Installation - Alexays/Waybar GitHub Wiki

Which Distro are you using?

• Alpine
• Arch
• Fedora
• Fedora Silverblue
• FreeBSD
• Gentoo
• openSUSE
• NixOS
• Ubuntu
• Void
• Other

Alpine

Since Alpine v3.11, you can install the waybar package from the community repository. As a superuser, type:

apk add waybar

Arch

On Arch, you can simply install waybar from extra. You can also install waybar-git from the AUR.

Fedora

On Fedora, Waybar is also in the official repositories. Install with dnf install waybar.

Fedora Silverblue

Fedora Silverblue uses an immutable ostree-based filesystem, meaning ordinarily you would not install packages directly. There are three main approaches to installing Waybar.

Package layering (easiest)

You can install Waybar from the official repositories, using package layering with:

rpm-ostree install waybar

This functions similarly to packages installed with dnf and requires a reboot to take effect. rpm-ostree update will work as normal.

Flatpak

Flatpak is the usual approach to installing software on Silverblue. There are no official Flatpak packages for Waybar at this time.

Customised ostree image

A customised ostree image could be prepared already including Waybar. You can do this by modifying workstation-ostree-config. Guidance is available here.

Gentoo

On Gentoo, the package is in the official repositories. Install with emerge -a waybar. Note that all versions are currently unstable, so you will have to accept keywords for it.

FreeBSD

You may also need to run pkg install pavucontrol for volume control if not yet installed.

pkg install waybar

openSUSE

On openSUSE, Waybar is in the official repositories. Install with zypper in waybar. See devel project.

NixOS

On NixOS, you can try out Waybar with: nix-shell -p waybar, then run waybar once you are inside the shell.

Alternatively you can install it directly as a flake by adding this to your flake.nix:

{
    inputs = {
        nixpkgs-unstable.url = "github:nixos/nixpkgs/nixos-unstable";
        waybar.url = "github:Alexays/Waybar/master";
        # Your other inputs here
    };
    outputs = {self, ...}@inputs:{
    nixosConfigurations.YourHostHere = nixpkgs-unstable.lib.nixosSystem {
        # Your other configs here
        modules = [
            # Define custom `waybar_git` package here
            ({ pkgs, ... }:{
                nixpkgs.overlays = [
                    (_: _: { waybar_git = inputs.waybar.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.waybar; })
                ];
            })
            # Your other modules here
        ];
    };};
}

You can then reference pkgs.waybar_git anywhere else you want to use it instead of pkgs.waybar.

For example in home manager:

home-manager.users.YourUserNameHere = { config, pkgs, ...}: {
    programs.waybar = {
        enable = true;
        package = pkgs.waybar_git;
    };
}

Note:

You don't have to use the default: waybar.url = "github:Alexays/Waybar/master", you can use your own fork such as waybar.url = "github:yuannan/Waybar/master", if you want to apply your own patches.

Ubuntu

On Ubuntu, since version 20.04 LTS ("Focal Fossa"), Waybar is available as waybar in universe. Install with apt-get install waybar. See the Ubuntu Packages page.

Void

On Void, the package is available as Waybar. Install with xbps-install -S Waybar.

Other

To build and install Waybar just run:

git clone https://github.com/Alexays/Waybar && cd Waybar && sudo make install

---

How to use with Sway?

First, ensure you have the otf-font-awesome package installed. These are free fonts provided by Fonts Awesome and commonly used in Waybar configurations. You can also download the OTF fonts package from this link.

You can use Waybar by defining in your Sway config file:

bar swaybar_command waybar

or at the end of your sway config file

exec waybar