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Alex Luecke edited this page Feb 17, 2015 · 18 revisions

Using i3 in crouton

  1. Install X11: sudo sh -e ./crouton -t x11
  2. Enter the chroot: sudo enter-chroot -n chrootname
  3. Install i3: sudo apt-get install i3
  4. Add exec i3 to ~/.xinitrc: echo "exec i3" > ~/.xinitrc
  5. Launch i3 directly from the crosh shell: sudo enter-chroot xinit
  6. Create an alias for starting in i3: add alias starti3='sudo enter-chroot xinit' to your ~/.bashrc

Helpful configurations

  • To change themes easily without installing to many other packages try: sudo apt-get install lxappearance

Alternatively: Crouton + XFCE + i3

Install crouton with XFCE and log in into XFCE with sudo startxfce4. Download i3:

sudo apt-get install i3

Go to 'Session and Startup > Application Autostart' settings and '+ Add' a new command with the following field values:

  • Name: i3
  • Description: i3
  • Command: /usr/bin/i3

Go to 'Session and Startup > Session', select the 'xfce-desktop' (amongst other xfce desktop related items -- all I have running is Xfsettingsd, Power Manager, and pulseaudio) and click 'Quit program'. Save session and restart chroot.

i3 should be up and running at this point.

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