How to install i3 desktop on Kali Linux?

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I installed Kali Linux with i3 desktop and i3-dotfiles. But Kali’s own design, i3 design, did not come. How to install i3 desktop on Kali Linux?

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Here are some steps to Install i3 on Kali Linux:

  1. Update your system (optional but recommended):
    Open a terminal and run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

  1. Install i3:
    You can install the i3 window manager and required packages by running:

sudo apt install i3

  1. Install i3 dependencies (if you want extra utilities):
    You may also want to install some useful i3 utilities (like i3status, dmenu, and rofi) by running:

sudo apt install i3status dmenu rofi

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  1. Set i3 as the default session:

If you are using a display manager (like GDM or LightDM), you should be able to select i3 as the desktop environment from the login screen.

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Alternatively, if you are using startx or a different method to start the X session, you can ensure i3 starts by default by editing your .xinitrc file:

echo "exec i3" > ~/.xinitrc

  1. Log out and log in again:
    After installation, log out of your current session and choose i3 from the session options on the login screen (if using a display manager). If you are using startx, just run startx from the terminal.
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I already did these but Arszilla’s designed i3 desktop does not come. Pure i3 desktop comes with default dotfiles.

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Why in the name of Yoda did you not mention Arszilla in your opening post??

Did you read the README for that package?

Did you miss over this bit:

All of the default customizations I’ve created for Kali i3 with the aide of Kali Team (to publish these customizations) can be found at the i3-dotfiles package, available in Kali Linux’s repositories.

Please refer to the contents of i3-dotfiles to see the dotfiles provided by this project. You can find i3-dotfiles in several places:

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arszilla’s dotfiles have already been added to the kali linux repo. In other words, I can download it by doing apt install i3-dotfiles. But if we look at the readme file, the binary files for /usr/bin are not given. And when we copy according to the readme file, some errors occur. That’s why I asked if there was a mistake and if there was someone who installed it, for support. In other words, there is no need to mention arszilla, it is already a joint design with kali and is in the kali repo.

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Can you paste the errors you received?

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I ran these scripts and I’m getting a “no such file or directory” error because the /usr/bin directory doesn’t exist in the repo, meaning they don’t provide executable scripts.

Copy dotfiles to your $HOME directory:
rsync -a “$PWD”/dotfiles/etc/skel/ “$HOME”/

Copy dotfiles to /etc/skel/:
rsync -a “$PWD”/dotfiles/etc/skel/ /etc/skel/

Copy dotfiles to /root/:
rsync -a “$PWD”/dotfiles/etc/skel/ /root/

Copy scripts to /usr/bin/:
rsync -a “$PWD”/dotfiles/usr/bin/ /usr/bin/

The first 3 commands run smoothly and copy the files to the correct locations, but when I boot the system, i3 still starts in its default state. It boots without using the copied dotfiles.

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Thanks for your help but I gave up on using i3 desktop. I will continue using hyprland.

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  1. sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
  2. sudo apt install i3 i3status i3lock dmenu

optinal
3. sudo apt install xterm feh

Set i3 as your default window manager
echo “exec i3” > ~/.xinitrc