Config file gets overwritten with xrandr changes

[jeffeb3]

I'm submitting a…

[x] Bug
[ ] Feature Request
[ ] Documentation Request
[ ] Other (Please describe in detail)

Current Behavior

I have spent some time in the last day or so configuring i3 (for the first time, happy to be here). I am using bumblebee-status, and the xrandr module. Long story short, when I disable or enable a monitor using that module, my screens momentarily flicker (similar to reloading the configuration) and the configuration looks like the one from yesterday. When I look at the file I was editing (~/.config/i3/config), sure enough it's the old text file. I just tried it again, and I am sure that disabling and enabling the second monitor is causing it to remove the changes to that file. It's weird that it's not the default, it's reverting to the file I made yestereday.

Expected Behavior

It might have trouble, it might crash, but if it's going to clobber my config file, it had better keep a copy...

Reproduction Instructions

I don't know xrandr well enough, but I know that when I click on DP-6.8 to turn on or off that monitor, the settings to back to the ones I had a few days ago. I immediately change the theme to solarized-powerline, save, alt+shift+r to reload, then click on the DP-6.8 to turn off the monitor, and my file is reverted and the status line is back to solarized.

Environment

Output of i3 --moreversion 2>&-:

i3 --moreversion 2>&-
Binary i3 version:  4.16 (2018-11-04) © 2009 Michael Stapelberg and contributors
Running i3 version: 4.16 (2018-11-04) (pid 2540)o abort…)
Loaded i3 config: /home/jeffe/.config/i3/config (Last modified: Thu 08 Nov 2018 04:18:44 PM MST, 146 seconds ago)

The i3 binary you just called: /usr/bin/i3
The i3 binary you are running: i3

config.txt

Logfile URL:

I'll look into making that next.

- Linux Distribution & Version: Ubuntu 16.04
- Are you using a compositor (e.g., xcompmgr or compton): No.

[i3bot]

I don’t see a link to logs.i3wm.org. Did you follow https://i3wm.org/docs/debugging.html? (In case you actually provided a link to a logfile, please ignore me.)

[jeffeb3]

Here is the log file. Is there any other info that would be helpful?

https://logs.i3wm.org/logs/5703897561694208.bz2

[jeffeb3]

Also, this is the source for the xrandr module: https://github.com/tobi-wan-kenobi/bumblebee-status/blob/master/bumblebee/modules/xrandr.py

It also calls this script: https://github.com/tobi-wan-kenobi/bumblebee-status/blob/master/bin/toggle-display.sh

The end result looks (to me) like it's calling xrandr --output DP-6.8 off.

[Airblader]

We never write to the config file in i3, except for i3-config-wizard. So I'm somewhat doubtful that i3 is causing this. Can you use auditing tools like auditctl to see which process is modifying the file?

[jeffeb3]

I haven't ever used auditctl. That will come in handy. But I figured it out, and you're right, it is not i3, it's the bumblebee-status's xrandr module. The toggle-display.sh calls this script:

https://github.com/tobi-wan-kenobi/bumblebee-status/blob/master/bin/load-i3-bars.sh

And look at the first thing it does:

if [ ! -f ~/.config/i3/config.template ]; then
	cp ~/.config/i3/config ~/.config/i3/config.template
else
	cp ~/.config/i3/config.template ~/.config/i3/config
fi

Why? I think they are thinking there is some monitor specific configurations, but it's not in the documentation I've seen... Thanks for looking at this issue with me.

[Airblader]

I haven't ever used auditctl. That will come in handy.

(Me either, I just found it googling for auditing files. Good to know it works well!)

[jeffeb3]

I can't actually vouch for auditctl, I got as far as sudo apt install auditd, and then thought I should figure out what the rest of that script was doing.