How to install i3 on OpenMandriva Lx ROCK

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Introduction

This post will instruct you on how to install the i3 window manager on OpenMandriva Lx ROCK 6.0. This post makes these certain assumptions:

Methods

Here, you are going to do the following:

  1. Switch to a TeleTYpewriter
  2. Enable the Extra repostory via the repository configuration files
  3. Remove the Plasma desktop completely
  4. Update your system
  5. Install i3
  6. Define i3 within the .xinitrc file
  7. Launch Xorg via startx

Switch to a TeleTYpewriter

From an X11 session, the Linux TTYs (virtual consoles) can be accessed with Ctrl+Alt+F1 through Ctrl+Alt+F6 (numbered tty1-tty6, respectively). Enter one of these virtual consoles that does not have an X11 session launched, and continue to the next step.

Enable the [Extra repostory] via the repository configuration files

The repository configuration (.repo) files in are within the /etc/yum.repos.d directory. If you know which one you are using you can easily edit these files. Depending on which ISO you’ve used for your OS install, the relevant configuration file will appear as the following:

  • For the ISO optimized for the majority of CPUs (6.0 plasma6.x11 slim x86_64), the repository configuration file will appear at:

    /etc/yum.repos.d/openmandriva-rock-x86_64.repo

  • For the ISO optimized AMD Ryzen CPUs made after 2017 (6.0 plasma6.x11 slim ryzen), the repository configuration will appear at:

    /etc/yum.repos.d/openmandriva-rock-znver1.repo

Open, modify, & save the relevant file with your preferred text editor with superuser permissions, and modify the sections marked [rock-ISOTYPE-extra] and [rock-updates-ISOTYPE-extra], replacing “ISOTYPE” with the relevant keyword for your ISO installed. Change the value of the enabled variables to 1. The following examples use x86_64:

| FILE: /etc/yum.repos.d/openmandriva-rock-x86_64.repo |

[rock-x86_64-extra]
name="OpenMandriva Rock - Extra - x86_64"
baseurl=http://mirror.openmandriva.org/rock/repository/x86_64/extra/release/
        http://abf-downloads.openmandriva.org/rock/repository/x86_64/extra/release/
# Alternative if mirror.openmandriva.org is down
# mirrorlist=http://mirrors.openmandriva.org/mirrors.php?platform=rock&arch=x86_64&repo=extra&release=release
# fastestmirror=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-OpenMandriva
enabled=1
type=rpm-md

[rock-updates-x86_64-extra]
name="OpenMandriva Rock - Extra - x86_64 - Updates"
baseurl=http://mirror.openmandriva.org/rock/repository/x86_64/extra/updates/
        http://abf-downloads.openmandriva.org/rock/repository/x86_64/extra/updates/
# Alternative if mirror.openmandriva.org is down
#mirrorlist=http://mirrors.openmandriva.org/mirrors.php?platform=rock&arch=x86_64&repo=extra&release=updates
#fastestmirror=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=file:///etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-OpenMandriva
enabled=1
type=rpm-md

Remove the Plasma desktop completely

Remove Plasma and its dependences from your system by running the following command:

sudo dnf remove plasma*

Update your system

Update your system by running the following commands:

sudo dnf clean all ; dnf clean all ; dnf repolist
sudo dnf upgrade

Install i3

Install i3:

sudo dnf install i3-wm

Define i3 within the .xinitrc file

NOTE: $USER is can be replaced with the your user (i.e., the user that intends to use i3 on your system) on your system (more info).

| FILE: /home/$USER/.xinitrc |

i3

Launch Xorg via startx

Start Xorg (and by proxy, i3) by running the following command:

startx

Results

By now, you should have a working setup that launches the i3 window manager after logging into a session on your ROCK system and entering the startx command.

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