https://faq.i3wm.org/questions/Frequently asked questions and answers about the i3 window managerenCopyright i3, 2012Mon, 09 Feb 2015 08:55:36 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5430/cant-get-a-window-to-start-in-the-scratchpad-and-i3-behaves-very-oddly/Following the advice in other questions here, I put this in my config: exec_always urxvtc -fn xft:Inconsolata:size=11 -fg white -bg black -name scratchurxvt -e /usr/bin/fizsh for_window [instance="scratchurxvt"] move scratchpad urxvtc is the client program for starting a urxvt terminal when urxvtd (the daemon) is running. I start urxvtd with an exec line above these lines in the config. Later on I have this bindsym $mod+p scratchpad show But once I start i3 the scratchpad does not respond. The scratchpad works ok if I manually move a window to it (using another keybinding). If I remove the `for_window` directive, the terminal window pops up correctly on startup with the right title. When the `for_window` directive is on, the terminal window does not appear - implying that it should have been moved to the scratchpad - but nothing happens when I press $mod+p. The same problem occurs if I use xterm instead of urxvtc. The behaviour becomes even weirder if I use urxvt instead of urxvtc: exec_always urxvt -fn xft:Inconsolata:size=11 -fg white -bg black -name scratchurxvt -e /usr/bin/fizsh If I do this I cannot get any program to start. Pressing $mod + 2 does not open a new workspace either. I find this very puzzling. How do I get this to work? Fri, 06 Feb 2015 06:31:37 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5430/cant-get-a-window-to-start-in-the-scratchpad-and-i3-behaves-very-oddly/https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5430/cant-get-a-window-to-start-in-the-scratchpad-and-i3-behaves-very-oddly/?answer=5438#post-id-5438The problem seems to be that the scratchpad is not "ready" when i3 starts. Windows moved into it through the `for_window` directive or even through `i3-msg` in the initial few seconds just vanish. I finally got it to work by shifting a lot of my exec commands into a shell script, then ensuring that the script sleeps for 5 seconds before using `i3-msg` to shift the window into the scratchpad (I've also switched to lilyterm but that seems to be incidental). The script is called using `exec_always` from the main config file, like so: exec_always /mnt/docfile/root/my-documents/Software/i3start.sh The script itself has the following: i3-msg exec "lilyterm --title scratchlilyterm -e offlineimap" i3-msg exec --no-startup-id "run_once nm-applet" # < various utility scripts are also run> i3-msg exec iceweasel & i3-msg exec claws-mail & sleep 5 i3-msg '[ title="scratchlilyterm" ] move scratchpad' If I get the chance I'll file a bug report in this regard.Mon, 09 Feb 2015 08:55:36 +0000https://faq.i3wm.org/question/5430/cant-get-a-window-to-start-in-the-scratchpad-and-i3-behaves-very-oddly/?answer=5438#post-id-5438