Questions tagged [i3-wm]
i3 is a dynamic tiling window manager inspired by wmii. It supports tiling, stacking, and tabbing layouts.
316
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answer
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How can I tell if I'm using alsa or pulse-audio by default? (Switching to i3-wm)
I might not be understanding the core concept, in which case correct me if I'm wrong.
Ubuntu comes with two different audio rendering servers, pulse and alsa. Is Alsa an intermediary layer to pulse? ...
- 1,095
54
votes
5
answers
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How to de-uglify i3-wm
I recently installed the i3 Window Manager and have fallen thoroughly in love with it. However, it's rather ugly...
I followed the instructions here for getting started, and one of the points was ...
- 9,833
41
votes
3
answers
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Fresh install of Ubuntu with i3wm
I would like to use the i3 Window Manager with Ubuntu and not Unity.
Since I am going to do a fresh install Id like to keep the bloat to a minimum.
Should I just install it normally with the ...
- 965
37
votes
2
answers
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Screen times out in i3 WM
I love i3 for obvious reasons (light, maxing screen size, ability to customize). However, my screen times out after five minutes of inactivity. I would like to turn this off, how?
I've got i3 on ...
- 473
29
votes
5
answers
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Thunar Icons Missing
I installed thunar yesterday but on starting up this morning, I found that all of the folder icons had vanished. I'm using i3wm (but the icons were visible in i3 as of yesterday). Any idea why they ...
- 419
25
votes
2
answers
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How to change font size using i3-wm?
When I start ubuntu with i3-wm the font of all Applications is too big.
How do I change the Font and Size?
I already looked into i3 Documentation but found nothing about this topic.
- 251
23
votes
1
answer
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Screen tearing when using i3, none when using unity
I was attempting to use i3 on my ubuntu installation the other day. I noticed however that when I would logout and switch to using i3 I would start to see tearing when watching videos or scrolling ...
- 433
21
votes
5
answers
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How to connect to Wifi Network with i3wm?
I just installed Ubuntu minimal with i3wm, but I can't figure out, how to connect it to the wireless network.
I already have installed network-manager package. Also I added exec --no-startup-id nm-...
- 219
19
votes
5
answers
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File browser and file dialogs take a long time to open or fail to open in all applications
I'm using Ubuntu 20.04, with i3 as the window manager but the gnome subsystem installed.
I have a problem that at some random interval (hours or days) after a reboot, any attempt to open thunar or ...
- 585
19
votes
5
answers
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Volume sound and screen brightness controls not working
Recently I have installed i3 windows manager.
The problem is that the footnote keys to control the volume and brightness don't work.
How can I solve this?
And how can I bind the mod key to the Win ...
- 907
18
votes
1
answer
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Switching to i3 in 18.04
I installed i3 with sudo apt-get install i3. But if I try to launch it via terminal, it says another window manager is running. In older versions of Ubuntu, there was a round button at the login ...
- 183
16
votes
6
answers
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Copy & Paste between terminal(s) and application windows in i3
I have recently installed the i3 tiling window manager [1] on my Ubuntu system and I'm trying to figure out how to copy & paste between various terminal and application windows.
How can this be ...
- 735
15
votes
2
answers
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How can i3 use gnome settings in Ubuntu 18.04
In the past (probably 16.04), simply running gnome-settings-daemon allows gnome settings to work in i3 including hidpi settings, media keys, and touchpad preferences.
In Ubuntu 18.04, there is no ...
- 251
13
votes
2
answers
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How to add natural (/inverted) mouse-scrolling in i3 window manager?
As you can maybe see, this is my first post. So, I have already been trying and researching a lot, but I still can't solve this problem.
I really enjoy natural scrolling, but not only on my touchpad, ...
- 267
11
votes
1
answer
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i3 for dual-monitor on laptop
I am using i3 as the window manager on my laptop. Now I want it to work with my HDMI monitor. So far I have this is my .3/config:
exec xrandr --output eDP1 --auto --output HDMI1 --auto --left-of eDP1
...
- 365
11
votes
1
answer
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Using Unity with i3-wm
Is it possible to use the Unity Panel (with or without launcher) with i3-wm instead of compiz?
And if that's not possible, could I somehow use the HUD inside the i3 session?
- 1,280
11
votes
2
answers
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The Save As dialog does not let me type a file name. How can I fix that?
In some programs like Firefox (Snap), if I trigger Save as... a dialog opens. If I try to modify the file name, I can move the caret with the cursor keys but as soon as I press any key to enter text, ...
- 461
10
votes
1
answer
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How to enable Bluetooth in i3wm in Ubuntu 16.04?
I want to connect my Bluetooth keyboard to Ubuntu when I login in i3wn. The keyboard can connect to Ubuntu when I login in Unity. In I3wm, when I type
sudo systemctl status bluetooth.service
The ...
- 201
10
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Recommended auto-mounter for tiling window managers?
What is the recommended way to automatically mount usb drives, optical media, hard drives, etc... with a tiling window manager on Ubuntu?
I am a big fan of tiling window managers, but I always look ...
- 416
10
votes
0
answers
6k
views
How do I figure out what notification daemon is running?
I just installed i3wm after messing around with xmonad for a bit and I noticed that I'm receiving desktop notifications, like from Slack for example.
I thought that i3 came with a notifications ...
- 203
9
votes
3
answers
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How to access files (documents, drives..) in i3wm?
I am new to i3wm, so would like to know which command to use to access the files on my system.
9
votes
3
answers
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unity-control-center not working in i3wm on Ubuntu 16.04
I am using i3wm desktop environment on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. Everything was fine on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Now when I use unity-control-center I see only the following settings:
Personal > Language Support
...
- 601
9
votes
1
answer
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Why does Slack not have a tray icon any more?
I've installed the Slack snap; recently, its tray icon stopped displaying. Instead there's just a blank space – though if I right-click it, the Slack menu still opens. All my other tray icons are ...
- 2,117
9
votes
1
answer
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Use NotifyOSD with i3wm window manager
I use i3wm as window manager, but something seems to be broken. I want to use NotifyOSD as a notification service, but I am not able to set it as a default service. At the moment I get ugly blueish ...
- 1,415
7
votes
2
answers
17k
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how to change language in i3wm
i'm new to i3wm and stuck with the config. I wanted to ask how can I change language in i3wm.
I made some search and found some stuff but it's not working in my case.
these are two ways that I found
# ...
- 113
7
votes
1
answer
7k
views
System settings application crippled in i3
I have been working with i3 for a while on Ubuntu 18.04. Controlling some of the peripherals has been quite elusive, since the system settings application shows only a few of the settings available in ...
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7
votes
1
answer
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Change QT5 theme
I am using i3wm on Ubuntu 15.10.
I was wondering on how to change the QT5 theme?
With old QT4 it was possible to change it with qt4-config. There is however no qt5-config as of yet.
I have tried using ...
- 1,043
7
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Chromium/Opera "randomly" not rendering in i3
I'm on 18.04, using i3, and sometimes when I go from some workspace to a workspace containing chromium or opera, those windows aren't redrawing. I can still press ctrl+s to open a "save to" popup, ...
- 276
6
votes
3
answers
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Authentication agent and i3wm
How does one turn on an authentication agent like Polkit when using the i3 window manager? I would like to get a password prompt whenever I try to launch an application that requires certain root ...
- 459
6
votes
6
answers
35k
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Adding network selection clickable menu in polybar
is there any way to integrate a network selection menu(wifi) in polybar? I'm using i3 with polybar and this is the only thing missing in my setup. If you know any programs that can do this please ...
- 61
6
votes
1
answer
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views
Ubuntu Minimal Install
Every attempt I've made to install via the Minimal Install has resulted in a full blown Unity Install, whereas I simply want the Base System, the Repositories, and i3WM installed (of course flash and ...
- 1,127
6
votes
2
answers
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I3 WM with auto internet connectivity and a gnome panel
I wanna use I3 as WM with a gnome-panel on the bottom. But when i try to start the gnome-panel, I3 crashes. So how is it possible to run both?
Another question is: How can i connect to the internet (...
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6
votes
2
answers
14k
views
installed i3, but no WindowManager choice present on login (Gdm / Ubuntu 18.04)
I have a default install of 18.04 desktop. I've installed i3, which succeeded, including creating /usr/share/xsessions/i3.desktop as in How do you add a new window manager to the gdm menu?
On the ...
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
i3wm open 2 applications with one keybinding?
I want to make a keybinding for i3wm that launches 2 GUI applications at the same time. Is that possible?
- 1,043
6
votes
2
answers
7k
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polybar Dropping unmatched character error
I'm using i3 with polybar including some font awesome characters in my workspace names but when I start polybar, it shows these errors:
warn: Dropping unmatched character (U+e26f)
warn: Dropping ...
- 63
6
votes
3
answers
3k
views
German Umlauts on an English keyboard
I switched to the American keyboard layout mainly because I find it easier to program that way. But for other applications I sometimes need umlauts.
I tried using the US international layout but the ...
- 365
6
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Set Openbox to be readable on a QHD screen?
I have a Samsung ATIV Book 9 Plus, which has a Quad HD (3200 x 1800) screen.
Needless to say, the scaling on this make the font super tiny and hard to read.
In unity it's easy to adjust the window &...
- 157
5
votes
3
answers
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views
Can't log in to Ubuntu 19.10, freezes upon Ctrl+Alt+F3
I recently upgraded to 19.10 from 19.04.
Everything appeared to work correctly, however just last night I did a apt update/apt upgrade and some kernel updates occurred.
Now when I get to the login ...
- 153
5
votes
2
answers
6k
views
add-apt-respository keeps timing out
I'm trying to add a ppa to install i3 gaps on my ubuntu machine, but add-apt-respository keeps timing out every time.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/add-apt-repository", ...
5
votes
2
answers
7k
views
i3wm disable laptop screen
Is it possible when using i3wm to disable my built in screen completely?
I know how to do it in Unity, but I can't google anything that makes sense.
- 151
5
votes
1
answer
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Notification on Unity after i3 desktop removal [duplicate]
I installed i3 desktop environment and then removed it via software manager since I didn't like it very much.
Now I started to use unity (default) back again. However, now I have a white over blue ...
- 51
5
votes
1
answer
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Ubuntu doesn't give the correct keycodes for some media keys
I've just installed Ubuntu 16.04 on my ThinkPad T450s and for some reason the media keys for volume and screen brightness are not giving any keycodes or keysyms (ie. XF86AudioRaiseVolume). But all the ...
- 357
5
votes
3
answers
6k
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i3 + gnome keyring issue
I have Ubuntu 20.04 desktop with Gnome. A few months ago I switched to i3, and I like it!
The only issue I have is that when I run some software that needs Gnome Keyring it misbehaves, for example, ...
- 71
5
votes
5
answers
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Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy Jellyfish cannot install i3-gaps
I am running the latest release of ubuntu 22.04, I like I3 and wanted to start using I3-gaps instead. unfortunetly no matter which ppa I try to use it I get "404 not found" and "jammy ...
- 53
5
votes
1
answer
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How to start `gnome-keyring-daemon` outside of Unity?
I'm running Ubuntu with i3WM instead of Unity (while Unity is still available as a choice on the login screen).
gnome-keyring-daemon works fine with Unity which starts it automatically. I just don't ...
- 1,185
5
votes
1
answer
2k
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How can I change the power related settings (suspend, hibernate...) with the command line only?
I am using Ubuntu 18.04 with i3wm, so I don't have access to the settings menu from Gnome.
I am using a laptop in a dock with two external monitors hooked up to it. The lid is closed while it's in ...
- 588
5
votes
1
answer
347
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Upgrade from 14.04 to 16.04, gnome-settings-daemon equivalent?
Some background: I recently upgraded to 16.04 from 14.04 on a 2nd gen Thinkpad X1 Carbon with the adaptive keyboard. It seems Unity picks up volume / brightness keys correctly on this model. But if I ...
- 151
4
votes
3
answers
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views
Super key ("The Windows Key") not working in i3wm in 14.04.1 LTS
I just installed i3wm but I can't configure the $mod to be mod4 (Super aka "the Windows Key" in other OSes). I can only choose to use the mod1 (Alt).
I've tried reinstalling i3, and deleting the ...
- 41
4
votes
2
answers
36k
views
Multiple monitors with i3 window manager
I just started using i3 (version 4.17.1), and cannot figure out how to get it working with 2 monitors. I am running Ubuntu 20.04, and when I log into gnome, it utilizes them both. My research ...
- 259
4
votes
1
answer
10k
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How to make terminal in i3 transparent? (preferences tab not working)
I'm in i3 with terminator and I'm trying to make the terminal a little bit transparent to see my wallpaper
but when i right click and go to preferences and i adjust the transparency nothing changes.
...
- 197