otter-taskbar

otter-taskbar is a bottom taskbar. Windows group by application. Start, the clock, and the tray sit on one layer-shell strip. The bar reserves space so tiled windows stop above it. Part of the otter-shell metapackage.

Features

Grouped running windows, plus pinned apps
Start control (Otter icon) with keyboard search. Escape or a click outside dismisses it
Task view in Start launches otter-overview
Clock and date. Left-click the clock for a calendar above the bar
System tray (StatusNotifierItem). Tray menus support Escape, arrows, Tab, Home/End, and Enter or Space
Twelve-pixel Show Desktop strip. First click minimizes live windows; the next click restores those same handles
Hover previews, content-sized and centered on the app button. They use ext-image-copy-capture-v1 when the compositor has it. Otherwise you get a placeholder.
Drop a text/uri-list or GNOME copied-files payload on an app button to launch that app with those URIs
Middle-click a pinned button to launch a new instance. Right-click for Launch, New Window, desktop actions, per-window focus, Close, and Pin/Unpin
Drag pinned buttons to reorder them. Only the user taskbar config is rewritten

On compositors that only expose ext-foreign-toplevel-list-v1, groups and previews still show, but window actions are missing. Show Desktop and focused-window minimize need wlr foreign-toplevel.

Usage

otter-taskbar

Run it as a session daemon. Autostart it the same way you start otter-bar. See Session setup for spawn examples. Needs zwlr_layer_shell_v1. Auto-hide is off by default. When you turn it on, the bar leaves a two-pixel edge target while hidden.

Configuration

Config: ~/.config/otter-shell/otter-taskbar.conf

The Taskbar tab in otter-settings writes the same file.

Key settings:

height = 48
auto_hide = false
auto_hide_delay = 500
button_width = 160
icon_size = 24
pinned_apps =
show_labels = true
clock_enabled = true
clock_time_format = %H:%M
clock_date_format = %d/%m/%Y
system_tray_enabled = true
system_tray_icon_size = 18
preview_refresh_ms = 1000
start_menu_width = 420
start_menu_height = 560

Key	Meaning
`height`	Bar height in pixels. Default 48
`auto_hide`	Opt-in. Default `false`
`auto_hide_delay`	Hide delay in milliseconds. Default 500
`button_width`	Task button width. Default 160
`icon_size`	App icon size. Default 24
`pinned_apps`	Comma-separated desktop ids. Empty by default
`show_labels`	Show window titles on buttons. Default on
`clock_enabled`	Show the clock. Default on
`clock_time_format` / `clock_date_format`	strftime formats
`system_tray_enabled`	Show the tray. Default on. Needs D-Bus at build time
`system_tray_icon_size`	Tray icon size. Default 18
`preview_refresh_ms`	Hover preview refresh interval. Default 1000
`start_menu_width` / `start_menu_height`	Start panel size. Defaults 420 and 560

Omit color keys to inherit from theme.conf.

Dependencies

Wayland compositor with zwlr_layer_shell_v1
Hover previews use ext-image-copy-capture-v1 when available
System tray needs D-Bus

Get Started

Desktop Shell

Core Apps

Productivity

Utilities

Gaming

Configuration

Features

Usage

Configuration

Dependencies

​Features

​Usage

​Configuration

​Dependencies

Features

Usage

Configuration

Dependencies