My i3wm Dotfiles

A beautiful i3 window manager setup with Yaru-dark theme, optimized for Full HD displays.

Features

• i3wm - Tiling window manager with vim-like keybindings
• Polybar - Beautiful status bar with interactive modules (WiFi, Bluetooth, Brightness)
• Rofi - Modern app launcher
• Kitty - Fast, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator
• Picom - Compositor for transparency, rounded corners, and blur effects
• Dunst - Notification daemon
• Flameshot - Powerful screenshot tool
• PCManFM-Qt - Fast Qt-based file manager
• CopyQ - Advanced clipboard manager
• Pavucontrol - Volume control GUI
• Blueman - Bluetooth manager
• ARandR - Display configuration tool
• Yaru Dark Theme - Ubuntu's native dark theme applied consistently across GTK2/3/4
• Display - 1920x1080 resolution for optimal readability

Required Packages

sudo apt install i3 rofi polybar picom dunst feh xsettingsd \
                 kitty pcmanfm-qt pavucontrol flameshot copyq blueman \
                 xfce4-power-manager arandr brightnessctl nm-applet \
                 network-manager fonts-noto fonts-font-awesome papirus-icon-theme -y

Installation

Quick Install

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/devshad-01/dotfiles.git ~/.dotfiles

# Run the install script
cd ~/.dotfiles
chmod +x install.sh
./install.sh

Manual Install

# Create config directories
mkdir -p ~/.config/{i3,polybar,rofi,picom,dunst,kitty,gtk-2.0,gtk-3.0,gtk-4.0}
mkdir -p ~/bin

# Link configurations
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/i3/config ~/.config/i3/config
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/polybar/config.ini ~/.config/polybar/config.ini
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/rofi/config.rasi ~/.config/rofi/config.rasi
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/picom/picom.conf ~/.config/picom/picom.conf
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/dunst/dunstrc ~/.config/dunst/dunstrc
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/kitty/kitty.conf ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/bin/launch-polybar.sh ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh

# Link GTK and theme configs
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/.xprofile ~/.xprofile
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/.xsettingsd ~/.xsettingsd
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/.gtkrc-2.0 ~/.gtkrc-2.0
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/gtk-2.0/gtkrc ~/.config/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/gtk-3.0/settings.ini ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
ln -sf ~/dotfiles/gtk-4.0/settings.ini ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini

# Make scripts executable
chmod +x ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh
chmod +x ~/dotfiles/bin/*.sh

# Reload i3
i3-msg reload
# or restart i3
i3-msg restart

Key Bindings

Window Management

• Alt + Enter - Open terminal (Kitty)
• Alt + d - App launcher (Rofi)
• Alt + Shift + f - File manager (PCManFM-Qt)
• Alt + Shift + v - Volume control (Pavucontrol)
• Alt + Shift + w - WiFi connection (nmtui - scan & connect)
• Alt + Shift + d - Display settings (ARandR)
• Alt + Shift + b - Bluetooth manager
• Print or Alt + Shift + s - Screenshot (Flameshot)
• Alt + h/j/k/l - Navigate windows (vim-style)
• Alt + Shift + h/j/k/l - Move windows
• Alt + Shift + q - Close window
• Alt + f - Fullscreen

Workspaces

• Alt + 1-9 - Switch workspace
• Alt + Shift + 1-9 - Move window to workspace

Layouts

• Alt + s - Stacking layout
• Alt + w - Tabbed layout
• Alt + e - Toggle split layout
• Alt + z - Horizontal split
• Alt + v - Vertical split

System

• Alt + Shift + c - Reload config
• Alt + Shift + r - Restart i3
• Alt + Shift + e - Exit i3
• Alt + r - Resize mode
• Alt + Shift + Space - Toggle floating

Media Keys

• F-keys - Volume up/down/mute
• Fn + Brightness - Increase/decrease screen brightness (requires video group)
• Polybar Modules:
  • Click WiFi icon - Opens nmtui for network connections
  • Click Bluetooth icon - Opens Blueman manager
  • Scroll on Volume - Change volume
  • Scroll on Brightness - Adjust brightness

Color Scheme

Using Catppuccin Mocha:

• Background: #1e1e2e
• Foreground: #cdd6f4
• Blue: #89b4fa
• Pink: #f5c2e7
• Red: #f38ba8
• Green: #a6e3a1
• Yellow: #f9e2af

Customization

Change Wallpaper

# Easy method - automatically sets and persists
feh --bg-scale ~/path/to/your-image.jpg

# Or copy to Pictures folder
cp your-image.jpg ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg
feh --bg-scale ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg

Wallpaper will restore automatically on login via ~/.fehbg.

Modify Polybar

Edit ~/.config/polybar/config.ini to customize modules, colors, fonts, etc.

Adjust Transparency/Blur

Edit ~/.config/picom/picom.conf to change opacity and blur settings.

Tips

• Use i3-msg reload after editing the i3 config
• Polybar will auto-reload when you restart i3
• Check polybar logs: tail -f /tmp/polybar.log
• Test rofi themes: rofi-theme-selector

Set Wallpaper

feh --bg-scale ~/path/to/image.jpg

The wallpaper persists automatically via ~/.fehbg.

Brightness Control (First Time Setup)

If brightness keys don't work, you need to add yourself to the video group:

sudo usermod -aG video $USER
sudo usermod -aG input $USER

Then log out and log back in for the changes to take effect. After that, brightness keys and polybar scroll will work.

High DPI / 4K Displays

Configured for displays at 1920x1080 resolution:

• Display: Automatically set to 1920x1080 on startup
• DPI: 96 (standard)
• GTK Apps: text-scaling-factor 1.0
• Qt Apps: QT_FONT_DPI=96
• Terminal: Kitty with font size 12
• Polybar: Height 20pt, font size 10 (ultra-compact)

To adjust for your display:

• Use ARandR (Alt+Shift+D) for resolution/scaling
• Edit .Xresources to change DPI
• Edit .xprofile for Qt/GTK scaling factors

Fonts

Required fonts (install for best experience):

# Install Nerd Fonts for icons
sudo apt install fonts-noto fonts-font-awesome

# JetBrains Mono Nerd Font (download from nerdfonts.com)
# Or use system monospace fonts

Credits

• Catppuccin color scheme
• i3wm
• Polybar
• Kitty Terminal

License

Feel free to use and modify!