Polybar on two monitors

Desktop Environments All WMs
1

So i was wondering how to show polybar on both my monitors, excuse me if this is a dumb question but i’ve been trying to figure this out for two hours and seemingly making no progress.

2

Welcome to the EndeavourOS Forum, I hope you enjoy your time here.

One big rule on the forum: There is no such thing as a dumb question.

I have hardly ever used Polybar, and I have never configured Polybar.
But I am sure help will be provided shortly.

Pudge

2 Likes
3

welcome to Endeavouros forum

you need 2 bar in polybar config ( one for each display ) some thing like example below.
(parts missing for simple explain )

[bar/mybar]
bottom = false
monitor = eDP-1

modules-left = datetime sep pulseaudio sep system-bluetooth-bluetoothctl 
modules-center = cmus 
spacing =1.0
modules-right = bspwm sep2 wired-network wlan vpn-networkmanager-status batterypbp 

tray-position = none

[bar/mybar_external]
bottom = false
monitor = DP-1

modules-left = bspwm
modules-center = cmus 
spacing =1.0
modules-right = keyboard sep volume  

tray-position = none
  • add displays to bspwmrc some thing like
bspc monitor eDP-1 -d  1 2 3 4 5
bspc monitor DP-1 -d 6 7 8 9 10

then more i guess . ( thing i need find out myself )

I use ARM laptop + just get external monitor work. This on list for me now , if desktop it prob less trouble .

:pray: no best answer . hope it help

1 Like
4

After you have 2 polybar in the config you can launch them with their name. So with the above example you can launch them both like so:
polybar mybar && polybar mybar_external &

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5

There are more than one ways for this.
I use one polybar config which includes one bar only, using ${env:VAR:alternate} method for monitor value. This needs a modified polybar script launcher.sh with some weird intelligence :laughing: . I’ll post it later, as an example. Check this folder for my relevant settings. They are based on EndOS BSPWM edition configs, with several modifications on random issues I faced with multihead, locale and others.
A New Years gift :blush:

You may also use 2 different polybar config files, adding as parameter in separate launch commands.

I think this might give problems in one line, since in bash, it is an if statement (&&).
It’s safer in 2 lines ending with a single &.

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6

bspc monitor DP-1 -d 6 7 8 9 10 ←

Maybe this will do the trick…

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7

:pray: point out mistake in that post. i just give idea for OP . Yes you right!