/i3/issues/3392

1. xrandr with --scale is still unable to work correctly (results in softbrick with GPU glitches if used) with multiple outputs. Temporary solution is to invoke xorg-server for each output, but it will make them independant from each other meaning that you can NOT drag windows through multiple outputs.

2. xrandr with --scale sometimes work and sometimes it doesn't...

Reported by Kreyren (talk) 14:47, 15 September 2018 (UTC)

Changing kill command on Alt+F4 does not affect terminal.

Changing /home/$USER/.config/i3/config section # kill focused windows on bindsym ALT+F4 kill does not affect terminal emulator -> unable to close terminal emulator.

If anyone knows the solution please share it. Kreyren (talk) 18:26, 8 September 2018 (UTC)

Error: status_command not found or is missing a library dependency (exit 127)

The default setting of status_command in the /home/$USER/.config/i3/config expects installed i3status. This error could be resolved by either emerging x11-misc/i3status or changing the status_command.

Error while emerging: fatal error: GENERATED_config_enums.h: No such file or directory

Check the value of MAKEOPTS environment variable. If the amount of make jobs is set to higher than -j1 – set it to -j1 value for the duration of compilation:

To permanently use this configuration for emerging i3 – set up /etc/portage/package.env for i3.