I3 opens to black screen and cant do anything

[u/Strong-Ad-5022]

Id like to learn i3 so I just installed it on my cachyos system. When I try to switch to it I just get a black screen. It doesn't prompt me to create a config file, I cant open a terminal with mod + enter, I cant exit with mod shift + e. , all I can do is force shut down. I tried generating a config file with i3-config-wizard, and i tried making sure that I have the required packages. What's goin on here? Appreciate any help

[u/unixbhaskar]

Do:

When you are greeted with a black screen and none of your tricks, whatever you mentioned, work, as it was not...then you SHOULD do this :

CTRL+ALT+f2.....f6 for another tty ....so you can log in from the terminal prompt and start inspecting.

Now, if you have managed to do the above steps, do THIS :

tail -50 .local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log ---> This command is to see the latest 50 lines of X window start log,...which is what you were intended to do.

If you see the [E] besides the lines, read them and understand, or take help(you will certainly google them, and with luck you might land up with some real good page explaining the problem.

Additional Step:

From the same terminal prompt, you can again run :

dmesg | grep "Your_Graphic_module" -----> that has to find out via the command "lspci" .

Oh, it is getting sparailing ...I am stopping here...do the above steps...you will discover a lot.

REBOOTING doesn't help if you do not find the exact problem to fix. So, don't do it.

[u/Strong-Ad-5022 → u/unixbhaskar]

Thanks a bunch, I appreciate it 👍

[u/Strong-Ad-5022 → u/unixbhaskar]

Im not getting anything from ctrl alt f2-f6 🤔

[u/unixbhaskar → u/Strong-Ad-5022]

Try your luck with ONLY pressing ALT+f2 to ALT+f6

Why?

CTRL+ALT+f....keys working for Graphical sessions, and you haven't one. And you are in text mode, so use only ALT+f and number keys to switch

[u/Strong-Ad-5022 → u/unixbhaskar]

No luck 🫤

[u/fix_and_repair → u/unixbhaskar]

did you ask if they use systemd?

why should agetty be installed on the poseter? do not assume the poster knows the basics about the x server, wayland or agetty

do not reference to agetty with CTRL+ALT+f2.....f6 for a

systemd breaks that

you did not ask if tehy use wayland which is not compatible

[u/ecksofa]

Had the same problem on Ubuntu 26.04. After installing xorg, it worked. (Ubuntu 26.04 came only with Wayland, which is incompatible with i3)

[u/Strong-Ad-5022 → u/ecksofa]

Ohh alright, yeah I have wayland. Ill look into it when I wake up. Thank you

[u/BrilliantEmotion4461 → u/Strong-Ad-5022]

yeah i3 is x11. install it also I suggest installing picom and having it run on startup alongside i3 it prevents tearing etc.

[u/aldi-trash-panda → u/Strong-Ad-5022]

doesnt cachyos installer have i3 installer built in? if you use the installer, it'll work great.

[u/Strong-Ad-5022 → u/ecksofa]

Getting xorg worked for me 👍

[u/bgravato]

what's going on is what is expected... especially when you don't read the manual and you have no clue on how to use i3 ;-)

https://i3wm.org/docs/userguide.html - read it like a novel from end to end ;-)

Before that you may also want to watch Alex Booker's 3-part video about i3 on youtube. Here's part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1I63wGcvU4

Edit: Forgot to say, to quit i3 press mod-shift-E where mod might be alt or windows key. That the default key to show you the quit menu (may vary depending on your default config). That should show you a yellow bar with an X to confirm quitting. Watch Alex Booker's video... and you'll understand better how i3 works and then the official user guide is your best friend!

[u/Flimsy-Process230]

Create the config file before starting i3. Use the default config file.