I3wm with Gnome Session

BazookaChicken · 2017-04-10 19:22:32

Hi
I want to load Gnome Session within I3.
If i run

startx

and then

gnome-session

it runs perfectly fine. But when I first load I3 and then start the Gnome Session it seams to start (the appearance of some applications change) but the top panel dont show up. If I start

gnome-panel

manually on the top and the bottom of the screen appear blank bars.
Does anyone know how i could get this running?

boban_dj · 2017-04-12 16:16:48

i have xfce4 panels with i3. starting i3 from xfce4 sessions. in the ~/.cache/sessions i have the session file with the i3 and the xfce4 entry with desktop disabled etc. in .xinit i start xfce4 . dont know gnome but maybe this helps.

Last edited by boban_dj (2017-04-12 16:17:14)

BazookaChicken · 2017-04-14 19:25:36

Thanks for your replay,
but I am not quite sure what kind of file i should create in this folder because mine is empty and if I google this term I get only xfce4 specivic informations.
Maybe it has something to to with dbus registration.
I have noticed that I get this error message when I start gnome tweak tool in my i3 gnome session

WARNING : Error detecting shell
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/site-packages/gtweak/tweaks/tweak_group_shell_extensions.py", line 275, in __init__
    raise Exception("Shell not running or DBus service not available")
Exception: Shell not running or DBus service not available

in the gnome only session this error doesnt show up.
In one tutorial for i3 plus gnome it was mentioned that it is necessary to start following script in the i3 config file:

#!/bin/bash - 
if [ -n "$DESKTOP_AUTOSTART_ID" ]; then  
echo "Registering with Gnome Session Manager via Dbus and id $DESKTOP_AUTOSTART_ID"  
dbus-send --session --print-reply=string --dest=org.gnome.SessionManager "/org/gnome/SessionManager" org.gnome.SessionManager.RegisterClient "string:i3" "string:$DESKTOP_AUTOSTART_ID"  
else  
echo "DESKTOP_AUTOSTART_ID not set."  
fi

I did not notice any diffrence with running this but I am not sure what this script should do.
I think it would be helpfull if somone with kind of knowledege about whats going on there could it explain to me or send my a link / keywords i can google that i can inform me about this topic.

Ropid · 2017-04-14 20:02:15

The AUR has a package named "i3-gnome-git" for this.

But you should be aware that this idea to run Gnome in i3 is probably not as nice as you imagine it. It looks just like using i3 by itself. The only thing you get is background machinery from Gnome, like it's monitor setup and I don't know what else. There's a lot of things from Gnome that you won't get because they are done by its window manager. You won't be able to use the hotkeys you've configured in the Gnome settings for example. The top panel and the dock is built into the Gnome window manager and you won't get those.

Last edited by Ropid (2017-04-14 20:02:40)

seiichiro0185 · 2017-04-15 05:12:05

I've done the same with cinnamon, but as Ropid said already, you I didn't get as much from it as I hoped, since in cinnamon as in gnome 3, a lot of stuff is embedded in the Window Manager, that you won't get if you replace it with i3. Because of this I now use mate as my "backend" for i3, where stuff like hotkeys with nice overlay for brightness / volume etc, Powermanagement, Display Configuration etc.. work nicely because they are separate components. You also can get the panels since they are a separate instance as well (but I don't use those).

Setting this up is just a matter of changing some dconf keys to replace the window manager in the mate session, and possibly turning of panels and desktop icons if you don't want those.

Docbroke · 2017-04-15 05:38:44

Setting up hotkeys etc, are not very difficult to do with i3 itself. Point of using gnome-session was to keep the same configuration in i3 if you are already using gnome, which makes migration easy. However if it doesn't work for some reason, it would be reasonable to setup things in i3 itself, and that would be much more robust and futureproof. I would also recommand to use i3 as-such to get the actual feel.
Archwiki and i3-wm's official documentation are good guides to begin with.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-04-10 19:22:32

I3wm with Gnome Session

#2 2017-04-12 16:16:48

Re: I3wm with Gnome Session

#3 2017-04-14 19:25:36

Re: I3wm with Gnome Session

#4 2017-04-14 20:02:15

Re: I3wm with Gnome Session

#5 2017-04-15 05:12:05

Re: I3wm with Gnome Session

#6 2017-04-15 05:38:44

Re: I3wm with Gnome Session

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