Walkthrough for Lubuntu with i3 Tiling

The idea of this setup is to achieve the best of both worlds from convenient desktop features and essential i3 features.  This post uses LXQt, but this blog includes posts about XFCE and Sway instead of i3.

 

At the time of this writing, Lubuntu is getting the LXQt treatment either for version 16.10 or 17.04.

See the Xubuntu version of this here.


This walkthrough assumes that you are already familiar with using i3, but you do not have to be in order to complete it. An altered default i3 config file is part of the walkthrough, which adapts default i3 keystrokes to LXQt components. (New and replaced sections of the config file are designated in the file.)

• Use the familiar i3 keystrokes and config file for window tiling.
• Access normal application menus. (dmenu still available)
• Desktop notifications/indicators (not typically easy to find for i3)
• Fixes the administrator authentication problem when using i3 in Ubuntu.
• Software Center
• Updater
• Users and Groups
• Elegant color scheme and icons

For this guide, you will need to enter terminal commands, but you should not expect to remember them. Conversely, you will always want to understand the i3 config file. The last step will be to create a link to the i3 configuration file on you XFCE panel - to provide a visual reminder that it is central to your user experience, and conveniently available to open and edit.

The i3 site provides the best source about editing the configuration file.

I. Preliminaries

• You should have LXQt on Lubuntu. This is releasing officially in October 2016, but can be rigged before then.
• You might want to create a spare user for this, but the settings are not as difficult to reverse as, say, with the walkthrough with Xubuntu.

You should have an LXQt Panel desktop that looks a lot like this:
 
Hint:
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install lxqt











 

II. Install i3 and Background Image Manager

i3 is of course the tiling window manager.
Nitrogen is the replacement wallpaper image manager.

1. Open a terminal
2. Enter the following:

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install i3 nitrogen

 

III. Configure the background image manager: Nitrogen

1. Open Nitrogen: Accessories >> Nitrogen
2. Click the button: "Preferences"
3. Add any folders that you include your wallpaper images: 
4. Click button: "OK"
5. Click the dropdown menu on bottom left and select: "Zoomed Fill"
6. Click the button: "Apply" and exit Nitrogen.

IV. Paste the i3 config file

Let's get down to brass tacks and just do this thing.

1. In Lubuntu, there should be a directory in your user's home directory named '.config/i3'
• The file path will be like: /home/<yourusername>/config/i3/
• If the i3 directory is not there, then take the liberty of creating it: "i3"
2. Create a new file in the i3 directory named "config"
• the file path will be like: /home/<yourusername>/.config/i3/config
3. Open the config file in a text editor and save the following in the file:

# This file has been auto-generated by i3-config-wizard(1). # It will not be overwritten, so edit it as you like. # # Should you change your keyboard layout some time, delete # this file and re-run i3-config-wizard(1). # # i3 config file (v4) # # Please see http://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html for a complete reference! set $mod Mod4 # Font for window titles. Will also be used by the bar unless a different font # is used in the bar {} block below. font pango:monospace 8 # This font is widely installed, provides lots of unicode glyphs, right-to-left # text rendering and scalability on retina/hidpi displays (thanks to pango). #font pango:DejaVu Sans Mono 8 # Before i3 v4.8, we used to recommend this one as the default: # font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1 # The font above is very space-efficient, that is, it looks good, sharp and # clear in small sizes. However, its unicode glyph coverage is limited, the old # X core fonts rendering does not support right-to-left and this being a bitmap # font, it doesn’t scale on retina/hidpi displays. # Use Mouse+$mod to drag floating windows to their wanted position floating_modifier $mod # start a terminal bindsym $mod+Return exec qterminal # kill focused window bindsym $mod+Shift+q kill # start dmenu (a program launcher) #-old-#bindsym $mod+d exec dmenu_run #-new-# note the options that have placed on this (after dmenu_run), and adjust them according to your preferences: # "-p" is the text showing to the left of text entry # "-b" denotes that the dmenu will appear at the bottom # "-fn" denotes the font of dmenu, and is used to change the font size to 20 here bindsym $mod+d exec dmenu_run -p 'QTi3' -b -fn ':size=20' #-endnew-# # There also is the (new) i3-dmenu-desktop which only displays applications # shipping a .desktop file. It is a wrapper around dmenu, so you need that # installed. # bindsym $mod+d exec --no-startup-id i3-dmenu-desktop # bindsym $mod+Shift+d exec --no-startup-id i3-dmenu-desktop # change focus bindsym $mod+j focus left bindsym $mod+k focus down bindsym $mod+l focus up bindsym $mod+semicolon focus right # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys: bindsym $mod+Left focus left bindsym $mod+Down focus down bindsym $mod+Up focus up bindsym $mod+Right focus right # move focused window bindsym $mod+Shift+j move left bindsym $mod+Shift+k move down bindsym $mod+Shift+l move up bindsym $mod+Shift+semicolon move right # alternatively, you can use the cursor keys: bindsym $mod+Shift+Left move left bindsym $mod+Shift+Down move down bindsym $mod+Shift+Up move up bindsym $mod+Shift+Right move right # split in horizontal orientation bindsym $mod+h split h # split in vertical orientation bindsym $mod+v split v # enter fullscreen mode for the focused container bindsym $mod+f fullscreen toggle # change container layout (stacked, tabbed, toggle split) bindsym $mod+s layout stacking bindsym $mod+w layout tabbed bindsym $mod+e layout toggle split # toggle tiling / floating bindsym $mod+Shift+space floating toggle # change focus between tiling / floating windows bindsym $mod+space focus mode_toggle # focus the parent container bindsym $mod+a focus parent # focus the child container #bindsym $mod+d focus child # switch to workspace bindsym $mod+1 workspace 1 bindsym $mod+2 workspace 2 bindsym $mod+3 workspace 3 bindsym $mod+4 workspace 4 bindsym $mod+5 workspace 5 bindsym $mod+6 workspace 6 bindsym $mod+7 workspace 7 bindsym $mod+8 workspace 8 bindsym $mod+9 workspace 9 bindsym $mod+0 workspace 10 # move focused container to workspace bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace 1 bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace 2 bindsym $mod+Shift+3 move container to workspace 3 bindsym $mod+Shift+4 move container to workspace 4 bindsym $mod+Shift+5 move container to workspace 5 bindsym $mod+Shift+6 move container to workspace 6 bindsym $mod+Shift+7 move container to workspace 7 bindsym $mod+Shift+8 move container to workspace 8 bindsym $mod+Shift+9 move container to workspace 9 bindsym $mod+Shift+0 move container to workspace 10 # reload the configuration file bindsym $mod+Shift+c reload # restart i3 inplace (preserves your layout/session, can be used to upgrade i3) bindsym $mod+Shift+r restart # exit i3 (logs you out of your X session) #-old-#bindsym $mod+Shift+e exec "i3-nagbar -t warning -m 'You pressed the exit shortcut. Do you really want to exit i3? This will end your X session.' -b 'Yes, exit i3' 'i3-msg exit'" #-new-# bindsym $mod+Shift+e exec --no-startup-id lxqt-leave #-endnew-# # resize window (you can also use the mouse for that) 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" } bindsym $mod+r mode "resize" # Start i3bar to display a workspace bar (plus the system information i3status # finds out, if available) #-old-#bar { #-old-# status_command i3status #-old-#} #-new-# exec --no-startup-id nitrogen --restore #-endnew-#


The i3 site provides the best source for editing the configuration file.

IV. Set i3 as the Session Window Manager

1. Open LXQt Session Settings: Preferences >> LXQT Settings >> Session Settings
2. Click on the Window Manager dropdown box that reads: "openbox" 
3.  Scroll down the long menu of options until you reach i3, and select i3:  
4. For "LXQt Modules", uncheck "Desktop" and "Global Keyboard Shortcuts"    
5. Click the button: "Close" and "OK" on the notification of changes:                               

---

Here is the magic moment when you can restart your computer and log in with i3 as your window manager.

 
 

---

i3 cheat sheet

The mod key is the 'super key', also called the 'windows key' (left of the space-bar.)

mod+Enter opens a terminal

mod+d opens the dmenu
mod+Shift+q closes the current window tile
mod+r initiates resize-tile mode
mod+1, mod+2, etc. (1-0) switches to a different workspace
mod+Shift+1, mod+Shift+2, etc. (1-0) moves the current window tile to a different workspace
mod+Shift+e initiates Lubuntu's session logout dialogue

V. Configure the LXQt Panel

• Configure the "Desktop Switcher"
1. Right-click the desktop switcher
2. Select the option: "Configure "Desktop Switcher""
3. Change the dropdown: "Desktop labels" to be: "Names"

VI. Configuring Theme and Icons

As of the creation of this walkthrough, I still found it useful to configure the appearance using the old LXDE method and the new LXQt method:

• Preferences >> Customize Look and Feel
• Preferences >> LXQt Settings >> Appearance
• Dark icons and dark panel look better in my opinion
  

VII. Try Everything on For Size

If the i3 config file is set up correctly, then all the standard keystrokes should work.