Follow the directions found at wiki.voidlinux.org/Raspberry_Pi to get a working system.

I then did the following over ssh, as the display that I used didn't have ethernet handy. ssh is already set up as a service.

You'll also need to do things like wpa-supplicant set as a service ln -s /etc/sv/wpa_supplicant /var/service/ if you use wifi, dhcpcd should already be set but you can do it the same way if needed. You'll need a user account, only has root by default. I recommend checking out daveeddy.com for general Void setup stuff like wpa_passphrase and adding a user. It's a great guide.

oh also, edit /etc/hostname to whatever you want your pi to be called instead of void-live or whatever it is by default... or maybe later once you have nano installed.

Once you have that done, we can install i3.

Installing i3 on your Void Pi

Update the system first sudo xbps-install -Suv as you always should.

Install xorg and display driver for the RPi, and i3-gaps (because gaps are fancy.) i3status for the info bar, dmenu for launch menu, and xterm so we have a terminal when we actually get into X. And also nano, so we can edit stuff without getting trapped in vim. sudo xbps-install -S xorg-minimal xorg-fonts xrdb xf86-video-fbturbo i3-gaps i3status dmenu xterm nano

you can do xbps-query -Rs xrdb to find out about what a package is, subsitute xrdb for another search term.

Copy default .xinitrc to home folder: /cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

Comment out the last lines at the bottom after the last fi with # and add exec i3 at the bottom after them Save and exit

If like me, you borked something up and didn't get a usable screen first time, you can copy the default i3 config: cp /etc/i3/config ~/.config i3/ Ideally you can skip this for now, and it'll prompt you for mod key to use and to import the default config once you launch.

type startx and hopefully you end up with a usable i3 screen!

###todo: I actually don't have a usable i3bar yet, will update when I get it sorted!

Also: actually, I cheat...

I use my existing dotfiles and mod them as needed for each system, for example Xft.dpi as not everything I own is HiDPI. Mine are at pastebin.com/u/ignitionigel, and I also share them and fonts & wallpapers between machines with syncthing. I also change out dmenu for rofi, but it does the same thing.

~rtwx~

• let me know if anything needs correcting here, I hate finding guides and they skip over stuff :) You can find me on the fediverse @rtwx