Description of problem: I installed Fedora 21 Server via netinstall with `Basic Desktop` group checked. After the installation and start of i3 window manager, there was an error: "Error: status_command not found or is missing a library dependency (exit 127)" on the bottom bar instead of time, battery etc. After `yum install i3status` and restart of i3 it was OK. i3status is not required by i3 package, but it is used by its basic configuration, so it should be included in `Basic Desktop` group. How reproducible: Easy, but a bit time consuming (distro install) Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install Fedora 21 Server via netinstall with `Basic Desktop` group checked 2. Start Fedora with i3 window manager. Actual results: There is an error "Error: status_command not found or is missing a library dependency (exit 127)" in the bottom bar. Expected results: It should show time, network status, battery, volume,...
> i3status is not required by i3 package, but it is used by its basic > configuration, so it should be included in `Basic Desktop` group. That sounds _very_ unusual. A "yum install i3" here with a GNOME desktop also leads to that error upon logging in, which suggests that i3 really should require i3status.
Some people asked me long ago for this, I'd said no. If users want to use i3 4.8+ with i3status, please install with: yum install i3 i3status (replace yum with dnf if yum is gone) i3status is an official status menu bar generator, yes I understand this. But it's not a hard dependency of i3(upstream debian package control also only mentions it as Recommends), there are many solutions even including handwritten scripts to perform such feature. I've used conky, j4status and i3block to perform the same thing. Which one should be used by i3 as default? None of them I think. https://github.com/i3/i3/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&q=i3status From link above you can see how upstream set i3.config: bar { status_command i3status And i3bar manpage: workspace switching buttons and a statusline generated by i3status(1) or similar. It is automatically invoked (and configured through) i3. i3bar supports colors via a JSON protocol starting from v4.2, see Instead, see the i3 documentation, especially the User’s Guide. == SEE ALSO +i3status(1)+, +j4status(1)+ or +conky(1)+ for programs generating a statusline. --- That means everyone can change i3status to whatever they want, but not limited to i3status only. Hence I can't add this.
Ok, is not it better to remove i3status from standard i3 config, so we do not get ugly error message? I know it's minor, but it's not really lucky to see error on the first start.
(In reply to Petr Horáček from comment #3) > Ok, is not it better to remove i3status from standard i3 config, so we do > not get ugly error message? I know it's minor, but it's not really lucky to > see error on the first start. I haven't test if a blank status_command will cause any troubles to a fresh Fedora install. Can you help test it if set to empty, i3 can start without trouble? If Fedora supports rpm weak dependency in dnf/yum, things gonna be cushy for us I think.
After installation it looks like this: http://pbrd.co/1ABDFe5 If I comment i3status from configurator and then restart, it shows just a blank panel (with workspaces), it does not complain at all. I don't know, it's not pretty to have red error label on a panel, on the other hand, at least it makes users know, they could install i3status. Possibly the best way would be to comment i3status line in config and add a proper comment. Maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill.
(In reply to Petr Horáček from comment #5) > After installation it looks like this: http://pbrd.co/1ABDFe5 > If I comment i3status from configurator and then restart, it shows just a > blank panel (with workspaces), it does not complain at all. > > I don't know, it's not pretty to have red error label on a panel, on the > other hand, at least it makes users know, they could install i3status. > Possibly the best way would be to comment i3status line in config and add a > proper comment. > > Maybe I'm just making a mountain out of a molehill. It has been this way for a long time. There are 2 solutions: 1) change the default config - this means we would deviate from the upstream config 2) make i3 depend on i3status Both solutions suck IMO. The error message could be much better but is still understandable enough that people can figure out what to install.
Ok. I'm not gonna fight for it :)
(In reply to Petr Horáček from comment #7) > Ok. I'm not gonna fight for it :) Martin is right. And basically i3 Fedora rpm %description: "Please be aware that i3 is primarily targeted at advanced users and developers." So I think Fedora i3 users should know how to use i3 by finding missing programs by themselves...Don't blame me, we can actually see exceptions... ;) The best solution is to add Suggests: or Recommends: in rpm SPEC and let dnf support this feature since rpm 4.12+ has supportd this for a long time there is no clear documents packagers can find. Then we can close this bug, but now I need to keep it open for people coming late to this thread.
I just hit this too on a fresh install of i3, coming to it as a first time user. This is not how we should be shipping i3 in Fedora - it should not be broken out of the box for new users coming to i3.
(In reply to Jonathan Underwood from comment #9) > I just hit this too on a fresh install of i3, coming to it as a first time > user. This is not how we should be shipping i3 in Fedora - it should not be > broken out of the box for new users coming to i3. TBH, I don't care about new users or not, I only care about minimal environment. But since RPM 4.13 is coming, we might have better solution of weak dependency.
(In reply to Christopher Meng from comment #10) > (In reply to Jonathan Underwood from comment #9) > > I just hit this too on a fresh install of i3, coming to it as a first time > > user. This is not how we should be shipping i3 in Fedora - it should not be > > broken out of the box for new users coming to i3. > > TBH, I don't care about new users or not, I only care about minimal > environment. But since RPM 4.13 is coming, we might have better solution of > weak dependency. Mount preceding comment with other: There are many alternatives of i3status, I intend to package them into repo if they have active development, so Suggestion/Recommendation are both needed in the future.
Recommends added for i3-status.