Status Bars

Last updated: 2024, Mon Jun 3rd at 13:43 CDT

Status bars are designed to display tasks and system data on a bar for easy viewing by the user. The customization of status bars is extensive, with options for color, transparency, position, and layout. It is common for them to include launchers, taskbars, system tray, clocks, and other widgets that the user has chosen.

ironbar #

Ironbar is a status bar written in Rust. It is a customizable and feature-rich GTK bar, that can be full featured or a fast lightweight minimal design.

To Install: #

Preferred method

The best way to install Ironbar is though cargo

pacman -Su gtk3 gtk-layer-shell openssl

apt install build-essential libgtk-3-dev libgtk-layer-shell-dev libssl-dev

dnf install gtk3-devel gtk-layer-shell-devel openssl-devel

zypper in gtk3-devel gtk-layer-shell-devel libopenssl-devel

git clone https://github.com/jakestanger/ironbar.git
cd ironbar
cargo build --release
install target/release/ironbar ~/.local/bin/ironbar

Additional install options

You can also use Crates but make sure to follow the installation instructions

Essentials #

Ironbar uses gtk-based css style\sheet, a guide can be found on their wiki, for color and module styles. It also uses a config file for the layout and widgets. there are 4 different supported formats and examples of a basic config, along with a guide.

eww #

Elkowars Wacky Widgets is a standalone widget system made in Rust that allows you to implement your own, custom widgets in any window manager.

Official Site GitHub

To Install: #

Preferred method

The best way to install eww is build it with cargo

pacman -Su gtk3 gtk-layer-shell pango gdk-pixbuf2 cairo glib2 gcc-libs glibc

git clone https://github.com/elkowar/eww
cd eww
cargo build --release --no-default-features --features=wayland

cd target/release
chmod +x ./eww

Essentials #

Eww is a very customizable, and can have all kinds of widgets. This makes it a bit harder to setup. i suggest for new users either find some dotfiles of a theme you like and modding it or if you want to use a beginners guide I suggest dharmx’s eww powermenu guide.

Waybar #

Highly customizable Wayland bar for Wlroots based compositors

To Install: #

Preferred method

All major distros have Waybar in their package managers

sudo pacman -S waybar

sudo apt install waybar

sudo dnf install waybar

sudo zypper in waybar

Essentials #

To configure the bar you can start from scratch and build a config by using the wiki or by building off an example.

Extras #

If none of the examples suite your needs or if you need some inspiration, you can check out other users dotfiles.