MichaIng
DietPi-Software | i3 window manager
i3 is a tiling window manager, completely written from scratch. The target platforms are GNU/Linux and BSD operating systems. Support floating windows too
Many thanks for your request.
URL: https://i3wm.org/ GitHub: https://github.com/i3/i3 Vote for it on FeatHub: https://feathub.com/MichaIng/DietPi/+21
AFAIK i3 is part of standard debian repository
https://packages.debian.org/search?keywords=i3
@FredericGuilbault Ah good find. Would be good to know, if this places itself as default window manager on install or one needs to configure it (which dietpi-software could do then). Most likely depends on desktop as well.
Soon likely not, as there is much more on ToDo (as well many software titles with higher votes) but not enough time to implement them quickly. If anyone wants to help, this would speed the process of course: https://github.com/MichaIng/DietPi/wiki/How-to-add-a-new-software-title
Since i3 is available via Debian repo, a start would be: apt install i3
See how it integrates into our supported desktops, LXDE, Xfce etc. or if it should be used as a window-manager-only X session.
The issue with desktop integrations is that Debian desktop packages mostly pull other window managers automatically:
- LXDE => Openbox: https://packages.debian.org/buster/lxde-core
- Xfce => xfwm4: https://packages.debian.org/buster/xfce4
- MATE => Macro: https://packages.debian.org/buster/mate-desktop-environment-core
- GNUStep at least recommends wmaker which we also install with it: https://packages.debian.org/buster/gnustep
- Only LXQt explicitly allows to install a window manager of own choice: https://packages.debian.org/buster/x-window-manager
So while in theory it should be possible to usw i3 on most desktops, I already read about incompatibilities with default desktop panels and you'll in most cases have two windows managers installed then. So it is not too trivial to implement a reasonable well working integration with all provided desktops. If i3 can be a desktop replacement (in case in combination with some other standalone applications) that would be an easier approach.
i3 is sort of like a minimal desktop environment. It includes its own panel, menu, notification manager, etc. so it should be pretty usable on its own. It is missing things like image viewer (I use sxiv), wallpaper (I use feh), document reader (I just use Atril from MATE), etc.
i3 doesn't really cause conflicts the same way other DEs might. It's suuuper minimal. You can just install it from apt, and if you're in the terminal (tty, no X session), start it with:
xinit i3 -device :1 -- :1 vt1
You might need to change both occurrences of :1 as well as vt1, depending on your default tty, but I'm pretty sure 1 is the default on dietpi. Might just require using sudo if you do happen to target a new tty session.
