dotfiles

i3wm setup with Catppuccin Mocha theming on Ubuntu 24.04.

What's included

• i3wm — tiling window manager with gaps, vim-style keybindings
• i3status-rust — status bar with system vitals (CPU, memory, disk, battery, network)
• picom — compositor (shadows, fading, rounded corners, transparency)
• rofi — app launcher, window switcher, clipboard manager, power menu
• dunst — notifications with volume/brightness OSD progress bars
• wezterm — terminal emulator
• yazi — terminal file manager
• autorandr — automatic display profile switching
• vim — with catppuccin theme and vim-airline
• zsh — oh-my-zsh with syntax highlighting

Fresh install

1. Clone

git clone https://github.com/<your-username>/dotfiles.git ~/dotfiles
cd ~/dotfiles

2. Install packages

sudo apt install i3 picom rofi dunst feh flameshot autorandr brightnessctl playerctl \
  thunar xss-lock lxpolkit network-manager-gnome papirus-icon-theme pipewire wireplumber \
  libsensors-dev libpulse-dev libssl-dev cargo stow zsh

3. Install from source / GitHub releases

# i3status-rust
cargo install i3status-rs
sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/i3status-rust/{themes,icons}
sudo cp ~/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-*/i3status-rs-*/files/themes/* /usr/share/i3status-rust/themes/
sudo cp ~/.cargo/registry/src/index.crates.io-*/i3status-rs-*/files/icons/* /usr/share/i3status-rust/icons/

# i3lock-color
sudo apt install autoconf gcc make pkg-config libpam0g-dev libcairo2-dev libfontconfig1-dev \
  libxcb-composite0-dev libev-dev libx11-xcb-dev libxcb-xkb-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev \
  libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-util0-dev libxcb-xrm-dev libxkbcommon-dev \
  libxkbcommon-x11-dev libjpeg-dev
git clone https://github.com/Raymo111/i3lock-color.git /tmp/i3lock-color
cd /tmp/i3lock-color && ./install-i3lock-color.sh

# greenclip
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
wget https://github.com/erebe/greenclip/releases/latest/download/greenclip -O ~/.local/bin/greenclip
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/greenclip

# yazi
wget -O /tmp/yazi.zip https://github.com/sxyazi/yazi/releases/latest/download/yazi-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu.zip
unzip /tmp/yazi.zip -d /tmp/yazi
sudo mv /tmp/yazi/yazi-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/yazi /usr/local/bin/
sudo mv /tmp/yazi/yazi-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/ya /usr/local/bin/

4. Install fonts and themes

# FiraCode Nerd Font
wget -P /tmp https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/latest/download/FiraCode.zip
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
unzip /tmp/FiraCode.zip -d ~/.local/share/fonts/FiraCode
fc-cache -fv

# Catppuccin GTK theme
mkdir -p ~/.themes
wget -O /tmp/catppuccin-gtk.zip https://github.com/catppuccin/gtk/releases/latest/download/catppuccin-mocha-mauve-standard+default.zip
unzip /tmp/catppuccin-gtk.zip -d ~/.themes/

# Catppuccin cursors
mkdir -p ~/.icons
wget -O /tmp/catppuccin-cursors.zip https://github.com/catppuccin/cursors/releases/latest/download/catppuccin-mocha-dark-cursors.zip
unzip /tmp/catppuccin-cursors.zip -d ~/.icons/

# Zsh syntax highlighting
git clone https://github.com/catppuccin/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git \
  ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

5. Deploy dotfiles

cd ~/dotfiles
stow config
stow zsh
stow vim

6. Install vim plugins

vim +PlugInstall +qall

7. Setup

# Add user to video group (for brightness control)
sudo usermod -aG video $USER

# Place a wallpaper
mkdir -p ~/Pictures
cp /path/to/wallpaper.jpg ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg

# Save display profiles (run with external monitor connected)
autorandr --save docked
# Then disconnect monitor and run:
autorandr --save mobile

# Auto-switch displays on hotplug
echo 'ACTION=="change", SUBSYSTEM=="drm", RUN+="/usr/bin/autorandr --batch --change --default mobile"' \
  | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/40-monitor-hotplug.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

# Prevent suspend when lid closed while docked
sudo sed -i 's/#HandleLidSwitchDocked=.*/HandleLidSwitchDocked=ignore/' /etc/systemd/logind.conf
sudo systemctl restart systemd-logind

8. Log out, select i3 from the login screen, log in.

Key bindings

Key	Action
$mod+Return	Terminal (WezTerm)
$mod+d	App launcher (Rofi)
$mod+Tab	Window switcher
$mod+q	Kill window
$mod+h/j/k/l	Focus left/down/up/right
$mod+Shift+h/j/k/l	Move window
$mod+f	Fullscreen
$mod+v	Clipboard history
$mod+Shift+s	Screenshot
$mod+Shift+e	Power menu
$mod+Escape	Lock screen
$mod+r	Resize mode
$mod+1-9	Switch workspace