How To Install i3-wm on Debian 10
Introduction
In this tutorial we learn how to install i3-wm on Debian 10.
What is i3-wm
i3-wm is:
Key features of i3 are good documentation, reasonable defaults (changeable in a simple configuration file) and good multi-monitor support. The user interface is designed for power users and emphasizes keyboard usage. i3 uses XCB for asynchronous communication with X11 and aims to be fast and light-weight.
Please be aware i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers.
There are three methods to install i3-wm on Debian 10. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.
Install i3-wm Using apt-get
Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.
sudo apt-get update
After updating apt database, We can install i3-wm using apt-get by running the following command:
sudo apt-get -y install i3-wm
Install i3-wm Using apt
Update apt database with apt using the following command.
sudo apt update
After updating apt database, We can install i3-wm using apt by running the following command:
sudo apt -y install i3-wm
Install i3-wm Using aptitude
If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.
sudo aptitude update
After updating apt database, We can install i3-wm using aptitude by running the following command:
sudo aptitude -y install i3-wm
How To Uninstall i3-wm on Debian 10
To uninstall only the i3-wm package we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get remove i3-wm
Uninstall i3-wm And Its Dependencies
To uninstall i3-wm and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 10, we can use the command below:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove i3-wm
Remove i3-wm Configurations and Data
To remove i3-wm configuration and data from Debian 10 we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y purge i3-wm
Remove i3-wm configuration, data, and all of its dependencies
We can use the following command to remove i3-wm configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:
sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge i3-wm
Dependencies
i3-wm have the following dependencies:
References
Summary
In this tutorial we learn how to install i3-wm package on Debian 10 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.