How can I set a desktop background image in i3?
answered 2012-06-04 13:17:04 +0000
This post is a wiki. Anyone with karma >100 is welcome to improve it.
The background image configuration does not depend on the window manager. i3 will not touch the X11 root window (which is the window on which the background is set), so you need to set a background with an external program.
Many people use feh, see https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/...adesktopwallpapermanager
To set a static color (not an image), use
xsetroot -solid "#333333"
You can place the feh or xsetroot call either in your ~/.xsession before execing i3, or (in case you don’t use ~/.xsession) in your i3 configuration file ~/.i3/config:
exec --no-startup-id xsetroot -solid "#333333"
I found that #002244 complements the default window focus color nicely. It's also not too bright to blind you when you close all your windows.
You can use nitrogen (simple GUI with multi-monitor support) to set wallpapers. Restore your settings on startup by adding the following line to your ~/.i3/config:
exec --no-startup-id nitrogen --restore
--no-startup-id disables startup notifications for this window. They are used to properly launch windows on the right workspace when starting and to display an hourglass mouse pointer while startup is in progress. In this case you’d end up with an hourglass mouse pointer for 60 seconds.
If you don't use a graphical login manager which usually reads ~/.xsession, you could set your background when X starts adding a line in your ~/.xinitrc file:
feh --bg-scale /path/to/image
Asked: 2012-06-04 13:15:49 +0000
Seen: 72,529 times
Last updated: Jun 04 '12
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