i3 FAQ - Individual question feed

First time using i3, keyboard shortcuts stop working?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 00:22:30 +0000

So, I decided to try out tiling window managers, I didn't really like Awesome and installed i3. I almost liked it but I run into this issue with mod+ keys all stop working? Can't even reset and it seems to work again at random times. Even when I move the mouse cursor to the other screen to try and unfocus the window and use the shortcut it doesn't work. Is there a possible keyboard shortcut I keep clicking by mistaking that could be confused for 'breakage?' or is there a problem with the Linux Mint implementation of i3?

Answer by dkeg for
So, I decided to try out tiling window managers, I didn't really like Awesome and installed i3. I almost liked it but I run into this issue with mod+<shortcut> keys all stop working? Can't even reset and it seems to work again at random times. Even when I move the mouse cursor to the other screen to try and unfocus the window and use the shortcut it doesn't work. Is there a possible keyboard shortcut I keep clicking by mistaking that could be confused for 'breakage?' or is there a problem with the Linux Mint implementation of i3?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 13:32:12 +0000

There have been instances where a change I make, then after a restart seems to confuse i3 into reading the original config in /etc/i3/config which contains the original MOD key (alt) replaces my configured one (win). Using now the ALT binding for MOD perform another inline restart ALT-SHIFT-R, it fixes itself and the win key returns as the MOD key

Comment by dkeg for
There have been instances where a change I make, then after a restart seems to confuse i3 into reading the original config in `/etc/i3/config` which contains the original MOD key (alt) replaces my configured one (win). Using now the ALT binding for MOD perform another inline restart `ALT-SHIFT-R`, it fixes itself and the win key returns as the MOD key

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:04:47 +0000

don't know. Hopefully the cruxt of my answer help the OP. Why or What, not sure, but for whatever the reason, at various times the MOD key is reverted back to ALT, along with all default configs. When I inline restart again, my config file is once again read.

Comment by Michael for
There have been instances where a change I make, then after a restart seems to confuse i3 into reading the original config in `/etc/i3/config` which contains the original MOD key (alt) replaces my configured one (win). Using now the ALT binding for MOD perform another inline restart `ALT-SHIFT-R`, it fixes itself and the win key returns as the MOD key

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 18:59:50 +0000

i3 does not fall back to /etc/i3/config, unless both ~/.i3/config and ~/.config/i3/config do not exist.

Answer by Michael for
So, I decided to try out tiling window managers, I didn't really like Awesome and installed i3. I almost liked it but I run into this issue with mod+<shortcut> keys all stop working? Can't even reset and it seems to work again at random times. Even when I move the mouse cursor to the other screen to try and unfocus the window and use the shortcut it doesn't work. Is there a possible keyboard shortcut I keep clicking by mistaking that could be confused for 'breakage?' or is there a problem with the Linux Mint implementation of i3?

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 19:03:50 +0000

Likely causes for that are that you get stuck in a mode, e.g. the resize mode (mod+r by default). Or that you accidentally activated Caps Lock. Since version 4.4 of i3, modes are displayed in i3bar. Caps Lock having any effect on key bindings is fixed in git.