Add WBAR Launch Dock to Raspberry Pi

by Lewis Loflin

Wbar is a simple and highly customizable quick-launch dock for Openbox and other Linux desktops. I've used it on Openbox, JWM, and Fluxbox. It consumes little processor power.

I have it in Debian distributions on a regular PC and Raspberry Pi. The setup is the same.

To quote, "It is a bit clumsy to set-up, but once set-up is easily customizable and configurable."

The wbar homepage as April 2019 is http://lxlinux.com/wbar.html.

To install wbar:

 ~ $ sudo apt-get install wbar

The actual binary is in /usr/bin while a file .wbar is placed in your home directory. Note you may have to put it there! This is a hidden file.

Setting Up WBAR

Open the .wbar file with a text editor. The lines of text are in groups of three with the first three crucial to operation. The following groups of three are for each individual icon.

They are follows:

i = path-to-icon
c = command-for-launching-app
t = text-to-appear-when-pointer-is-on-icon.

The first three lines that configure WBAR.

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/wbar/dock.png
c: wbar --bpress --above-desk --pos top center --isize 48 --nanim 4 --idist 15 --falfa 100
t: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationMono-Regular/16

i: /usr/share/pixmaps/wbar/dock.png

Above this sets the nearly transparent background image. Notice that around the icons above. This is installed during installation.

c: wbar --bpress --pos top center --isize 48 --nanim 4 --idist 15 --falfa 100

Above this sets icon size (--isize), location, distance between icons (--idist), and icon transparency-shading (--falpha). --bpress means the icon must be clicked on.

In the help section has several functions that don't seem to do anything.

t: /usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation/LiberationMono-Regular/12

Above is the font definition. The 12 is font size and can be changed. I often use 16. Fonts are installed by the system.

From the website:

For an expanded explanation of the code used in c, put man wbar in the terminal. In short,

--vbar creates a vertical bar (use --pos to position it)

--taskbar adds a taskbar (for showing open windows)

--isize is icon size in pixels

--idist is distance between icons in pixels

--nanim is number of animated icons arouse by pointer (=1,3,5,7, ...)

--zoomf is zoom factor when icon animated (1 = no animation).

Placement on Desktop

With --pos we can chose from top, bottom, left, right, center. By itself this is horizontal only.

For left or right we must use --vbar with --pos. As shown above it is center top.

For left vertical: --vbar --pos left center.

For right vertical: --vbar --pos right center.

Setting Up Icons

In the text editor going from top to bottom the icons are represented from left to right as shown above.

Let us examine the code for the fist two icons on the left:

i: /usr/share/icons/nuoveXT2/48x48/actions/application-exit.png
c: watt-exit
t: Exit

i: /usr/share/icons/Faenza/apps/48/thunar.png
c: thunar ~/
t: Thunar

Each individual icon requires these three lines: full path to icon, command to executed, and text under icon when mouse pointer is placed over it.

When first installed and run most of the icons displayed point to non-existent programs or the wrong location. You have to set that.

Add WBAR Launch Dock to Raspberry Pi

Setting Up WBAR

Placement on Desktop

Setting Up Icons

Basic Electronics Learning and Projects