Modifying configs on my own

2026-04-08

I’ve been using i3 for a few days. I love it. I thought I would hate it… didn’t think I had a workflow that would benefit from it, etc. However, especially on my laptop, i3 has been a game changer.

ChatGPT helped me do initial setup. I was in and out of the i3 config so much I aliased the command. I wasn’t happy with Ethernet showing up in the status bar though.

I have been using ChatGPT quite a bit to help me figure stuff out, but wanted to test my knowledge and go it alone on removing the Ethernet item from the status bar.

I checked the i3 config:

nano ~/.config/i3/config

However, I quickly realized the management of the bar was not there. References in the comments reminded me there was a separate config for the status bar.

So, I guessed and chose to see if I had the file path correct first:

cat ~/.config/i3status/config

That’s where it was. Nano’d in. Made my removals. Refreshed i3… Ethernet item is gone! ChatGPT free. I figured it out.

Look at me… no training wheels. ha.