Status bar icons, i3 window manager

Question

Is it possible show volume and wireless icons in the status bar, like in the Ubuntu title bar?

At moment I only connect to a unique wi-fi network, but in the future I need to see more networks.

Solution 1

For WiFi applet, you need the package network-manager-gnome. To check is it is installed, do:

apt-cache policy network-manager-gnome

& check if it is installed.

---

For volume, you can see the volume percentage in your i3bar. First find the location of your i3status.conf file using the following command:

sudo find / -type f -iname .i3status.conf

Next, copy it to any folder of your choice. But for the sake of simplicity I am going to copy it to ~/.config/i3/

cp /path/to/conffile ~/.config/i3/

Next, edit the .i3status.conf file. For volume these are the edits you should make:

• Uncomment this line:

  order += "volume master"
  

• Also, uncomment these lines:

  volume master {
          format = "♪: %volume"
          format_muted = "♪: muted (%volume)"
          device = "default"
          mixer = "Master"
          mixer_idx = 0
  }
  

Next, open your config file, find this pattern status_command and replace that line with this:

status_command i3status -c $HOME/.config/i3/.i3status.conf

If you want a volume applet instead of just an icon that shows you the volume percentage, then:

• Goto this Github page.

• Download the zip.

• Extract it to the folder of your choice.

• Compile it, by following the instructions given here. Or follow these instructions (copied from the link):

  Dependencies
  ============
  
  Those are the dependencies needed to compile pa-applet:
  
  * GLib (libglib2.0-dev in Debian)
  * GTK+ >=3 (libgtk-3-dev in Debian)
  * libnotify (libnotify-dev in Debian)
  * libpulse (libpulse-dev in Debian)
  * Xlib (libx11-dev in Debian)
  * autoconf
  * automake
  * pkg-config
  
  
  Installation instructions
  =========================
  
  pa-applet uses autotools. If you're downloading from the Git repository, you might need to run autogen.sh before you compile it:
  
  $ ./autogen.sh
  
  Compiling and installing it is simple enough:
  
  $ ./configure --prefix=/foo/bar
  $ make
  $ make install
  

At the end of ~/.config/i3/config, add these lines for the applet to work:

exec_always pa-applet

---

Also, for nm-applet just below the above line, look for the line:

tray_output primary

And make sure it is commented.

Also, add these lines at the end of ~/.config/i3/config for the applet to show:

exec_always nm-applet

---

Finally, reboot.

Solution 2

For volume I am using: pnmixer
And for network manager: nm-applet