You need the following libraries. The version given is to be understand as the minimum version. However, if any of these libraries changes the API, i3 may not compile anymore. In that case, please try using the versions mentioned below until a fix is provided. * xcb-proto-1.3 (2008-12-10) * libxcb-1.1.93 (2008-12-11) * xcb-util-0.3.3 (2009-01-31) * Xlib, the one that comes with your X-Server Get the libraries from: http://xcb.freedesktop.org/dist/xcb-proto-1.3.tar.bz2 http://xcb.freedesktop.org/dist/libxcb-1.1.93.tar.bz2 http://xcb.freedesktop.org/dist/xcb-util-0.3.3.tar.bz2