caoquyen1913 / i3_ubuntu_server-1

Installing the i3 WM on a bare Ubuntu Server installation

Installing i3 in Ubuntu Server without a Desktop Environment

Assumptions

1. You have a basic Ubuntu installation, possibly Ubuntu Server 18.04
2. You have proper network connectivity

Installation

Install x-server

$ sudo apt install xorg xinit

Install apps related to compiling and making i3

$ sudo apt install git make gcc autoconf

Install all dependancies for i3

$ sudo apt install libpango1.0-dev libyajl-dev libstartup-notification0-dev libev-dev libtool libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-util0-dev libxcb-icccm4-dev libxcb-keysyms1-dev libxcb-cursor-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev libxcb-xkb-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-xrm-dev xutils-dev

Installing i3

Source

You can install i3 using your package manager, but I prefer to install from source.

There are 3 popular versions of i3 that I know of

1. The original i3
2. i3-gaps by Airblader which has support for gaps between windows
3. i3-gaps by resolved which has support for rounded corner for windows

I prefer installing i3-gaps by resolved. However, the installation procedure is the same for all variants.

$ git clone https://github.com/resloved/i3
$ cd i3
$ autoreconf --force --install
$ rm -rf build
$ mkdir build
$ cd build
$ ../configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc
$ make
$ sudo make install

At this point, your i3 installation is complete

Note : In case you get a dependancy error, install the required packages and repeat the above step from scratch.

Enabling i3 to run after login

Create ~/.xinitrc and edit it as follows

#!/bin/sh

# /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

# global xinitrc file, used by all X sessions started by xinit (startx)

exec /usr/bin/i3

Run startx

1. Login to your shell
2. Run startx

Your i3 WM should start up

---

Enabling i3 for Remote Desktop Protocol

Source

Install xrdp server

$ sudo apt install xrdp

Enabling i3 upon login using rdp for single user

1. Edit the file ~/.xsessions or create a new file

2. Add the following lines to the file

   #!/bin/sh
   
   exec /usr/bin/i3
   

3. Restart xrdp service

   $ sudo systemctl restart xrdp.service
   

Now you can connect to this machine into i3 using any RDP client.

Enabling i3 upon login using rdp for all users

Keep in mind that i3 RDP login has been mapped to your account only. If you want to set i3 as the default RDP login for all, edit the file /etc/xrdp/startwm.sh and do steps 2 and 3 as mentioned in the previous section.