My i3 flower configuration
This was my first completed configuration on a window manager, and its main colour is purple. It's available on my GitHub.
I had this configuration on Gentoo Linux, so some of the scripts I wrote (for example, for updating the system) work only on this distro. Also, the rofi configuration was unfortunately lost.
1. The choice of i3-wm
As I reported in my previous article, I have mostly been a KDE user. I also tried Gnome, but I have always preferred KDE.On the other hand, window managers were something totally new to me. I noticed many configurations being posted and shared across the Web, and most of them featured window managers. They seemed very functional, clean, and stunning.
I started my journey with Hyprland on Arch Linux in 2023: it was very easy to install, but it was quite hard to get used to it. There were several things that weren’t working properly, and I mostly followed tutorials and ready-to-use configurations.
In general, I don’t think this is a bad idea, but starting from scratch and knowing exactly what you’re doing is really important when it comes to customizing a space for daily personal use.
Some months later, still in 2023, I decided to ditch Arch Linux, and I installed Void Linux to get used to window managers.
My choice was i3 for two main reasons: the Hyprland version I had tried on Arch Linux was too unstable and almost unusable, while i3 was very well documented, with many tutorials and cool available configurations.
I especially followed these tutorials, which are truly a great starting point for people who want to use i3.
I started working on my customization, but since I was quite busy during that period, I needed something fast and reliable to work on, so I had to switch back to my Gentoo partition with KDE.
I want to specify that I didn’t find i3 uncomfortable, but it takes some time to adjust to a new environment. Moreover, many things aren’t available from the start, so it’s a necessity to spend some time to get things to work, but that’s also the exciting part of customizing window managers!
Later that summer, I kept using my Gentoo Linux partition, but I moved from KDE to i3.
2. Explaining the configuration
In this section, I am going to explain the different changes I made for my i3 configuration:- the basic i3 configuration file
- i3bar
- Wallpaper, Lock screen, and Login
- Some customized apps, like Spotify
Before starting, I want to acknowledge that I found a specific i3 configuration, that inspired me to create mine. Since I haven’t contacted the person in question, I won't share their specific configuration, despite it's publicly available on GitHub.
My personal configuration is very different: I focused on the theme of flowers (while the original had a plane), my main colour is purple (while the other was white), ecc. As I reported in my previous article, I have mostly been a KDE user, so window managers were something totally new to me.
I noticed many configurations being posted and shared across the Web, and most of them featured window managers. They seemed very functional, clean, and stunning. I started my journey with Hyprland on Arch Linux in 2023: it was very easy to install, but it was quite hard to get used to it. There were several things that weren’t working properly, and I mostly followed tutorials and ready-to-use configurations.
In general, I don’t think this is a bad way to get accustomed to window managers, but starting from scratch and knowing exactly what you’re doing is really important when it comes to customizing a space for daily personal use.
My personal configuration is very different: I focused on the theme of flowers (while the original had a plane), my main colour is purple (while the other was white), ecc. As I reported in my previous article, I have mostly been a KDE user, so window managers were something totally new to me.
I noticed many configurations being posted and shared across the Web, and most of them featured window managers. They seemed very functional, clean, and stunning. I started my journey with Hyprland on Arch Linux in 2023: it was very easy to install, but it was quite hard to get used to it. There were several things that weren’t working properly, and I mostly followed tutorials and ready-to-use configurations.
In general, I don’t think this is a bad way to get accustomed to window managers, but starting from scratch and knowing exactly what you’re doing is really important when it comes to customizing a space for daily personal use.
Some months later, still in 2023, I decided to ditch Arch Linux, and I installed Void Linux to get used to window managers. My choice was i3 for two main reasons: the Hyprland version I had tried on Arch Linux was too unstable and almost unusable, while i3 was very well documented, with many tutorials and cool available configurations. I followed these tutorials, which are a great way to get to use i3.
I started working on my customization, but, since I was quite busy during that period, I needed something fast and reliable to work with, so I had to switch back to my Gentoo partition with KDE.
I want to specify that I didn’t find i3 uncomfortable, but it takes some time to adjust to a new environment. Moreover, many things aren’t available from the start, so it’s a necessity to spend some time to get things to work, but that’s also the exciting part of the process!
Later that summer, I kept using my Gentoo Linux partition, but I moved from KDE to i3, with very different keybindings, a very different bar style, and additional apps.
I started working on my customization, but, since I was quite busy during that period, I needed something fast and reliable to work with, so I had to switch back to my Gentoo partition with KDE.
I want to specify that I didn’t find i3 uncomfortable, but it takes some time to adjust to a new environment. Moreover, many things aren’t available from the start, so it’s a necessity to spend some time to get things to work, but that’s also the exciting part of the process!
Later that summer, I kept using my Gentoo Linux partition, but I moved from KDE to i3, with very different keybindings, a very different bar style, and additional apps.
2.1 i3 basic config file
I am not going to share the whole file, because it is all on my GitHub, but I'll explain how it’s organized.The first part of the config files describes some aspects like the font, and some apps starting to run at the start, like nm-applet, and i3-lock.
Then, I have set some values for the brightness control and the volume control. Those parts can be easily found on the Web, and I even think the audio part might be set by default. I used brightnessctl and Pulseaudio.
The second part is about keybindings. Those are totally personal, and indeed, I have changed some of the default ones. Using keybindings is really comfortable, and being able to personalize them surely is the needed step ahead for daily personal use.
The third part is probably my favourite: workspaces.
They are also highly personal, and I love having this sort of organization because I really use my laptop in several different ways.
I use 8 workspaces, but in reality, I rarely use all of them at the same time. Indeed I actually only need 7 of them for all of my types of usage, but I left the 1st workspace empty for general-purpose tasks, especially if I need a terminal to do something real quick or on the background.
What I really like to do is assigning some apps to specific workspaces (for example, Steam to the gaming workspace, Firefox to the one for Internet browsing, Spotify to the music workspace, and so on).
2.2 i3status & i3bar
There's not much to say, actually. i3status includes the main components of the i3bar and that's something very personal, because it’s totally up to the user deciding what to display in the i3bar. I included: load, CPU temperature, volume control, battery, and date and time.
i3bar is a small snippet of code in the i3 config file, and it only has the chosen colours (purple, as expected lol).2.3 Wallpaper, Lock Screen, and Login
I found the images on Google and Pinterest, and I used this website to improve their quality.
For the lockscreen I use i3lock, and I personally modified the lock screen picture with Canva. I applied a filter, I made a circle that is as big as the i3lock one, and added a lock icon on top. I remember that it took more time than expected.
For the login, I use SDDM. I basically used the Sugar Candy theme, and applied a couple of modifications. It was quite easy, and it looks amazing!
For the lockscreen I use i3lock, and I personally modified the lock screen picture with Canva. I applied a filter, I made a circle that is as big as the i3lock one, and added a lock icon on top. I remember that it took more time than expected.
For the login, I use SDDM. I basically used the Sugar Candy theme, and applied a couple of modifications. It was quite easy, and it looks amazing!
2.4 App customization
I have some apps that I frequently use that were not matching the colours. I used Spicetify to change Spotify and I applied the RosePineMoon theme.
For Discord, I used BetterDiscord, I applied the system24 theme. I didn't really use this tui-look for the entire configuration, but it looks really nice with i3.
For Fireox, I haven't done much but applying one of those themes from its store. I just chose the one with the right shade.
Finally, for Alacritty, I worked on colours, fonts, and I just went with full transparency, because I like that on terminals.
For Discord, I used BetterDiscord, I applied the system24 theme. I didn't really use this tui-look for the entire configuration, but it looks really nice with i3.
For Fireox, I haven't done much but applying one of those themes from its store. I just chose the one with the right shade.
Finally, for Alacritty, I worked on colours, fonts, and I just went with full transparency, because I like that on terminals.
2.5 Side note on Rofi
As I said, unfortunately I lost the configuration I used, but I am pretty sure I just edited one of the default themes, and changed the colours.
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