Arch Linux

karcher

Member

Registered: 2018-01-09

Posts: 140

Switching between dotfiles and desktop environments/window managers

Hi all,

I have 2 questions regarding switching between dotfiles and desktop environments/window managers.

Background:
I have been using KDE Plasma with KWin for some time until I have recently discovered i3wm and i3-gaps  along with the dotfiles thing. Now I want to use i3-gaps too but  I'm having hard time to set things up in particular with the dotfiles. I'm using extensively desktop applications and I want to continue using them.

Questions:
1. If understand correctly i3wm can be used on its own, without a graphical environment or within a graphical environment e.g. KDE Plasma + i3wm instead of KWin. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach? In my case where I still use desktop applications (mostly KDE) which approach is more suited?

2. I have tried to install some dotfiles from the repositories I have found in the wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Do … positories
as well some others I have found on github without success. Some of them provide install scripts, some are not.
So I installed one of them the beginning after a fresh Arch install but the status bar wasn't really working, mutt wasn't working, volume keys the same. After that I have tried to install others on top of the first one but the results were even worse, almost nothing was working. So is there a general method to install dotfiles? Assuming I'm not starting with emtpy home how can I install other dotfiles and switch between them without overwriting my own files? I have seen dotfiles on github for other distros. Is it possible to use them on Arch?

Last edited by karcher (2018-04-29 13:40:43)

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,426

Website

Re: Switching between dotfiles and desktop environments/window managers

You don't install dotfiles; you write them. Copying them from the Internet is a recipe for failure.

Most applications ship with example dotfiles that are well commented/documented. The idea is to read those and, as you begin to understand both the options and your requirements, you implement more (or less) of them.

The files linked to from the wiki are intended to provide examples, not drop-in production templates.

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