cubiani3

Installing Cubian with i3 Window Manager

1.Prepare your sd card as blank. If it has any current format, erase it clean.
2.Download the appropriate A10 or A20 Cubian image from cubian.org.
3.Find your card with mount and DD the image to the sd card with dd if=/home/image of=/dev/sdx
4. Plug in your SD card to the cubieboard and fire it up. Wait for it to boot to TTY.

First I did the necessary resizing of the sd card.
apt-get update && apt-get install cubian-resizefs (sudo cubian-resizefs /dev/mmcblk0 1-100 [amount of card to use])

Then I installed the recommended packages for xorg to avoid the fluff.
apt-get install xserver-xorg-core xinit xserver-xorg-video-sunximali sunxi-disp-test (test Mali with usermod
-a -G video cubie)

Install i3!
apt-get install i3

You will see that i3 does not want to start (startx) if there are any xfce packages installed.
dpkg --get-selections | grep xfce (get rid of any of these)

Install your favorite browser, terminal and irc client.
apt-get install iceweasel terminator irssi

Try to avoid xfce packages such as thunar :(
apt-get install pcmanfm

From here the sky is the limit. Remember to keep it minimal if possible and enjoy your cubieboard!