Install and set up the notification daemon dunst. In this first video about dunst I will show you how to install and use dunst and what the different settings in the config file do. The videos will look at some more advanced usage and theming.

the files used in this video can be found on github: https://github.com/budlabs/youtube/tree/master/letslinux/041-notifications-with-dunst

video info:

color scheme: Dracula by Zeno Rocha terminal font: Fixedsys/Hack terminal emulator: URxvt figlet font: 3d.flf, by xero filemanager: Thunar sublime font: Hack icon theme: DamaDamas gtk theme: Numix (dracula)

install dunst and libnotify

When dunst is running you can test it by executing the following command from a terminal:
noitfy-send "test message"

If everything is set up correctly a notification will popup on the screen (press Control+space to close the notification).

The command below will copy the default dunsrc to ~:
cp /usr/share/dunst/dunstrc ~/.config/dunst/dunstrc

It is a good idea to create a small script that restarts dunst and display some test notifications and bind it to a keyinding while configuring dunst.

below is an example of a dtest script:

shell #!/bin/bash

close any running dunst processes

pidof dunst && killall dunst

start dunst in the background

dunst &

notify-send -u low msg1 "urgency low" notify-send -u normal msg2 "urgency normal" notify-send -u critical msg3 "urgency critical"

Then just bind this script to a key in i3:
bindsym Mod4+u exec --no-startup-id dtest

documentation

The default dunst config file (/usr/share/dunst/dunstrc), contains comments about all the options. dunst -h will list all available commandline options. man dunst have even more information. There are also some options that are specific to notify-send, execute it with --help to see them:

text $ notify-send --help Usage: notify-send [OPTION?] SUMMARY [BODY] - create a notification

Help Options: -?, --help Show help options

Application Options: -u, --urgency=LEVEL Specifies the urgency level (low, normal, critical). -t, --expire-time=TIME Specifies the timeout in milliseconds at which to expire the notification. -a, --app-name=APP_NAME Specifies the app name for the icon -i, --icon=ICON[,ICON...] Specifies an icon filename or stock icon to display. -c, --category=TYPE[,TYPE...] Specifies the notification category. -h, --hint=TYPE:NAME:VALUE Specifies basic extra data to pass. Valid types are int, double, string and byte. -v, --version Version of the package.

useful links

https://dunst-project.org/
https://wiki.arc ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxQXLJdZ2mM