When I finally switched to i3 as my main windows manager, I'd been watching many tutorial videos such as those by DT. The videos were always lengthy and bloated but yours are so clean and stripped of any unnecessary information. They are made with so much confidence and succintness that they reflect my decision to use i3 now. Awesome!!
Hey thanks so much for the feedback! When I decided on this i3 series, I thought a lot about what to cover because there is so much it is impossible to cover everything. So, I decided to go for the basics so that people can build from it. For me, it is about giving people the tools they need to create the i3 they want and for that to understand how i3 works is at the base of everything. One can't run if he didn't learn how to walk :) Thanks for your support!
I think you're one of the best teachers around, your videos are helping me so much. Keep up the good work, your channel gonna have a great future. Thanks
I am a reallllllly stupid hard to teach person, like I do not learn shit easily at all, and whatever I learn I forget right away usually, but your tutorials are literally perfect, and pretty much the only thing to do with Arch that makes 100% sense to me, can't thank you enough!
After having not a good experience with Gnome and Xfce, I decided to head on to i3 once I had already heard very well of this wm. Your tutorial really helped me on how to install and use it. Thank you very much!
Thank you so much for your videos! I have watched quite a few tutorials about i3 and just got more and more overwhelmed, I started thinking, forget about customizing it, just leave it as it is. But thanks to your clear videos now I see how simple and straightforward it is!!
This was very helpful, I really appreciate your videos! I was stuck configuring i3 on my 1st arch install, but your video helped me alot. Keep up the good work.
I'm using Arch + i3 since few months... i'm still noob when comes to installing Arch. I'm thinking about installing over and over by watching your videos. Keep up the good work.
muchas gracias!! solo para seguir este tutorial me instalé arch linux en una maquina virtual para realizar las prácticas :D hasta ahora muy contento, gracias por compartir el conocimiento.
Thank you so much! Really appreciate how you actually explain what you're doing and what's going on. Too many tutorials just... don't do that???? For some reason.
Hey - where's Tom, everyone's favourite spam bot?? Couldn't resist. Definitely a ground up approach with i3 (or any twm) works best. Too fancy too soon can bork the system in the blink of an eye. :) VOE ...
The movement keys are not actually vim keys, although they are probably even more ergonomic... Idk, coming from vim, it would be a pain to reaccommodate myself to jkl; setup. What do you use yourself and what do you think about it? Thank you so much for the content!
Hi Andrei, I use both the standard ones. They don't feel too different from vim to me, so it wasn't an issue. However, as always, it is a matter of personal preference.
After watching all the i3 customization videos, I am quite interested in dumping Gnome 3.38 and GDM and using i3 with LightDM. Gnome requires just about as many key combinations to launch apps and more to maneuver them around. However, I always have difficulty fully removing previous DEs, even when trying to remove the packages I initially installed (e.g. gnome, gnome-extra, gnome-tweaks) after rebooting the system into the new DE. Any recommendations on how to fully remove a previous DE? Will removing Gnome cause problems with the polkit? Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you for the clear, concise, and detailed tutorials.
@@eflinux I managed to do it to myself. I removed Gnome and GDM, but when I enabled LightDM, it fails to start on boot up. What's worse, is that my BTRFS snapshots are not keeping current in GRUB and booting to an older snapshot has a mix of old and new settings; the problem here is that I made all of /var a subvolume instead of just /var/log, and that makes the pacman database out of sync with the root snapshot. Time for a reinstall. Oh well.
Hi men... I installed i3-gaps with i3blocks & i3locks. I have fcitx5 and not start fcitx5 on i3-gaps; i apply: exec_always fcitx5; no startup fcitx5... How to I solve it?
Hi EF, there is one bug with i3wm after following your steps. After using arandr to arange multiple monitors, restarting i3 (mod+shift+r), the cursor will become larger somehow or it will only become larger when hovering the cursor around the i3bar. Have you ever met this bug? Thanks for your all these fabulous videos.
Hi! Really great content, by far the clearest guide on youtube out there. When I run startx, i3 doesn't boot and I get an error message saying .Xauthority file doesn't exist. Any pointers for this?
Hey Anthony, thank you so much for the feedback! This video is relying on the base install tutorials on the channel. If you didn’t follow that I can’t say what might be missing, but I’m guessing the whole Xorg group is not installed maybe?
@@eflinux Thanks for responding! I followed your base install and installed xorg and xorg-xinit. Should I also install some other packages in the group?
Hi Ermanno, I installed i3 over my current installation with kde plasma, when I enter to I3 there is a lag on the screen refreshing, specially on terminal and firefox with youtube, in brave with youtube is ok, this occurs with no display manager and with gdm/sddm, with lightdm and lxdm all is ok. I spent a lot of time in google trying to get the solution for this issue, no success. Thank you for your videos.
@@eflinux thanks for your answer, with lightdm and lxdm it is ok, but with sddm the issue is there, also some icons from cheat sheet font awesome don't display correctly.
hello sir, i have problem, after i installed all required package in the video and edit the last line in .xinitrc exec i3 and run the startx it just stuck in there, not come to i3 wm, i have tried use any desktop manager like sddm and gdm, and after login just black screen, not showing anything, like question configure i3 in video, i try this in virtualbox, any solutions sir?, one more thing sir, my arch linux installation in virtualbox not fullscreen, i've try to insert virtualbox guest addition, and not work. thanks ;v sorry for my bad english
@@eflinux thank you, I had same problem as Rizky. If you have Enable 3d acceleration checked then when you select VBoxSvga it will still load as default and not VBoxSvga. Was a frustrating sequence until I realized the problem.
What is actually i3 used for? Because it is OBVISUSLY NOT for everyday usage, and for me as a programmer I can say that this type of desktop is not even in practice. Can you tell me what is I3 used for? Thanks.
Windows Managers in general can be used for several purposes. Many developers love working with it. It takes some time getting used to it if you are used to a DE, but for some people it makes sense and there are also people who are really fan of it :)
![[8c] | i3 Step 2 Customization](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/0MEm4pj5dpQ/mqdefault.jpg)
When I finally switched to i3 as my main windows manager, I'd been watching many tutorial videos such as those by DT. The videos were always lengthy and bloated but yours are so clean and stripped of any unnecessary information. They are made with so much confidence and succintness that they reflect my decision to use i3 now. Awesome!!
Hey thanks so much for the feedback! When I decided on this i3 series, I thought a lot about what to cover because there is so much it is impossible to cover everything. So, I decided to go for the basics so that people can build from it. For me, it is about giving people the tools they need to create the i3 they want and for that to understand how i3 works is at the base of everything. One can't run if he didn't learn how to walk :) Thanks for your support!
Simple, no frills, straight to the point, and gentle. This is one of the better explanations for I3 basic usage.
Thanks Sanrob! Very kind of you :)
It's criminal that you only have 26.3k subscribers, you are simply the best Linux teacher around alongside LearnlinuxTV
Really unique content, keep it up! Now I can proudly say "Btw I use Arch"
Hey thanks! Will do my best :)
I just want to tell you're a huge addition to the linux community. Thank you very much.
I think you're one of the best teachers around, your videos are helping me so much. Keep up the good work, your channel gonna have a great future. Thanks
Hey thank you so much! Very kind of you :)
I am a reallllllly stupid hard to teach person, like I do not learn shit easily at all, and whatever I learn I forget right away usually, but your tutorials are literally perfect, and pretty much the only thing to do with Arch that makes 100% sense to me, can't thank you enough!
After having not a good experience with Gnome and Xfce, I decided to head on to i3 once I had already heard very well of this wm. Your tutorial really helped me on how to install and use it. Thank you very much!
One of the best content in the i3 window manager. Great content.
Hey thanks!
Who needs Linus? We've got Ermmano! Great video!! Let's keep going!
Hi Jake, well, no Linus no everyone in the Linux community :)
Thank you so much for your videos! I have watched quite a few tutorials about i3 and just got more and more overwhelmed, I started thinking, forget about customizing it, just leave it as it is. But thanks to your clear videos now I see how simple and straightforward it is!!
Glad to help!
This is by far the best and easiest to follow guide for installing, setting up, and navigating in i3. A huge thanks for making such great tutorials.
Hey thanks! So kind of you!
Thank you for this, very clear and helpful!
This was very helpful, I really appreciate your videos! I was stuck configuring i3 on my 1st arch install, but your video helped me alot. Keep up the good work.
I'm using Arch + i3 since few months... i'm still noob when comes to installing Arch. I'm thinking about installing over and over by watching your videos. Keep up the good work.
Thanks! Installing Arch many times is a great way to learn a lot about not only Arch but the Linux OS in general.
Totally enjoying your content, so became a Patreon to show my appreciation. Thank You.
Thank you Niels! I really appreciate your support!
Thank you, Ermano. It's thanks to flagbearers such as yourself that Linux is more accessible to people. Respect!
muchas gracias!! solo para seguir este tutorial me instalé arch linux en una maquina virtual para realizar las prácticas :D hasta ahora muy contento, gracias por compartir el conocimiento.
De nada Bayron! Me alegra que el video haya sido útil. :)
Thank you for making this video! Really looking forward to more content on i3 configurations!
More to come!
Very well done for titles manager, clear explanations as always on all your videos, well done.
Thanks! Glad you liked it :)
great tuturial my friend, thank you so very much
Glad you liked it!
Thank you so much! Really appreciate how you actually explain what you're doing and what's going on. Too many tutorials just... don't do that???? For some reason.
Great Video, many thanks. Looking forward to the next sessions.
You bet!
Great explanation as always. Just Installed i3. Waiting for your video on customisation and how to make i3 look beautiful 😍.
Thanks! Will be coming soon :)
Thanks for the Video. First Video I saw of i3.
Hey thanks! I hope you enjoyed it :)
@@eflinux Do you speak German, because on the Money Pig (Sparschweinchen) is written "Auszeit".
Yes I do :)
EF - Tech Made Simple Cool
Thanks a lot for the explanation!
You are welcome!
Amazing tutorial, thank you!
Hey - where's Tom, everyone's favourite spam bot?? Couldn't resist. Definitely a ground up approach with i3 (or any twm) works best. Too fancy too soon can bork the system in the blink of an eye. :) VOE ...
Think so too. For me the goal is to just show the tools available. It is then up one's creativity to decide what to do with that :)
Thank you for your great videos on Linux. One small doubt: at 5:08, you use `sudo vim .xinitrc`. I think one can safely omit `sudo` in this case.
Yes, correct.
U r legend
The movement keys are not actually vim keys, although they are probably even more ergonomic... Idk, coming from vim, it would be a pain to reaccommodate myself to jkl; setup. What do you use yourself and what do you think about it?
Thank you so much for the content!
Hi Andrei, I use both the standard ones. They don't feel too different from vim to me, so it wasn't an issue. However, as always, it is a matter of personal preference.
Thank you
Thanks
After watching all the i3 customization videos, I am quite interested in dumping Gnome 3.38 and GDM and using i3 with LightDM. Gnome requires just about as many key combinations to launch apps and more to maneuver them around. However, I always have difficulty fully removing previous DEs, even when trying to remove the packages I initially installed (e.g. gnome, gnome-extra, gnome-tweaks) after rebooting the system into the new DE.
Any recommendations on how to fully remove a previous DE? Will removing Gnome cause problems with the polkit?
Any help is greatly appreciated, and thank you for the clear, concise, and detailed tutorials.
Thanks Nick! If your remove Gnome and GDM with all dependencies should be ok. It really depends what other packages you have installed though.
@@eflinux I managed to do it to myself. I removed Gnome and GDM, but when I enabled LightDM, it fails to start on boot up.
What's worse, is that my BTRFS snapshots are not keeping current in GRUB and booting to an older snapshot has a mix of old and new settings; the problem here is that I made all of /var a subvolume instead of just /var/log, and that makes the pacman database out of sync with the root snapshot.
Time for a reinstall. Oh well.
Are there better ways to run a wm at system startup other than xinit? Is it the most used for this aim?
You can install a display manager too.
@@eflinux Your channel is helping me to migrate from DE to WM, your videos are professional and well done, thank you!
Glad I can help!
Hi men... I installed i3-gaps with i3blocks & i3locks. I have fcitx5 and not start fcitx5 on i3-gaps; i apply: exec_always fcitx5; no startup fcitx5... How to I solve it?
Hi EF, there is one bug with i3wm after following your steps.
After using arandr to arange multiple monitors, restarting i3 (mod+shift+r), the cursor will become larger somehow or it will only become larger when hovering the cursor around the i3bar.
Have you ever met this bug?
Thanks for your all these fabulous videos.
No I haven't, but you can set the site of the cursor in the .Xresources with something like Xcursor.size: 16
@@eflinux It workded. Now I learned something new about xresources. Thank you bro!
Do you know a way to use i3 and desktop icons at the same time? If I integrate i3 in a D.E. will I be able to put icons in the desktop?
You can use i3 as window manager for a de, but I have honestly never tried that.
I am trying to change the scaling to 125%. I tried exec_always xrandr --output eDP1 --scale 1.25x1.25 but not succeeded.
For the scaling you might want to set the dpi. You can check the video I have on the channel for that.
Hi! Really great content, by far the clearest guide on youtube out there. When I run startx, i3 doesn't boot and I get an error message saying .Xauthority file doesn't exist. Any pointers for this?
Hey Anthony, thank you so much for the feedback! This video is relying on the base install tutorials on the channel. If you didn’t follow that I can’t say what might be missing, but I’m guessing the whole Xorg group is not installed maybe?
@@eflinux Thanks for responding! I followed your base install and installed xorg and xorg-xinit. Should I also install some other packages in the group?
Have you created the copy of the xinitrc file in your home directory?
@@eflinux That might very well be the step I missed! I'll get back to you tomorrow if it works out. You've been a big help, thanks!
Alright, let me know how it goes!
Please help. After entering i3 the status bar says "Error: status_command process exted unexpectedly (exit 1)
Nevermind, solved it :D
Great!
@@ramonoxis how so? same issue
When I do this and type "startx" nothing comes up except a garbled box, no text. Anyone have any idea why this might be?
There is no sound on any applications that I use.
Bruh, on mac, when I do mod+shift-q, it just logs me out of my host system
thanx,,,,,,,
Hi Ermanno, I installed i3 over my current installation with kde plasma, when I enter to I3 there is a lag on the screen refreshing, specially on terminal and firefox with youtube, in brave with youtube is ok, this occurs with no display manager and with gdm/sddm, with lightdm and lxdm all is ok. I spent a lot of time in google trying to get the solution for this issue, no success. Thank you for your videos.
If you’re using i3 and KDE at the same time I recommend you to login in i3 with the display manager. Many config are set there by default.
@@eflinux thanks for your answer, with lightdm and lxdm it is ok, but with sddm the issue is there, also some icons from cheat sheet font awesome don't display correctly.
Install also the ttf-dejavu fonts.
Hi, what's you screen resolution for you main monitor running arch?
In this video it was a a Dell 4K display which is now dead. Now I’m running on a 2560x1440 res.
@@eflinux Cool Dell also? I am running the 4k and scaling has never been fun ..
Yes, it was a Dell. For scaling what worked for me was setting the DPI in the Xresources file.
4:36 I got error, no such file :(
What do you have in the X11 directory?
@@eflinux I made it, I'm actually posting this comment from the i3 install on Arch. Turns out I missed a step but I'm back on track.
Great! Let me know how you like it!
What step did you miss? I got the same mishap.
Nvm figured it out, I didn't understand that the "X" in X11 needed to be capitalized.
hello sir, i have problem, after i installed all required package in the video and edit the last line in .xinitrc exec i3 and run the startx it just stuck in there, not come to i3 wm, i have tried use any desktop manager like sddm and gdm, and after login just black screen, not showing anything, like question configure i3 in video, i try this in virtualbox, any solutions sir?, one more thing sir, my arch linux installation in virtualbox not fullscreen, i've try to insert virtualbox guest addition, and not work. thanks ;v sorry for my bad english
Try changing the graphics driver in VB to VBoxSvga.
@@eflinux thanks sir, fixed now, thank you so much
No problem :)
@@eflinux thank you, I had same problem as Rizky. If you have Enable 3d acceleration checked then when you select VBoxSvga it will still load as default and not VBoxSvga. Was a frustrating sequence until I realized the problem.
Glad it worked out!
What is actually i3 used for? Because it is OBVISUSLY NOT for everyday usage, and for me as a programmer I can say that this type of desktop is not even in practice. Can you tell me what is I3 used for? Thanks.
Windows Managers in general can be used for several purposes. Many developers love working with it. It takes some time getting used to it if you are used to a DE, but for some people it makes sense and there are also people who are really fan of it :)
@@eflinux can you do a video about i3 usage? And how to use it? I will be so thankful
I might do it when I switch to it in a few months :)
Hi, may i suggest alacritty terminal?
Thanks! gotta try it :)