[SOLVED]Installing i3

LudBee · 2018-07-21 16:19:58

I have just installed arch and made the initial configuration.
I am trying to install i3 following the wiki.
I installed xorg-server and xorg-xinit with no errors.
Checked my card with lspci | grep -e VGA -e 3D and got: 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Atom Processor D4xx/D5xx/N4xx/N5xx Integrated Graphics Controller.
So installed xf86-video-intel and mesa and rebooted.
Then I installed i3-wm, i3status and i3blocks.
I tried to run it with xinit i3 and got this errors:

X.Org X Server 1.20.0
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: Linux Arch Linux
Current Operating System: Linux archcla 4.17.8-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Wed Jul 18 09:56:24 UTC 2018 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=73fb20b3-11fb-4f09-bb44-2693ebf8ce81 rw quiet
Build Date: 18 June 2018 03:12:37PM
Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sat Jul 21 16:09:07 2018
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning: Unsupported high keycode 372 for name <I372> ignored
> X11 cannot support keycodes above 255.
> This warning only shows for the first high keycode.
> Internal error: Could not resolve keysym XF86WWAN
> Internal error: Could not resolve keysym XF86RFKill
> Internal error: Could not resolve keysym XF86Keyboard
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

I'm running as root in tt1, it spawns a white console in tt2 with a movable little black screen in the center with unresolved characters, whatever I write in it doesn't seem to have any effect.
I tried pacman -Syu and everythig seems up to date.
I searched the wiki but could not really interpret the log, I'm quite new to linux.
Some help will be apreciated, thanks.

Last edited by LudBee (2018-07-21 19:49:43)

JakeGore · 2018-07-21 16:33:48

"xinit" should be run as root, and this is not generally what you want. You should use "startx" instead. This should start xorg correctly.

loqs · 2018-07-21 16:36:47

waiting for X server to shut down (II) Server terminated successfully (0). Closing log file.

The X server ran successfully but probably had nothing to do so exited.
Xinit#xinitrc

ewaller · 2018-07-21 16:37:31

DO NOT run X as root.

How are you starting i3? With startx, I hope. Please share your .xinitrc. But first, set up a normal user. Make them a member of wheel, set up sudo to allow wheel members to do anything with a password, set up ~/.xinitrc for the user. and try running i3 as a normal user.

JakeGore · 2018-07-21 16:41:13

Also, you should put "exec i3" into your ~/.xinitrc so that xorg knows to start i3

LudBee · 2018-07-21 16:45:38

I logged as a regular user and tried startx. I got two graphical(?) white command lines verically tiled. I supposed that whas i3 but default i3 command didn't work and I didn't set .xinitrc so X shouldn't know what to run or am I wrong?

loqs · 2018-07-21 16:46:56

See my link in post #3

LudBee · 2018-07-21 17:06:30

I set the .xinitrc. I still get to a screen with two white terminal emulators, I guess it is actually i3 at this point, and that I have some problems with fonts and keybindings, even if for what I have read i3 should start with nothing on the screen.

loqs · 2018-07-21 17:13:16

Please post the contents of ~/.xinitrc

LudBee · 2018-07-21 17:21:07

#!/bin/sh

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources

usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap

sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xresources

sysmodmap=/etc/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap



# merge in defaults and keymaps



if [ -f $sysresources ]; then














    xrdb -merge $sysresources


fi


if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then

    xmodmap $sysmodmap

fi



if [ -f "$userresources" ]; then













    xrdb -merge "$userresources"


fi



if [ -f "$usermodmap" ]; then

    xmodmap "$usermodmap"

fi



# start some nice programs



if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ] ; then

 for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/?*.sh ; do

  [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"

 done

 unset f

fi



twm &

xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &

xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &

xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &

exec i3

exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login

I dind't commnet the last line since I read it reads untill the first exec.

Last edited by LudBee (2018-07-21 17:30:47)

jasonwryan · 2018-07-21 17:26:50

1. Use code, not quote, tags when pasting to the boards: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Co … s_and_code

2. How did you install Arch?

Gigamo · 2018-07-21 17:41:56

Remove or comment

twm &
xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &

from your .xinitrc.

NuSkool · 2018-07-21 17:42:12

I'd comment out the following lines in your .xinitrc, unless you actually want them to run.

twm &

xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &

xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &

xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &

EDIT: Gigamo beat me posting this.

Also see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xi … figuration , specifically:

Then edit the file and replace the default programs

Last edited by NuSkool (2018-07-21 17:48:17)

LudBee · 2018-07-21 17:46:52

I'm sorry I know I'm doing a mess, I have installed arch for educational purpose.
I followed the wiki, BIOS system.
Used rufus to create a bootable usb key and booted through it.
Partitioned the disk into 4: boot, swap, root, home.
Made ext4 filesystems in to boot, root and home with mkfs.et4, and mkswap for swap and than swapon on it.
Mounted the root into /mnt, created the dirs and mounted respectively into /mnt/boot and /mnt/home.
Thus I installed arch with pacstrap /mnt base base-devel.
Than I generated the fstab and chrooted.
Set hostname and passwd.
The only "personalized" thing I did is

echo "KEYMAP=it" > /etc/vconsole.conf

I installed grub, called grub-install /dev/sda and gurb-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
Rebooted, installed networkmanager and than if I didn't forget anything did what I wrote in this topic.

LudBee · 2018-07-21 18:39:47

Gigamo wrote:

Remove or comment

twm &
xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
xterm -geometry 80x50+494+51 &
xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &

from your .xinitrc.

I did. Now after startx the two white command lines are gone and all I get is a black screen with a small window in the center with blue margins, there are square characters in the window "□": two white, one green, 5 red, one green and all the rest white. At the bottom of the screen there are again these alternating bunch of red white and green squares. All I was able to do in this screen is moving the little window with the mouse.
Any idea of what is actually happening?

Trilby · 2018-07-21 19:06:03

Thanks for the clear description. The colors suggest to me that this may be a normal prompt, but all characters are being displayed as boxes which would indicate a problem with fonts or locales. Can you post the output of the following:

grep -v '^#' /etc/locale.gen

cat /etc/locale.conf

locale -a

ewaller · 2018-07-21 19:08:03

While in this state, change to a second tty with Ctrl-Alt-F2, login, and run systemctl status and post the output using a tool like wgetpaste and post the link it gives you

Like this:

ewaller@turing/home/ewaller % systemctl status | wgetpaste
Your paste can be seen here: https://paste.pound-python.org/show/7cuk1vYfWdmmm98ufSsE/
ewaller@turing/home/ewaller %

Here is mine: https://paste.pound-python.org/show/7cu … mm98ufSsE/

Look for where xinit runs and see if i3 shows up in the lines that follow.

Edit: Trilby may be on to something.

Last edited by ewaller (2018-07-21 19:08:47)

LudBee · 2018-07-21 19:39:39

Trilby wrote:

Thanks for the clear description. The colors suggest to me that this may be a normal prompt, but all characters are being displayed as boxes which would indicate a problem with fonts or locales. Can you post the output of the following:
grep -v '^#' /etc/locale.gen

cat /etc/locale.conf

locale -a

It was indeed, I set the locales as said in the wiki and installed a font with pacman and now it is working. I thought that there were default settings for both so I skipped those during installation, I was wrong. Thank you very much to all of you for the help.
I have a little OT question, is i3 enough to run graphical apps? Like for example Firefox or will I need to install and set extra graphical packages for that?

Trilby · 2018-07-21 19:43:39

Xorg is sufficient to run "graphical apps" if you mean those that just require X11. You can run firefox without any window manager if you want (though it may not be practical).

But many programs will depend on other libraries (e.g., gtk3 for firefox) but pacman will install those as dependencies when you install firefox.

ewaller · 2018-07-21 20:16:05

I use i3 almost exclusively. At any given point in time I have emacs, chromium and thunderbird running. Handbrake, vlc, mpv, gimp, all run great. Scientific plotting with Octave and python with numpy and pyqtgrph

Docbroke · 2018-07-22 04:09:51

Yes i3 works with all graphical apps. But it being barebone window manager, you may need to configure things yourself which comes default with big DEs, for example, panels, wallpaper, clipboard manager, standby on lid close, volume manager, network manager etc., but it is good learning experience.
There are some genuine issues using tiling WM. For example when you want to use application with floating windows, like GIMP or display (imagemagick), windows are arranged in awkward manner.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-07-21 16:19:58

[SOLVED]Installing i3

#2 2018-07-21 16:33:48

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#3 2018-07-21 16:36:47

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#4 2018-07-21 16:37:31

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#5 2018-07-21 16:41:13

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#6 2018-07-21 16:45:38

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#7 2018-07-21 16:46:56

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#8 2018-07-21 17:06:30

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#9 2018-07-21 17:13:16

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#10 2018-07-21 17:21:07

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#11 2018-07-21 17:26:50

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#12 2018-07-21 17:41:56

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#13 2018-07-21 17:42:12

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#14 2018-07-21 17:46:52

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#15 2018-07-21 18:39:47

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#16 2018-07-21 19:06:03

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#17 2018-07-21 19:08:03

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#18 2018-07-21 19:39:39

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#19 2018-07-21 19:43:39

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#20 2018-07-21 20:16:05

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

#21 2018-07-22 04:09:51

Re: [SOLVED]Installing i3

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