3 Michael Stapelberg <michael+i3@stapelberg.de>
6 This document contains all the information you need to configure and use the i3
7 window manager. If it does not, please contact me on IRC, Jabber or E-Mail and
10 == Default keybindings
12 For the "too long; didn’t read" people, here is an overview of the default
13 keybindings (click to see the full size image):
15 *Keys to use with Mod1 (alt):*
17 image:keyboard-layer1.png["Keys to use with Mod1 (alt)",width=600,link="keyboard-layer1.png"]
19 *Keys to use with Shift+Mod1:*
21 image:keyboard-layer2.png["Keys to use with Shift+Mod1",width=600,link="keyboard-layer2.png"]
23 As i3 uses keycodes in the default configuration, it does not matter which
24 keyboard layout you actually use. The key positions are what matters (of course
25 you can also use keysymbols, see <<keybindings>>).
27 The red keys are the modifiers you need to press (by default), the blue keys
32 === Opening terminals and moving around
34 One very basic operation is opening a new terminal. By default, the keybinding
35 for this is Mod1+Enter, that is Alt+Enter in the default configuration. By
36 pressing Mod1+Enter, a new terminal will be opened. It will fill the whole
37 space available on your screen.
39 image:single_terminal.png[Single terminal]
41 It is important to keep in mind that i3 uses a table to manage your windows. At
42 the moment, you have exactly one column and one row which leaves you with one
43 cell. In this cell there is a container, which is where your new terminal is
46 If you now open another terminal, you still have only one cell. However, the
47 container in that cell holds both of your terminals. So, a container is just a
48 group of clients with a specific layout. Containers can be resized by adjusting
49 the size of the cell that holds them.
51 image:two_terminals.png[Two terminals]
53 To move the focus between the two terminals, you use the direction keys which
54 you may know from the editor +vi+. However, in i3, your homerow is used for
55 these keys (in +vi+, the keys are shifted to the left by one for compatibility
56 with most keyboard layouts). Therefore, +Mod1+J+ is left, +Mod1+K+ is down,
57 +Mod1+L+ is up and `Mod1+;` is right. So, to switch between the terminals,
58 use +Mod1+K+ or +Mod1+L+.
60 To create a new row/column (and a new cell), you can simply move a terminal (or
61 any other window) in the direction you want to expand your table. So, let’s
62 expand the table to the right by pressing `Mod1+Shift+;`.
64 image:two_columns.png[Two columns]
66 === Changing container modes
68 A container can have the following modes:
71 Windows are sized so that every window gets an equal amount of space in the
74 Only the focused window in the container is displayed. You get a list of
75 windows at the top of the container.
77 The same principle as +stacking+, but the list of windows at the top is only
78 a single line which is vertically split.
80 To switch modes, press +Mod1+e+ for default, +Mod1+h+ for stacking and
83 image:modes.png[Container modes]
85 === Toggling fullscreen mode for a window
87 To display a window fullscreen or to go out of fullscreen mode again, press
90 There is also a global fullscreen mode in i3 in which the client will use all
91 available outputs. To use it, or to get out of it again, press +Mod1+Shift+f+.
93 === Opening other applications
95 Aside from opening applications from a terminal, you can also use the handy
96 +dmenu+ which is opened by pressing +Mod1+v+ by default. Just type the name
97 (or a part of it) of the application which you want to open. The application
98 typed has to be in your +$PATH+ for this to work.
100 Additionally, if you have applications you open very frequently, you can
101 create a keybinding for starting the application directly. See the section
102 "Configuring i3" for details.
106 If an application does not provide a mechanism for closing (most applications
107 provide a menu, the escape key or a shortcut like +Control+W+ to close), you
108 can press +Mod1+Shift+q+ to kill a window. For applications which support
109 the WM_DELETE protocol, this will correctly close the application (saving
110 any modifications or doing other cleanup). If the application doesn’t support
111 the WM_DELETE protocol your X server will kill the window and the behaviour
112 depends on the application.
116 Workspaces are an easy way to group a set of windows. By default, you are on
117 the first workspace, as the bar on the bottom left indicates. To switch to
118 another workspace, press +Mod1+num+ where +num+ is the number of the workspace
119 you want to use. If the workspace does not exist yet, it will be created.
121 A common paradigm is to put the web browser on one workspace, communication
122 applications (+mutt+, +irssi+, ...) on another one, and the ones with which you
123 work, on the third one. Of course, there is no need to follow this approach.
125 If you have multiple screens, a workspace will be created on each screen at
126 startup. If you open a new workspace, it will be bound to the screen you
127 created it on. When you switch to a workspace on another screen, i3 will set
128 focus to that screen.
130 === Moving windows to workspaces
132 To move a window to another workspace, simply press +Mod1+Shift+num+ where
133 +num+ is (like when switching workspaces) the number of the target workspace.
134 Similarly to switching workspaces, the target workspace will be created if
135 it does not yet exist.
137 === Resizing columns/rows
139 To resize columns or rows, just grab the border between the two columns/rows
140 and move it to the wanted size. Please keep in mind that each cell of the table
141 holds a +container+ and thus you cannot horizontally resize single windows. If
142 you need applications with different horizontal sizes, place them in seperate
143 cells one above the other.
145 See <<resizingconfig>> for how to configure i3 to be able to resize
146 columns/rows with your keyboard.
148 === Restarting i3 inplace
150 To restart i3 inplace (and thus get into a clean state if there is a bug, or
151 to upgrade to a newer version of i3) you can use +Mod1+Shift+r+. Be aware,
152 though, that this kills your current layout and all the windows you have opened
153 will be put in a default container in only one cell. Saving layouts will be
154 implemented in a later version.
158 To cleanly exit i3 without killing your X server, you can use +Mod1+Shift+e+.
162 Snapping is a mechanism to increase/decrease the colspan/rowspan of a container.
163 Colspan/rowspan is the number of columns/rows a specific cell of the table
164 consumes. This is easier explained by giving an example, so take the following
167 image:snapping.png[Snapping example]
169 To use the full size of your screen, you can now snap container 3 downwards
170 by pressing +Mod1+Control+k+ (or snap container 2 rightwards).
174 Floating mode is the opposite of tiling mode. The position and size of a window
175 are not managed by i3, but by you. Using this mode violates the tiling
176 paradigm but can be useful for some corner cases like "Save as" dialog
177 windows, or toolbar windows (GIMP or similar).
179 You can enable floating mode for a window by pressing +Mod1+Shift+Space+. By
180 dragging the window’s titlebar with your mouse you can move the window
181 around. By grabbing the borders and moving them you can resize the window. You
182 can also do that by using the <<floating_modifier>>.
184 For resizing floating windows with your keyboard, see <<resizingconfig>>.
186 Floating windows are always on top of tiling windows.
190 This is where the real fun begins ;-). Most things are very dependant on your
191 ideal working environment so we can’t make reasonable defaults for them.
193 While not using a programming language for the configuration, i3 stays
194 quite flexible in regards to the things you usually want your window manager
197 For example, you can configure bindings to jump to specific windows,
198 you can set specific applications to start on specific workspaces, you can
199 automatically start applications, you can change the colors of i3, and you
200 can bind your keys to do useful things.
202 To change the configuration of i3, copy +/etc/i3/config+ to +\~/.i3/config+
203 (or +~/.config/i3/config+ if you like the XDG directory scheme) and edit it
208 It is possible and recommended to use comments in your configuration file to
209 properly document your setup for later reference. Comments are started with
210 a # and can only be used at the beginning of a line:
219 i3 uses X core fonts (not Xft) for rendering window titles and the internal
220 workspace bar. You can use +xfontsel(1)+ to generate such a font description.
221 To see special characters (Unicode), you need to use a font which supports
222 the ISO-10646 encoding.
225 ------------------------------
226 font <X core font description>
227 ------------------------------
230 --------------------------------------------------------------
231 font -misc-fixed-medium-r-normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-iso10646-1
232 --------------------------------------------------------------
236 === Keyboard bindings
238 A keyboard binding makes i3 execute a command (see below) upon pressing a
239 specific key. i3 allows you to bind either on keycodes or on keysyms (you can
240 also mix your bindings, though i3 will not protect you from overlapping ones).
242 * A keysym (key symbol) is a description for a specific symbol, like "a"
243 or "b", but also more strange ones like "underscore" instead of "_". These
244 are the ones you use in Xmodmap to remap your keys. To get the current
245 mapping of your keys, use +xmodmap -pke+.
247 * Keycodes do not need to have a symbol assigned (handy for some hotkeys
248 on some notebooks) and they will not change their meaning as you switch to a
249 different keyboard layout (when using +xmodmap+).
251 My recommendation is: If you often switch keyboard layouts but you want to keep
252 your bindings in the same physical location on the keyboard, use keycodes.
253 If you don’t switch layouts, and want a clean and simple config file, use
257 ----------------------------------
258 bindsym [Modifiers+]keysym command
259 bind [Modifiers+]keycode command
260 ----------------------------------
263 --------------------------------
268 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
270 # Notebook-specific hotkeys
271 bind 214 exec /home/michael/toggle_beamer.sh
272 --------------------------------
276 Mod1-Mod5, Shift, Control::
277 Standard modifiers, see +xmodmap(1)+
280 Unlike other window managers, i3 can use Mode_switch as a modifier. This allows
281 you to remap capslock (for example) to Mode_switch and use it for both: typing
282 umlauts or special characters 'and' having some comfortably reachable key
283 bindings. For example, when typing, capslock+1 or capslock+2 for switching
284 workspaces is totally convenient. Try it :-).
286 [[floating_modifier]]
288 === The floating modifier
290 To move floating windows with your mouse, you can either grab their titlebar
291 or configure the so called floating modifier which you can then press and
292 click anywhere in the window itself to move it. The most common setup is to
293 use the same key you use for managing windows (Mod1 for example). Then
294 you can press Mod1, click into a window using your left mouse button, and drag
295 it to the position you want.
297 When holding the floating modifier, you can resize a floating window by
298 pressing the right mouse button on it and moving around while holding it. If
299 you hold the shift button as well, the resize will be proportional.
302 --------------------------------
303 floating_modifier <Modifiers>
304 --------------------------------
307 --------------------------------
308 floating_modifier Mod1
309 --------------------------------
311 === Layout mode for new containers
313 This option determines in which mode new containers will start. See also
317 ---------------------------------------------
318 new_container <default|stacking|tabbed>
319 new_container stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
320 ---------------------------------------------
323 ---------------------
325 ---------------------
327 === Border style for new windows
329 This option determines which border style new windows will have.
332 ---------------------------------------------
333 new_window <bp|bn|bb>
334 ---------------------------------------------
337 ---------------------
339 ---------------------
343 As you learned in the section about keyboard bindings, you will have
344 to configure lots of bindings containing modifier keys. If you want to save
345 yourself some typing and be able to change the modifier you use later,
346 variables can be handy.
354 ------------------------
356 bindsym $m+Shift+r restart
357 ------------------------
359 Variables are directly replaced in the file when parsing. There is no fancy
360 handling and there are absolutely no plans to change this. If you need a more
361 dynamic configuration you should create a little script which generates a
362 configuration file and run it before starting i3 (for example in your
365 === Automatically putting clients on specific workspaces
369 It is recommended that you match on window classes wherever possible because
370 some applications first create their window, and then worry about setting the
371 correct title. Firefox with Vimperator comes to mind. The window starts up
372 being named Firefox, and only when Vimperator is loaded does the title change.
373 As i3 will get the title as soon as the application maps the window (mapping
374 means actually displaying it on the screen), you’d need to have to match on
375 'Firefox' in this case.
377 You can prefix or suffix workspaces with a `~` to specify that matching clients
378 should be put into floating mode. If you specify only a `~`, the client will
379 not be put onto any workspace, but will be set floating on the current one.
382 ------------------------------------------------------------
383 assign ["]window class[/window title]["] [→] [~ | workspace]
384 ------------------------------------------------------------
387 ----------------------
391 assign "urxvt/VIM" → 3
393 assign "xv/MPlayer" → ~
394 ----------------------
396 Note that the arrow is not required, it just looks good :-). If you decide to
397 use it, it has to be a UTF-8 encoded arrow, not "->" or something like that.
399 === Automatically starting applications on i3 startup
401 By using the +exec+ keyword outside a keybinding, you can configure which
402 commands will be performed by i3 on initial startup (not when restarting i3
403 in-place however). These commands will be run in order.
411 --------------------------------
412 exec sudo i3status | dzen2 -dock
413 --------------------------------
417 === Automatically putting workspaces on specific screens
419 If you assign clients to workspaces, it might be handy to put the
420 workspaces on specific screens. Also, the assignment of workspaces to screens
421 will determine which workspace i3 uses for a new screen when adding screens
422 or when starting (e.g., by default it will use 1 for the first screen, 2 for
423 the second screen and so on).
426 ----------------------------------
427 workspace <number> output <output>
428 ----------------------------------
430 The 'output' is the name of the RandR output you attach your screen to. On a
431 laptop, you might have VGA1 and LVDS1 as output names. You can see the
432 available outputs by running +xrandr --current+.
435 ---------------------------
436 workspace 1 output LVDS1
437 workspace 5 output VGA1
438 ---------------------------
442 If you always have a certain arrangement of workspaces, you might want to give
443 them names (of course UTF-8 is supported):
446 ---------------------------------------
447 workspace <number> <name>
448 workspace <number> output <output> name
449 ---------------------------------------
451 For more details about the 'output' part of this command, see above.
454 --------------------------
457 workspace 3 i ♥ workspaces
458 --------------------------
462 You can change all colors which i3 uses to draw the window decorations and the
466 --------------------------------------------
467 colorclass border background text
468 --------------------------------------------
470 Where colorclass can be one of:
473 A client which currently has the focus.
474 client.focused_inactive::
475 A client which is the focused one of its container, but it does not have
476 the focus at the moment.
478 A client which is not the focused one of its container.
480 A client which has its urgency hint activated.
482 The current workspace in the bottom bar.
484 All other workspaces in the bottom bar.
486 A workspace which has at least one client with an activated urgency hint.
488 You can also specify the color to be used to paint the background of the client
489 windows. This color will be used to paint the window on top of which the client
493 -----------------------
494 client.background color
495 -----------------------
497 Only clients that do not cover the whole area of this window expose the color
498 used to paint it. If you use a color other than black for your terminals, you
499 most likely want to set the client background color to the same color as your
500 terminal program's background color to avoid black gaps between the rendered
501 area of the termianal and the i3 border.
503 Colors are in HTML hex format (#rrggbb), see the following example:
506 --------------------------------------
507 # class border backgr. text
508 client.focused #2F343A #900000 #FFFFFF
509 --------------------------------------
511 Note that for the window decorations, the color around the child window is the
512 background color, and the border color is only the two thin lines at the top of
515 === Interprocess communication
517 i3 uses unix sockets to provide an IPC interface. This allows third-party
518 programs to get information from i3, such as the current workspaces
519 (to display a workspace bar), and to control i3.
521 To enable it, you have to configure a path where the unix socket will be
522 stored. The default path is +/tmp/i3-ipc.sock+.
524 You can override the default path through the environment-variable +I3SOCK+.
527 ----------------------------
528 ipc-socket /tmp/i3-ipc.sock
529 ----------------------------
531 You can then use the +i3-msg+ application to perform any command listed in
534 === Disable focus follows mouse
536 If you have a setup where your mouse usually is in your way (like a touchpad
537 on your laptop which you do not want to disable completely), you might want
538 to disable 'focus follows mouse' and control focus only by using your keyboard.
539 The mouse will still be useful inside the currently active window (for example
540 to click on links in your browser window).
543 ----------------------------
544 focus_follows_mouse <yes|no>
545 ----------------------------
548 ----------------------
549 focus_follows_mouse no
550 ----------------------
552 === Internal workspace bar
554 The internal workspace bar (the thing at the bottom of your screen) is very
555 simple -- it does not provide a way to display custom text and it does not
556 offer advanced customization features. This is intended because we do not
557 want to duplicate functionality of tools like +dzen2+, +xmobar+ and so on
558 (they render bars, we manage windows). Instead, there is an option which will
559 turn off the internal bar completely, so that you can use a separate program to
560 display it (see +i3-wsbar+, a sample implementation of such a program):
563 ----------------------
564 workspace_bar <yes|no>
565 ----------------------
574 === Manipulating layout
576 To change the layout of the current container to stacking, use +s+, for default
577 use +d+ and for tabbed, use +T+. To make the current client (!) fullscreen,
578 use +f+, to make it span all outputs, use +fg+, to make it floating (or
579 tiling again) use +t+:
590 # Toggle global fullscreen
591 bindsym Mod1+Shift+f fg
593 # Toggle floating/tiling
597 === Focusing/Moving/Snapping clients/containers/screens
599 To change the focus, use one of the +h+, +j+, +k+ and +l+ commands, meaning
600 left, down, up, right (respectively). To focus a container, prefix it with
601 +wc+. To focus a screen, prefix it with +ws+.
603 The same principle applies for moving and snapping: just prefix the command
604 with +m+ when moving and with +s+ when snapping:
607 ----------------------
608 # Focus clients on the left, bottom, top, right:
612 bindsym Mod1+semicolon l
614 # Move client to the left, bottom, top, right:
618 bindsym Mod1+semicolon ml
620 # Snap client to the left, bottom, top, right:
624 bindsym Mod1+semicolon sl
626 # Focus container on the left, bottom, top, right:
629 ----------------------
631 === Changing workspaces/moving clients to workspaces
633 To change to a specific workspace, the command is just the number of the
634 workspace, e.g. +1+ or +3+. To move the current client to a specific workspace,
635 prefix the number with an +m+.
637 You can also switch to the next and previous workspace with the commands +nw+
638 and +pw+, which is handy, for example, if you have workspace 1, 3, 4 and 9 and
639 you want to cycle through them with a single key combination.
642 -------------------------
647 bindsym Mod1+Shift+1 m1
648 bindsym Mod1+Shift+2 m2
653 -------------------------
657 === Resizing columns/rows
659 If you want to resize columns/rows using your keyboard, you can use the
660 +resize+ command, I recommend using it inside a so called +mode+:
662 .Example: Configuration file, defining a mode for resizing
663 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
665 # These bindings trigger as soon as you enter the resize mode
667 # They resize the border in the direction you pressed, e.g.
668 # when pressing left, the window is resized so that it has
669 # more space on its left
671 bindsym n resize left -10
672 bindsym Shift+n resize left +10
674 bindsym r resize bottom +10
675 bindsym Shift+r resize bottom -10
677 bindsym t resize top -10
678 bindsym Shift+t resize top +10
680 bindsym d resize right +10
681 bindsym Shift+d resize right -10
687 bindsym Mod1+r mode resize
688 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
690 === Jumping to specific windows
692 Often when in a multi-monitor environment, you want to quickly jump to a
693 specific window. For example, while working on workspace 3 you may want to
694 jump to your mail client to email your boss that you’ve achieved some
695 important goal. Instead of figuring out how to navigate to your mailclient,
696 it would be more convenient to have a shortcut.
699 ----------------------------------------------------
700 jump ["]window class[/window title]["]
701 jump workspace [ column row ]
702 ----------------------------------------------------
704 You can either use the same matching algorithm as in the +assign+ command
705 (see above) or you can specify the position of the client if you always use
709 --------------------------------------
710 # Get me to the next open VIM instance
711 bindsym Mod1+a jump "urxvt/VIM"
712 --------------------------------------
714 === VIM-like marks (mark/goto)
718 This feature is like the jump feature: It allows you to directly jump to a
719 specific window (this means switching to the appropriate workspace and setting
720 focus to the windows). However, you can directly mark a specific window with
721 an arbitrary label and use it afterwards. You do not need to ensure that your
722 windows have unique classes or titles, and you do not need to change your
725 As the command needs to include the label with which you want to mark the
726 window, you cannot simply bind it to a key. +i3-input+ is a tool created
727 for this purpose: It lets you input a command and sends the command to i3. It
728 can also prefix this command and display a custom prompt for the input dialog.
737 ---------------------------------------
738 # Read 1 character and mark the current window with this character
739 bindsym Mod1+m exec i3-input -p 'mark ' -l 1 -P 'Mark: '
741 # Read 1 character and go to the window with the character
742 bindsym Mod1+g exec i3-input -p 'goto ' -l 1 -P 'Goto: '
743 ---------------------------------------
745 Alternatively, if you do not want to mess with +i3-input+, you could create
746 seperate bindings for a specific set of labels and then only use those labels.
748 === Traveling the focus stack
750 This mechanism can be thought of as the opposite of the +jump+ command.
751 It travels the focus stack and jumps to the window which had focus previously.
755 focus [number] | floating | tiling | ft
758 Where +number+ by default is 1 meaning that the next client in the focus stack
761 The special values have the following meaning:
764 The next floating window is selected.
766 The next tiling window is selected.
768 If the current window is floating, the next tiling window will be
769 selected; and vice-versa.
771 === Changing border style
773 To change the border of the current client, you can use +bn+ to use the normal
774 border (including window title), +bp+ to use a 1-pixel border (no window title)
775 and +bb+ to make the client borderless. There is also +bt+ which will toggle
776 the different border styles.
787 === Changing the stack-limit of a container
789 If you have a single container with a lot of windows inside it (say, more than
790 10), the default layout of a stacking container can get a little unhandy.
791 Depending on your screen’s size, you might end up seeing only half of the
792 titlebars for each window in the container.
794 Using the +stack-limit+ command, you can limit the number of rows or columns
795 in a stacking container. i3 will create columns or rows (depending on what
796 you limited) automatically as needed.
799 --------------------------------
800 stack-limit <cols|rows> <value>
801 --------------------------------
805 # I always want to have two window titles in one line
808 # Not more than 5 rows in this stacking container
812 image:stacklimit.png[Container limited to two columns]
814 === Reloading/Restarting/Exiting
816 You can make i3 reload its configuration file with +reload+. You can also
817 restart i3 inplace with the +restart+ command to get it out of some weird state
818 (if that should ever happen) or to perform an upgrade without having to restart
819 your X session. However, your layout is not preserved at the moment, meaning
820 that all open windows will end up in a single container in default layout
821 after the restart. To exit i3 properly, you can use the +exit+ command,
822 however you don’t need to (simply killing your X session is fine as well).
825 ----------------------------
826 bindsym Mod1+Shift+r restart
827 bindsym Mod1+Shift+w reload
828 bindsym Mod1+Shift+e exit
829 ----------------------------
835 As you can see in the goal list on the website, i3 was specifically developed
836 with support for multiple monitors in mind. This section will explain how to
837 handle multiple monitors.
839 When you have only one monitor, things are simple. You usually start with
840 workspace 1 on your monitor and open new ones as you need them.
842 When you have more than one monitor, each monitor will get an initial
843 workspace. The first monitor gets 1, the second gets 2 and a possible third
844 would get 3. When you switch to a workspace on a different monitor, i3 will
845 switch to that monitor and then switch to the workspace. This way, you don’t
846 need shortcuts to switch to a specific monitor, and you don’t need to remember
847 where you put which workspace. New workspaces will be opened on the currently
848 active monitor. It is not possible to have a monitor without a workspace.
850 The idea of making workspaces global is based on the observation that most
851 users have a very limited set of workspaces on their additional monitors.
852 They are often used for a specific task (browser, shell) or for monitoring
853 several things (mail, IRC, syslog, …). Thus, using one workspace on one monitor
854 and "the rest" on the other monitors often makes sense. However, as you can
855 create an unlimited number of workspaces in i3 and tie them to specific
856 screens, you can have the "traditional" approach of having X workspaces per
857 screen by changing your configuration (using modes, for example).
859 === Configuring your monitors
861 To help you get going if you have never used multiple monitors before, here is
862 a short overview of the xrandr options which will probably be of interest to
863 you. It is always useful to get an overview of the current screen configuration.
864 Just run "xrandr" and you will get an output like the following:
865 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
867 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x 800, maximum 8192 x 8192
868 VGA1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
869 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
871 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
873 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
874 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
878 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
880 Several things are important here: You can see that +LVDS1+ is connected (of
881 course, it is the internal flat panel) but +VGA1+ is not. If you have a monitor
882 connected to one of the ports but xrandr still says "disconnected", you should
883 check your cable, monitor or graphics driver.
885 The maximum resolution you can see at the end of the first line is the maximum
886 combined resolution of your monitors. By default, it is usually too low and has
887 to be increased by editing +/etc/X11/xorg.conf+.
889 So, say you connected VGA1 and want to use it as an additional screen:
890 -------------------------------------------
891 xrandr --output VGA1 --auto --left-of LVDS1
892 -------------------------------------------
893 This command makes xrandr try to find the native resolution of the device
894 connected to +VGA1+ and configures it to the left of your internal flat panel.
895 When running "xrandr" again, the output looks like this:
896 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
898 Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 2560 x 1024, maximum 8192 x 8192
899 VGA1 connected 1280x1024+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 338mm x 270mm
900 1280x1024 60.0*+ 75.0
903 1024x768 75.1 70.1 60.0
905 800x600 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
906 640x480 72.8 75.0 66.7 60.0
908 LVDS1 connected 1280x800+1280+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 261mm x 163mm
910 1024x768 85.0 75.0 70.1 60.0
912 800x600 85.1 72.2 75.0 60.3 56.2
913 640x480 85.0 72.8 75.0 59.9
917 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
918 Please note that i3 uses exactly the same API as xrandr does, so it will see
919 only what you can see in xrandr.
921 See also <<presentations>> for more examples of multi-monitor setups.
923 === Interesting configuration for multi-monitor environments
925 There are several things to configure in i3 which may be interesting if you
926 have more than one monitor:
928 1. You can specify which workspace should be put on which screen. This
929 allows you to have a different set of workspaces when starting than just
930 1 for the first monitor, 2 for the second and so on. See
931 <<workspace_screen>>.
932 2. If you want some applications to generally open on the bigger screen
933 (MPlayer, Firefox, …), you can assign them to a specific workspace, see
934 <<assign_workspace>>.
935 3. If you have many workspaces on many monitors, it might get hard to keep
936 track of which window you put where. Thus, you can use vim-like marks to
937 quickly switch between windows. See <<vim_like_marks>>.
939 == i3 and the rest of your software world
941 === Displaying a status line
943 A very common thing amongst users of exotic window managers is a status line at
944 some corner of the screen. It is an often superior replacement to the widget
945 approach you have in the task bar of a traditional desktop environment.
947 If you don’t already have your favorite way of generating such a status line
948 (self-written scripts, conky, …), then i3status is the recommended tool for
949 this task. It was written in C with the goal of using as few syscalls as
950 possible to reduce the time your CPU is woken up from sleep states.
952 Regardless of which application you use to generate the status line, you
953 want to make sure that the application does one of the following things:
955 1. Register as a dock window using EWMH hints. This will make i3 position the
956 window above the workspace bar but below every other client. This is the
957 recommended way, but in case of dzen2, for example, you need to check out
958 the source of dzen2 from subversion, as the -dock option is not present
959 in the released versions.
960 2. Overlay the internal workspace bar. This method will not waste any space
961 on the workspace bar, however, it is rather hackish. Just configure
962 the output window to be over the workspace bar (say -x 200 and -y 780 if
963 your screen is 800 px height).
965 The planned solution for this problem is to make the workspace bar optional
966 and switch to a third party application completely (dzen2 for example)
967 which will then contain the workspace bar.
969 === Giving presentations (multi-monitor)
971 When giving a presentation, you typically want the audience to see what you see
972 on your screen and then go through a series of slides (if the presentation is
973 simple). For more complex presentations, you might want to have some notes
974 which only you can see on your screen, while the audience can only see the
978 ==== Case 1: everybody gets the same output
979 This is the simple case. You connect your computer to the video projector,
980 turn on both (computer and video projector) and configure your X server to
981 clone the internal flat panel of your computer to the video output:
982 -----------------------------------------------------
983 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --same-as LVDS1
984 -----------------------------------------------------
985 i3 will then use the lowest common subset of screen resolutions, the rest of
986 your screen will be left untouched (it will show the X background). So, in
987 our example, this would be 1024x768 (my notebook has 1280x800).
989 ==== Case 2: you can see more than your audience
990 This case is a bit harder. First of all, you should configure the VGA output
991 somewhere near your internal flat panel, say right of it:
992 -----------------------------------------------------
993 xrandr --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768 --right-of LVDS1
994 -----------------------------------------------------
995 Now, i3 will put a new workspace (depending on your settings) on the new screen
996 and you are in multi-monitor mode (see <<multi_monitor>>).
998 Because i3 is not a compositing window manager, there is no ability to
999 display a window on two screens at the same time. Instead, your presentation
1000 software needs to do this job (that is, open a window on each screen).