So I’m trying the i3 window manager once again. Version 4 has some nice new features.

The bar that shows which workspace you’re on at the bottom of the screen is drawn by an application called i3bar. If it’s started with the parameter -m, it will only be displayed while the Mod4-key (Windows key) is pressed.

Edit: Although i3bar is started differently now, the mod described here still works.

Unfortunately I use the Alt-key to control my window manager, so this feature is only semi-useful to me.

Here’s how to change the behaviour of i3bar -m so that it’s displayed when the Alt key is pressed:

Step 1: Grab the source code of i3 (Version 4.0.2 is the current version right now).

Step 2: Open the file i3bar/src/xcb.c<br /> Step 3: Change “Mod4Mask” to “Mod1Mask“. In 4.0.2, this is in line 458.

Afterwards, the line should read:

modstate = mods & Mod1Mask;

Step 4: Go to the i3bar directory, run make there, then run make install.

Step 5: Restart i3bar.