# What status bar do you use?



## Baguette (Feb 19, 2021)

Hello everybody!
So, I'm looking for a status bar to replace x11/polybar, as its modules that I use (cpu and memory usage, cpu temperature, network upload/download speed) don't work with FreeBSD.
Right now I only have the clock and workspaces modules working. My window manager is x11-wm/herbstluftwm.

I'm curious, what status bar do people use?


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## fraxamo (Feb 19, 2021)

Baguette said:


> I'm curious, what status bar do people use?


I don't use one, but if you're interested in a tutorial on which to use and how, you should read the following blog posts from vermaden:

https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/freebsd-desktop-part-5-key-components-status-bar/
https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/07/05/freebsd-desktop-part-13-configuration-dzen2/

Hope that helps


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## phalange (Feb 19, 2021)

I use i3 so I use i3blocks which more flexible than the default i3status. I don't know for sure if it can be used with herbstluftwm.

There aren't a ton of options.
- polybar is among the best, but is less than ideal in FreeBSD as you said
- tint2 also which is ok but not very flexible. I sometimes used it just for it's tray feature and shut off everything else
- lemonbar has seen some recent development after being stale for a while, but it lacks a tray
- dzen2 provides a tray only but is abandoned i think (9 years, no updates)
- xmobar I've used and it's great, but it has no tray

Most other WMs I've used with the default status bar
spectrwm --> great bar but no tray
dwm --> great bar and tray but only 9 workspaces
herbst --> has a bar but way too complicated
qtile --> has a bar

One other option I've had luck with is using conky to display status on the "desktop" (i.e. background) instead of a typical tray.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Feb 21, 2021)

I've been using sysutils/gkrellm2 since I started using Linux, then probably not at v.2. 

The weather plugin doesn't seem to work anymore but I use the astro/gkrellmoon2 Moon Clock with it all the time. 

It's shown in all my screenshots here and has several options, some based on your Processor for the heat readings it gives you. I have it watch /var/log/pflog and select ports, too.

I have a screenshot posted as Spamzilla from my Linux days around 2002-2003 here showing it on the same side I still use it on today and XMMS running so that's me alright. 

Who else would call themselves Spamzilla in a forum like that? They thought I was a Spammer for real.


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## Baguette (Feb 21, 2021)

fraxamo said:


> I don't use one, but if you're interested in a tutorial on which to use and how, you should read the following blog posts from vermaden:
> 
> https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/06/16/freebsd-desktop-part-5-key-components-status-bar/
> https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/07/05/freebsd-desktop-part-13-configuration-dzen2/
> ...



Thanks, I've come across that site while doing my research, it's a great series of posts. His setup and needs are quite different than mine, but I definitely need to have a look at the scripts and see what I could use.



phalange said:


> I use i3 so I use i3blocks which more flexible than the default i3status. I don't know for sure if it can be used with herbstluftwm.



I used i3 (and qtile) before switching to herbstluftwm, it's a nice window manager as well, very easy to use. We're lucky to have quite many decent WMs these days 



phalange said:


> There aren't a ton of options.
> (...)



Thanks for the suggestions, I'm going to try some of them, especially spectrwm, I totally forgot about that one.



Trihexagonal said:


> I've been using sysutils/gkrellm2 since I started using Linux, then probably not at v.2.



Wow! Brings back some memories  I used it, back in the days... (on linux).
I thought it was dead by now. Apparently it isn't, and it even works on FreeBSD, that's nice!

Thanks again everybody!


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## Deleted member 30996 (Feb 21, 2021)

No, sysutils/gkrellm2 is still alive and kicking, alas poor XMMS...

There is still a skins repository and you can get all 186 in one tarball. Invisible or Glass are what I always use though:



			<-- GKrellM@muhri.net  -->


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## phalange (Feb 21, 2021)

Baguette said:


> I'm going to try some of them, especially spectrwm, I totally forgot about that one.


spectrwm is nice. The status bar is very configurable too, and you can write little scripts for anything you want to show. My only issue is that there's no tray; I use Nextcloud, and there are problems when there's no visible tray icon. spectrwm is incompatible with tint2 also.


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## scottro (Feb 21, 2021)

I also like spectrwm. At some point I made a page, probably outdated by now, but it had a small section on configuring the bar. https://srobb.net/spectrwm.html

I haven't used it in awhile, as I came to prefer dwm for tiling and openbox for stacking but I agree with phalange, it's a nice window manager.


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## tomysurya (Jun 12, 2021)

using stock spectrwm status bar, it can be configured to show anything i want.


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## scottro (Jun 12, 2021)

I often use dwm with a modified script to have it show the date and time, taken from either their man page or their home page, I've forgotten

```
while true; do xsetroot -name "$(date +"%a %R %F")";sleep 60;done &
```

(My preferred date format, you can change it as you wish. In addition, their status bar automatically shows the focused window as well as which tags (loosely similar to workspaces) are being used.


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