Replacing xfce4 bar by Polybar

  1. Why
  2. How
    1. Install Polybar
    2. Set polybar at startup
    3. Config polybar
      1. wal
      2. Shape
    4. Remove xfce4 panel
      1. Isues
      2. bspwm dmenu shortcuts
      3. nitrogen
      4. Picom
      5. polybar
      6. Minor Problems

Why

Because I don’t use the menu of xfce and the the display of my desktops is a bit ugly.

I have dmenu to run everythings I need.
I would like to use pywal on my polybar.

It can look a bit stupid because if I don’t use the xfce4 bar and WM why do I still keep it?
It’s because with my last setup (I3 + polybar) I had 2 hours of battery max, now I’m at 6.

How

Install Polybar

I already have polybar.

sh ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh 

If yiu have an error you have to recompile polybar.

This is how it’s look like.

This is the instalation guide.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Polybar#Installation

Set polybar at startup

I use BSPWM so I have to edit my bspwmrc.
~/.config/bspwm/bspwmrc

$HOME/.config/polybar/launch.sh

For me it’s not working, I have to lunch it via xfce4.
I have to open xfce4 setting manager and sessions and startup.

Config polybar

wal

I want it to work with wal, if I change my walpaper every thing have to change.

This is how you can get the colors, it’s not needed here..

source "$HOME/.cache/wal/colors.sh"
echo $color0

#596398

instead of background = #222 you have to set background = ${xrdb:color2}
I’m testing it with polybar example.

background-alt = ${xrdb:color2}
background = ${xrdb:color1}
foreground = ${xrdb:color0}f
foreground-alt = ${xrdb:color0}
primary = ${xrdb:color5}
secondary = ${xrdb:color5}
alert = ${xrdb:color7}

Shape

Remove xfce4 panel

I don’t see how I can disable it at startup.
I can add other panels but I can’t remove the last one,
so I made an empty and tinny panel with 100% opacity, he is in the corner of my screen.
I feel like I’m not doing it right xD.

Isues

After a reboot, et was broken, dmenu, bspwm, nitrogen and plybar was gone.
And the shortcuts don’t work too, I had to open a terminal to fix it.
Right click on the desktop > terminal > kill xfce4wm > statr bspwm.
This is how it’s look like.

I fix my problem with polybar, I had something wrong in the config file.
now I have to fix netrogen.
I’m gonna reboot to see if it really work.
And still not working.

bspwm dmenu shortcuts

Right click on the desktop > terminal > kill xfce4wm > statr bspwm.
dmenu and the shortcuts start with dmenu.

nitrogen

I had to kill xfce4 desktop, now nitrogen can run

Picom

The blur was gone too, I have to set in at startup.

polybar

polybar: error while loading shared libraries: libjsoncpp.so.24: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I have to rebuild it.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/polybar.git && cd polybar && makepkg -si

This is how it should look like.

I’m gonna reboot.
And polybar don’t want to start, I should start it with an another startup file.
And if it really don’t work I’m gonna create a service and enable it.
Like the arch wiki said I had do modify the bspwmrc.

~.config/bspwm/bspwmrc

$HOME/.config/polybar/launch.sh

Minor Problems

Now I have an another problem, it’s working fine but it’s ugly.
nitrogen restore the same wallpaper, no matter what, and the polybar don’t fetch the colors.

I’ve created a commmand to set a random wallpaper.

/usr/local/bin/rwalp

ran=$(find ~/Pictures -type f \( -iname \*.jpg -o -iname \*.png \) | shuf -n 1)
nitrogen --set-scaled "$ran"
wal -i "$ran"
pywalfox update

Now I have to set rwalp at startup, I’m gonna use the bspwmrc file.
The background don’t change, but everything else is ok, and I can change the background if I reload bspwm with CTRL+ALR+r, I love it.