---
title: A Friendly Guide to LARBS
author: Luke Smith ([https://lukesmith.xyz](https://lukesmith.xyz))
output: pdf_document
linkcolor: blue
---

Use vim keys (h/j/k/l) to navigate this document. Pressing W will fit it to window width. + and - zoom in and out. f to toggle fullscreen. q to quit. (These are general mupdf shortcuts.)

+ Mod+F1 will show this document at any time.
+ By "Mod" I mean the Super Key, usually known as "the Windows Key."

Questions or suggestions? Email me at [luke@lukesmith.xyz](mailto:luke@lukesmith.xyz).

# Welcome!

## Basic goals and principles of this system:

+ Naturalness -- Remove the border between mind and matter: everything important should be as few keypresses as possible away from you, and you shouldn't have to think about what you're doing. Immersion.
+ Economy -- Programs should be simple and light on system resources and highly extensible. Because of this, many are terminal or small ncurses programs that have all the magic inside of them.
+ Keyboard/vim-centrality -- All terminal programs (and other programs) use vim keys when possible. Your hands never need leave the home row or thereabout.

## General keyboard changes

+ Capslock is a useless key in high quality space. It's now remapped. If you press it alone, it will function as escape, making vimcraft much more natural, but you can also hold it down and it will act as another Windows/super/mod key.
+ The menu button (usually between the right Alt and Ctrl) is an alternative Super/Mod button. This is to make one-handing on my laptops easier.
+ The rice also uses the US International keyboard by default. This allows you to type a lot of characters in many different European languages.

If you'd like to change any of these keyboard changes, you need only open and change `~/.scripts/remaps`. Actually, this should go without saying, but *everything* here can easily be changed.

## The Polybar Status Bar

If you're new to i3, notice the status bar on the top of the screen. This is Polybar. To the left side, you'll see the numbers of your current workspace(s). If you have a song playing in mpd, its name will appear to the left as well. On the right side, you'll see various system status notifiers, date, CPU tempurature, remaining hard drive space, etc. I'm sure you can figure it out. Several modules will be click-sensitive, although if you're using my system as indended, you probably won't be doing much clicking.

Polybar config: `cfp`: `~/.config/polybar/config`

# Key Bindings

All of the bindings below are in `~/.config/i3/config` (accessible by typing `cfi` in the terminal) and can all be easily changed.

## Window basics

Notice the case sensitivity of the shortcuts.

Be sure you play around with these. Be flexible with the basic commands and the rice will grow on you quick.

+ Mod+Enter -- Spawn terminal
+ Mod+q or Q -- Close window
+ Mod+d -- rofi (For running commands or programs without shortcuts)
+ Mod+t -- Toggle between spawning vertically and horizontally
+ Mod+f -- Fullscreen
+ Mod+h/j/k/l -- Move to different windows
+ Mod+H/J/K/L -- Move a window around
+ Mod+Y/U/I/O -- Resize windows
+ Mod+/ -- Spawn vertical terminal
+ Mod+' -- Spawn horizontal terminal
+ Mod+s/S -- Increase/decrease inner gaps
+ Mod+z/Z -- Increase/decrease outer gaps
+ Mod+D -- Reduce gaps to 0 pixels
+ Mod+T -- Restore gaps to default (15 pixels)
+ Mod+Shift+Space -- Make a window float (you can still resize and move floating windows with the same keys above)
+ Mod+Space -- Switch focus from a floating window to a non-floating one (or vice versa)
+ Mod+o -- Make floating window sticky (will stay on active workspace)
+ Mod+b -- Make window float in bottom left corner (good for video watched intermittently)

## Basic Programs

*Note:* LARBS will install nearly all of these programs by default, but some only come if you chose an extra option. Naturally, you can use `packer` to look for and install any you want to add.

+ Mod+r -- ranger (file browser/manager)
+ Mod+e -- mutt (email)
+ Mod+m -- ncmpcpp (music player)
+ Mod+a -- R/Python calculator (be sure to close with Mod+a for reusability)
+ Mod+i -- htop (system info)
+ Mod+n -- newsboat (RSS feed reader)
+ Mod+y -- calcurse (calendar and schedule)
+ Mod+u -- "Dropdown" terminal (close with Mod+u for reusability)
+ Mod+A -- ncpamixer (audio system control)
+ mod+w -- wifi-menu (accessing wifi networks)

## Larger programs

+ Mod+W -- qutebrowser
+ Mod+B -- Blender (video and 3d editor)
+ Mod+G -- GIMP (for general image manipulation)
+ Mod+P -- MyPaint (for light sketching)

## System

+ Mod+R -- ranger as root user
+ Mod+x -- i3lock (Enter password to return)
+ Mod+X -- shutdown (will give a dmenu confirm prompt)
+ Mod+Shift+Backspace -- reboot (will give a dmenu confirm prompt)
+ Mod+Shift+Escape -- exit i3 (will give a dmenu confirm prompt)
+ Mod+F1 -- Shows this document
+ Mod+F2 -- Refresh i3
+ Mod+F3 -- Select screen/display to use
+ Mod+F4 -- Hibernate
+ Mod+F5 -- Reset Network Manager, search for new networks
+ Mod+F6 -- transmission torrent client (cli)
+ Mod+F9 -- Mount a drive/partition
+ Mod+F10 -- Unmount a drive/partition (does not umount `/`, `/home` or `/boot`)

## Audio

I use ncmpcpp as a music player, which is a front end for mpd. If you prefer cmus or mocp, I have commented out shortcuts you can activate for it instead in the i3 config.

+ Mod+m -- ncmpcpp music player
+ Mod+. -- Next track
+ Mod+, -- Previous track
+ Mod+< -- Restart track
+ Mod+p -- Pause
+ Mod+M -- Mute all audio
+ Mod+v -- visualizer
+ Mod+- -- Decrease volume (holding shift increases amount)
+ Mod++ -- Increase volume (holding shift increases amount)
+ Mod+[ -- Back 10 seconds (holding shift increases amount)
+ Mod+] -- Forward 10 seconds (holding shift increases amount)
+ Mod+A -- ncpamixer (general volume sink/source control)

## Workspaces

There are ten workspaces. They work just like those in vanilla i3 with some additions.

+ Mod+(Number) -- Go to that number workspace
+ Mod+Shift+(Number) -- Send window to that workspace
+ Mod+Tab -- Go to previous workspace
+ Mod+g -- Go to left workspace
+ Mod+; -- Go to right workspace
+ Mod+Shift+Delete -- "Porno-mode" Press this key sequence if you want to hide what you have on your screen. Moves to a totally new workspace, mutes sound, pauses music and brings up distraction windows.

## Recording

I use scrot and ffmpeg to make different recordings of the desktop and audio. All of these recording shortcuts will output into `~`, and will not overwrite previous recordings.

+ Print Screen -- Take a scrot screenshot
+ Shift+Print Screen -- Take a scrot screenshot of only selected window
+ Mod+Print Screen -- Opens dmenu menu to select kind of audio/video recording
+ Mod+ScrollLock -- Turn on and off screenkey (if installed) for visual typing display
+ Mod+Delete -- kills ffmpeg, thus ending recordings

Each of the recording scripts are located in `~/.scripts`. You can check them out or modify them if needed.

## Other buttons

I've mapped those extra buttons that some keyboards have (play and pause buttons, email, webbrowsing buttons, etc.) to what you would expect.


# Special traits of my rice

## Easy config access

Open a terminal and type `cfc`. This will open a file where you will see customizable pairs of key shortcuts and config files. Enter any of these shortcuts in bash or ranger to immediately open the file in vim.

You may add new entries here and they will be refreshed when you save the file in vim. This will take effect immediately once you start a new instance of bash or ranger.

## Folder and config shortcuts

Open a terminal and type `cff`. This opens a file when you can keep and create folder shortcuts. There are only a few here now, because I don't know what your folder structure is going to look like, but on my machine, I have 81 and growing.

Each line has a shortcut key/keys and its target. These can be used in serveral applications. In bash, simply press `d`, the shortcut for `~/Documents` and you will cd there (and automatically `ls -a`).

ranger works similarly. When in ranger, just press `g` then the shortcut of the folder you want to go to. You may also press `t` plus the shortcut to open a new tab there. `m` plus the shortcut moves the selected files to the folder and `Y` copies them there. **Get good at this. It will make management of even the most complex file system easy.**

Lastly qutebrowser implements these shortcuts as well. When you see a file or image you want to download, press `;` followed by the folder shortcut and qutebrowser will let you select the file with its hint system. The file will then download to the directory you chose.

## Dynamically constructed configs

Each time you save changes to either the config shortcut file or the folder shortcut file in vim, vim will automatically run a bash script that updates your bash/ranger config, allowing you to use your new shortcuts in your next instance of bash/ranger or after resourcing your rc files.

# Other Housekeeping

## How do I change the background/wallpaper?

The easiest way is to use ranger, navigate to the file you want as your background, and press `bg`. To be specific, i3 will always be looking to the file in `~/.config/wall.png` for the wallpaper, this ranger command copies the given file there and reruns feh to update it.

## How do I set up my email?

1. Create a GPG private/public key pair if you haven't already.
2. Type `muttwizard` in the terminal and follow the directions, specifically:
	a. Add an account.
	b. Run `offlineimap -o` in the terminal.
	c. Select the "Autodetect mailboxes" option.

You should then be able to open your mail in mutt with Mod+e. And this is somewhat of a miracle considering all of the moving pieces that have come together to make this happen. Honestly, people give me all this credit for making LARBS, but the mutt-wizard is probably my favorite work.

You might also want to run `notmuch setup` to set `notmuch` up as a mailindexer. This will allow quick searches of your mail in mutt with ctrl+f.

## How do I set up my music?

By default, mpd, the music daemon assumes that `~/Music` is your music directory. This can be changed in `~/.config/mpd/mpd.conf`. When you add music to your music folder, you may have to run `mpc up` in the terminal to update the database. mpd is controled by ncmpcpp, which is accessible by Mod+m.

# Contact

[luke@lukesmith.xyz](mailto:luke@lukesmith.xyz) -- For questions!

[http://lukesmith.xyz](http://lukesmith.xyz) -- For stalking!

[PayPal](https://paypal.me/LukeMSmith) -- For gratitude!

[Patreon](https://patreon.com/lukesmith) -- For support!

[My Github Page](https://github.com/LukeSmithxyz) -- For the code behind it!

[Twitter](https://twitter.com/lukesfiat) -- For updates!

[RSS](http://lukesmith.xyz/rss.xml) -- For even better updates!
