i3 improved tiling wm

Summary

i3 is a tiling window manager that is lightweight and targetted for GNU/Linux.

Config

Check out the user guide for i3 and make changes to your ~/.config/i3/config file. You can also customize the status bar in your ~/.config/i3status/config file.

I changed some of the settings to be more vim like in navigation.

Extra Installs

lxappearance : allows you to change themes
thunar : file manager
ranger : file manager in console
xrandr : for multiple monitors
arandr : gui for configuring multiple monitors
xwininfo -all : allows you to find details about a specific window (e.g. instance id so you can kill that window)

Useful Commands

i3-msg reload  # reload i3, e.g. after configs are changed
i3-msg restart  # restart i3

Xmodmap

I wouldn’t use xmodmap, instead use setxkbmap. If you want to remap any keys using xmodmap, add them to a ~/.Xmodmap file To see what key is where, you can use Xev and it’ll show you what keys are pressed

What is mapped

To see what is mapped:

# This will show you every keycode
xmodmap -pke

xmodmap -pm
+will@xps ~ $ xmodmap -pm
xmodmap:  up to 5 keys per modifier, (keycodes in parentheses):
 
shift       Shift_L (0x32),  Shift_R (0x3e)
lock
control     Control_L (0x25),  Control_R (0x69)
mod1        Alt_L (0x40),  Alt_R (0x6c),  Meta_L (0xcd)
mod2        Num_Lock (0x4d)
mod3
mod4        Super_L (0x42),  Super_L (0x85),  Super_R (0x86),  Super_L (0xce),  Hyper_L (0xcf)
mod5        ISO_Level3_Shift (0x5c),  Mode_switch (0xcb)

Example File to remove caps lock key and add to mod4 key

clear Lock
keycode 66 = Hyper_L
add mod4 = Hyper_L

Example Command to run new keymap:

xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap

xkbmap

A more modern system is to setxkbmap

# print out the current settings
setxkbmap -query

# Caps Lock as Ctrl
setxkbmap -option ctrl:nocaps