[SOLVED] Difficulties with i3

[opethfan89]

Hi all,

I tried to search on the forums for i3 and only found this link that just says it's possible to use, not how to do it. I've been able to install i3 but when I select it from the login screen, it simply pauses for a brief moment and opens into Cinnamon as usual.

I followed these steps to do some troubleshooting but it doesn't stay loaded long enough to get access to the logs. I've successfully installed it in a fresh Linux Mint 17.1 install in a VM, so I know it's possible, but I'm just not sure how to fix my machine to get the same configuration.

Any ideas or suggestions would be most welcome and appreciated!

*EDIT*

I posted my solution at Reddit (here) but will summarize in this thread in case anyone else comes across this:

I noticed that when I selected i3 from my login screen, I'd see a brief pause and then it would default to Cinnamon. So I tried using a different user account and it seemed to have worked fine. I went back to my original user account and suddenly it worked, too!

But this left me curious, so I changed my login window theme from the HTML-based "MDModern" to the GDM-based "Dark". Now, no matter what user I select or what environment I select, it always works.

This leads me to believe it is an issue with the login theme. I verified this by using a vanilla Linux Mint 17.1 install in a VM and following the same steps --- got the same results.

Hopefully this helps someone else!

[opethfan89]

*bump*

[fietsuco]

Same problem. Similar solution.

After reading your way, I tried to switch from MDModern to a few other HTML-based login screen (LS)
checking if the problem is common to all of them.

Fact is, the problem seems to only affect MDModern.
More precisely, MDModern seems to remember the WM he was selected in.
Imagine I log in WM ABC (respectively DEF) thanks to LS XYZ, then modify the LS to MDModern within my ABC (resp. DEF) session, and log out. Afterwards MDModern won't let me login in any other WM than ABC (resp. DEF).