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Posted on 2021-04-06
A few days ago, I responded on a post in i3wm sub-reddit about my config to manage 3 screens with i3wm.
I thought it might be nice to more or less copy my response in a quick post here in case it is useful for anyone:
I have multiple screens configuration, depending on where I am. It could be either just my laptop screen when on the move, or using 2 screens at the office or 3 screens at home (2 external HDMI and my laptop screen).
To switch between screen configurations, I have a keybind that activate a screen mode:
# Screen Mode:
set $mode_screen Screen Layout (l)aptop, (h)ome, (o)ffice (a)uto
mode "$mode_screen" {
# Only laptop:
bindsym l exec --no-startup-id autorandr --load laptop, mode "default"
# Only home (3 screens):
bindsym h exec --no-startup-id autorandr --load home, mode "default"
# Only Office (2 screens):
bindsym o exec --no-startup-id autorandr --load office, mode "default"
# Auto fallback:
bindsym a exec --no-startup-id autorandr --change, mode "default"
# back to normal: Enter or Escape
bindsym Return mode "default"
bindsym Escape mode "default"
}
bindsym $mod+Shift+p mode "$mode_screen"
To select the right screen setup quickly by pressing {l,h,o,a}.
I have 2 sets of workspace, the "perso" (marked "[P]") and the work related ones (marked "[W]"):
set $ws1 "1:[P] www"
set $ws2 "2:[P] Term"
set $ws3 "3:[P] Mail"
set $ws4 "4:[P] IM"
set $ws5 "5:[P] misc1"
...
set $ws11 "11:[W] www"
set $ws12 "12:[W] Slack"
set $ws13 "13:[W] Misc1"
set $ws14 "14:[W] Misc2"
...
To switch between workspaces, I use the same pattern for both. Perso workspace are switched using the windows key and the right number (on an azerty keyboard, hence the "ampersand" instead of "1"); work related workspaces are used using the windows and alt keys + the same number as above.
So to switch to the first {perso,work} workspace, I use the following keybinds:
# switch to workspace
# Perso workspace
bindsym $mod+ampersand workspace $ws1
[…]
# Work workspace
bindsym $mod+Mod1+ampersand workspace $ws11
[…]
Also, I defined some rules to put specific workspaces on specific screens automatically:
# Display pref
workspace $ws1 output DP-1
workspace $ws2 output eDP-1
workspace $ws3 output eDP-1
workspace $ws4 output eDP-1
...
workspace $ws11 output HDMI-2
workspace $ws12 output eDP-1
workspace $ws13 output HDMI-2
workspace $ws14 output HDMI-2
...
If this is of any interest to some people, feel free to ask me to share more on my i3wm setup :)