OpenBSD 7.4 with i3 wm

• What
  • Links
• Preparations
• Patch and compile suckless terminal (ST)
  • Build preparations
    • Download ST
    • Download patches
    • Apply patches
  • Compile and install st
• Create ~/.xsession
• Disable Xconsole
• Minor tweaks
  • Configure gaps between windows
  • Set wallpaper
• Keybinding cheat sheet
  • Move window
  • Change window focus
  • Misc

What

Desktop bootstraping notes for OpenBSD 7.4 with i3 wm and transparent suckless terminal.

Links

• Window manager: i3
• Terminal: st with patches for transparency and scrollback

Preparations

Begin with adding your local account to doas.conf for simple elevation using doas -s.

su root -c 'echo permit keepenv nopass ${LOGNAME} >> /etc/doas.conf'

Install packages

doas pkg_add i3 i3lock feh

Get the stock i3status config

cp /usr/local/share/examples/i3status/i3status.conf  ~/.i3status.conf

Add locale and keep history to .profile

cat <<EOT >> ~/.profile
export HISTFILE=~/.ksh_history
export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
EOT

Patch and compile suckless terminal (ST)

St has pledge(2) in the upstream source already, but an unspeakable entity from beyond time and space wants you to apply the following patches:

• 1 make file patch from OpenBSD st port that enables some OpenBSD specific build options

• 1 make file patch from OpenBSD st port correcting some color names

• 1 for “Scroll back through terminal output using Shift+{PageUp, PageDown}”

• 1 composite patch for alpha and focus

Build preparations

Download ST

mkdir ~/st
cd ~/st
ftp https://dl.suckless.org/st/st-0.9.tar.gz
tar zvxf st-0.9.tar.gz

Download patches

mkdir -p st-0.9/patches
ftp -o st-0.9/patches/st-focus-20230610-68d1ad9.diff https://st.suckless.org/patches/alpha_focus_highlight/st-focus-20230610-68d1ad9.diff
ftp -o st-0.9/patches/patch-config_mk https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openbsd/ports/master/x11/st/patches/patch-config_mk
ftp -o st-0.9/patches/patch-config_def_h https://raw.githubusercontent.com/openbsd/ports/master/x11/st/patches/patch-config_def_h
ftp -o st-0.9/patches/st-scrollback-0.8.5.diff https://st.suckless.org/patches/scrollback/st-scrollback-0.8.5.diff

Apply patches

cd st-0.9
patch < patches/patch-config_def_h
patch < patches/patch-config_mk
patch < patches/st-scrollback-0.8.5.diff
patch < st-focus-20230610-68d1ad9.diff

Opacity/transparency/alpha settings can be adjusted in config.def.h before compiling if needed.

Compile and install st

make 
doas make install

The binary will be installed in /usr/local/bin/st

NOTE

st does not pickup all the environment variables from .profile for instance, so you need to set them manually in st.c if needed:

setenv("FANCY", "PANTS", 1);

The ‘1’ signifies that it will overwrite any existing value for the variable already set in the environment.

setenv(const char name, const charvalue, int overwrite); https://man.openbsd.org/getenv.3

Create ~/.xsession

Prepare ~./xsession with locale, xcompmgr (for delicious effects like transparency, shadows etc) and finally launch i3.

cat <<EOT >> ~/.xsession
export LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8
xcompmgr -cCfF &
i3
EOT

Regarding setting the locale in .xsession, refer to OpenBSD FAQ - System Management:

“To use the Unicode character set in UTF-8 encoding wherever supported, set the LC_CTYPE environment variable to the value en_US.UTF-8:

• If logging in via xenodm(1), add export LC_CTYPE=“en_US.UTF-8” to your ~/.xsession before starting the window manager. See customizing X for more details.
• If logging in via the text console, add export LC_CTYPE=“en_US.UTF-8” to your ~/.profile. The text console’s UTF-8 support is a work in progress, and some non-ASCII characters may not display properly.”

Without this, in order for st to play well with characters like ‘åäö’ you need to launch st once again inside i3 as LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8" st or make sure you manually set the environment variable.

Disable Xconsole

Disable that fugly Xconsole that pops up whenever you start your window manager:

In /etc/X11/xenodm/Xsetup_0, Comment out

sh “${exec_prefix}/bin/xconsole -geometry 480x130-“

Now reboot to have a clean start and then login through xenodm. When asked, generate an i3 config.

Edit the generated ~/.config/i3/config and replace xterm with st:

bindsym $mod+Return exec /usr/local/bin/st

If you prefer login shell:

bindsym $mod+Return exec /usr/local/bin/st -e /bin/ksh -l

Add i3lock with black background:

bindsym Control+Mod1+l exec "i3lock -c 000000"

Now you can lock your screen with ctrl-mod+l.

Minor tweaks

Configure gaps between windows

Add some gaps (previously you would need i3-gaps for this)

The offical example here and below is a good start

# Configure 5px of space between windows and to the screen edges.
gaps inner 5px

# Configure an additional 5px of extra space to the screen edges,
# for a total gap of 10px to the screen edges, and 5px between windows.
gaps outer 5px

# Overwrite gaps to 0, I need all the space I can get on workspace 3.
workspace 3 gaps inner 0
workspace 3 gaps outer 0

# Only enable outer gaps when there is exactly one window or split container on the workspace.
smart_gaps inverse_outer

Set wallpaper

 exec --no-startup-id feh --bg-scale images/puffy.jpg

Keybinding cheat sheet

Replace ; with ö on swedish keyboard.

Move window

Change window focus

Misc