I3, remove lightdm and use xinitrc

hello :slight_smile:
since I try to install as less as possible :slight_smile:
I have just installed EOS i3, but I was wondering
could I remove lightdm and start i3 just with xinitrc?

Have a look here:

Perhaps it would be a good idea to try it first and then remove the display manager.

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Yes, and if you want even less, you can install sway and run it (wayland vs X) and fully compatible with i3.
You can just start it with ‘sway’ from the terminal…easy peasy.

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Copy /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to ~/.xinitrc, then comment out or remove the last 5 lines (they are there from probably 20 years ago), and configure i3 at that place.

You might need some other programs to launch there and just before i3. For example, I call xinput with some parameters to configure my touchpad, and also swap some keys on the laptop just before my twm launches.

if later you explore other wms, you can get creative here and accept a parameter to launch the one you wish.

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you are right, I did not install SWAY since I did not found it between the options of the installer.
but I have to launch the community editions, I will install it now
I’m a loooong time SWAY user, first post in the SWAY category from two years ago :grinning:

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Why not use autologin for lightdm, seems to be an easier way.
I personally think leaving things to the display manager is easier in the long run compared to xinitrc

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/LightDM#Enabling_autologin

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one package less :grin:

indeed DM is bloat … at least on a single user system using one Desktop or WM only …

id the way… you can read here too:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xinit

to disable lightdm:
sudo systemctl disable ligfhtdm

uninstalling it can be done when you got the xinit login working… so yo are still able to start lightdm:
sudo systemctl start lightdm

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if want even more fun try hyprland … :wink: same start with Hyprland

" https://github.com/hyprwm/Hyprland "

" https://wiki.hyprland.org/Getting-Started/Quick-start/ "

:pray: for off topic :innocent:

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in the meantime I’ve installed SWAY :grinning:
back to old love :grinning: :grinning:
I have to find a way with wayland now
to login without lightdm

Not a Sway user here but I had a look around:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway#Automatically_on_TTY_login

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yea sway and lightdm are not good friends… use sway directly or if you want a DM gsm and sddm are candidates for a working solution.

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The last time I used Sway, Ctrl-Alt-F3 then type in “sway” and it will launch sway. No Bloat there.

As @joekamprad suggested, sddm works good in place of Lightdm. As a matter of fact, sddm is the only desktop manager that works with Sway on ARM devices.

Pudge

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I also have a Sway setup with no display manager. I added to .config/fish/config.fish:

## Log in from TTY1
if [ "$(tty)" = "/dev/tty1" ]
    sway
end

If I log in on TTY1, Sway will automatically launch. If I want to work in a TTY instead, of course I would just switch to a different one first.

If you do not use Fish, obviously your solution will be slightly different but perhaps that can still be a seed idea.

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