[arch-general] How to get "b"-menu in Arch i3

[Shorrer]

'bmenu' is that thing like shown here?
https://classicforum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=28824.msg246141#msg246141
If that's so then I think I've found it.

First, I don't know how things are working in Manjaro, but it seems like
you guys are using
our AUR so you should be familiar with the thing or you at the very
least heard about it.
If not and if you're interested in how it works then here is some
quick'n'dirty explanation:
it is community-provided repository of stuff that is required to create an
installable pacman package. "Stuff" is mostly a PKGBUILD script that
'makepkg' can use
to create a package (you can learn more at
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository)

So, let's get back to 'bmenu'. Seems like we had this package in AUR but
it was removed.
Except it actually wasn't and you can still get all the data required to
create it.
However, this might not work. After all, the AUR page was taken down for
some reason...
Steps to get it:
1. Go to some temporary directory that you don't mind unpacking stuff into
2. Execute "curl -O
https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/bmenu.tar.gz"
3. Execute "tar -xaf bmenu.tar.gz"
4. Go to 'bmenu' folder that appeared
5. Execute "makepkg -sri"
6. Enjoy, I think

Now, you AT LEAST should've got the required package. But, that's not
all. Now we should
bind that pesky key and I think I couldn't really tell you how exactly
that's done as I don't
remember i3 config syntax, but I'll try to cover up and explain what you
should look for.

i3 allows you to execute whatever you want from it's binds. As this
'bmenu' is, from what
I've seen, a bash script, it needs bash and, more importantly, a
terminal window. So it all
boils down to binding your terminal emulator with argument to launch
bmenu. It might
look somehow like this
bind-key $mod+ctrl+b "terminus -c bmenu"
(again, this isn't exact line that you should be using).

After that you should be done. You can poke around in PKGBUILD, remove
"#branch=aur" from
"sources" variable and get a bit more fresh but probably incompatible
with Arch version.
And given that the script itself is a bit, eh, old, it might not
function properly sometimes.
If you want you can fix it, push changes to git or fork the thing and
make your own AUR package.

That's it, I think. Hope this helps one way or another, and also sorry
if this wall of text
looks like random gibberish and not a step-by-step guide, I've just had
very little sleep today.

On 15/07/2019 14:40, Ram Kumar via arch-general wrote:
> Hi there Archers,
> I am moving from manjaro i3 to Arch now, already started customizing i3 to
> my need. Has anyone seen how the "b-menu" in Manjaro i3 is?..it contains
> bluetooth, network manger etc.. binded to mod+ctrl+b keys by default.
> how can i get a similar one to my Arch config?.. please guide me.
>
> Thanks in advance
>
> Fellow newbie Archer
> Ramkumar