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HowTo: Swap out i3bar for Polybar
Ken Gilmer edited this page Nov 28, 2019
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Polybar is a popular and feature-rich bar component that is frequently used with i3. For those looking for more visual flare and features than what is provided by default with i3bar, Polybar provides a compelling alternative. Polybar can be compiled from source or installed via the Speed Ricer PPA. This howto will use the latter as it requires fewer steps.
- Install the package:
$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:kgilmer/speed-ricer
...
$ sudo apt install polybar
...
- Stage a configuration (see this Arch wiki for more details):
$ mkdir -p ~/.config/polybar && cd ~/.config/polybar
$ cp /usr/share/doc/polybar/config.gz .
$ gunzip config.gz # You will want to edit this file at some point to configure Polybar
- Create a launcher script by saving the following file to
~/.config/polybar/launch.sh
:
#!/bin/bash
# Terminate already running bar instances
killall -q polybar
# Wait until the processes have been shut down
while pgrep -u $UID -x polybar >/dev/null; do sleep 1; done
# Launch Polybar, using default config location ~/.config/polybar/config
polybar example &
echo "Polybar launched..."
- Make the launch script executable:
$ chmod u+x ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh
- Stage your Regolith i3 config file:
$ mkdir ~/.config/regolith/i3
$ cp /etc/regolith/i3/config ~/.config/regolith/i3/
- Disable i3bar in
~/.config/regolith/i3/config
by commenting out or deleting this section:
bar {
font $i3-wm.bar.font
separator_symbol " "
status_command i3xrocks -c $i3xrocks_config
tray_output none
strip_workspace_numbers yes
colors {
background $i3-wm.bar.background.color
statusline $i3-wm.bar.statusline.color
separator $i3-wm.bar.separator.color
# BORDER BACKGROUND TEXT
focused_workspace $i3-wm.bar.workspace.focused.border.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.focused.background.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.focused.text.color
active_workspace $i3-wm.bar.workspace.active.border.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.active.background.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.active.text.color
inactive_workspace $i3-wm.bar.workspace.inactive.border.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.inactive.background.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.inactive.text.color
urgent_workspace $i3-wm.bar.workspace.urgent.border.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.urgent.background.color $i3-wm.bar.workspace.urgent.text.color
}
}
- Launch polybar in your
~/.config/regolith/i3/config
file, by adding this line at the end:
exec --no-startup-id $HOME/.config/polybar/launch.sh
- Log out and back in to have i3 pick up your newly staged i3 config file and see Polybar loaded:
Since most of this wiki content was created, a new site for Regolith was created. This wiki content was written for Regolith 1.2 but most of it still applies to 1.3. However, it is suggested to first check if the information you are looking for is here.