i3 installation in dom0

i3 is part of the stable repository (as of Qubes R3.1) and can be installed by using the dom0 update mechanism. To install the i3 window manager and the its Qubes specific configuration:

$ sudo qubes-dom0-update i3 i3-settings-qubes

The Qubes-specific configuration (package i3-settings-qubes) can be installed optionally in case you would prefer writing your own configuration (see customization section for scripts and configuration).

That's it. After logging out, you can select i3 in the login manager.

Customization

Compilation and installation from source

Note that the compilation from source is done in a Fedora based domU (could be dispvm). The end result is always an .rpm that is copied to dom0 and then installed through the package manager.

Getting the code

Clone the i3-qubes repository here:

$ git clone https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-desktop-linux-i3

In this case, the most interesting file is probably i3/0001-Show-qubes-domain-in-non-optional-colored-borders.patch It's the patch with changes that are necessary to make i3 work nicely with Qubes OS. The code should not need much explanation, it just gets the vmname and label from Qubes OS and changes some defaults so the user can't override decisions.

If you want to make any changes to the package, this is the time and place to do it.

Building

You'll need to install the build dependencies, which are listed in build-deps.list. You can verify them and then install them with:

$ sudo dnf install -y $(cat build-deps.list)

This used to be more complicated, but I finally redid this and use the same buildsystem that's used by Qubes OS for XFCE. It's just a Makefile that helps you get the sources and start off the build:

$ make get-sources
$ make verify-sources
$ make rpms

Installing

Warning: Manually installing software in dom0 is inherently risky, and the method described here circumvents the usual security mechanisms of qubes-dom0-update.

You should now have your i3 rpm in ./rpm/x86_64/i3-4.8-3.fc20.x86_64.rpm. Protip: copying this file to ~/i3.rpm now will save you some typing in the next step.

Now in dom0, copy in the rpm:

$ qvm-run --pass-io <src_domain> 'cat </path/to/rpm_in_src_domain>' > i3.rpm

Now that the rpm is in dom0 we can proceed with installing it. i3 has some dependencies that we can easily install with:

$ sudo qubes-dom0-update perl-AnyEvent-I3 xorg-x11-apps \\
    rxvt-unicode xcb-util-wm perl-JSON-XS xcb-util-cursor \\
    dzen2 dmenu xorg-x11-fonts-misc libev

After that you can just install the generated rpm like any other local package:

$ sudo yum localinstall i3.rpm

Log out, select i3, then log in again.

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