Hacking tint2 panel: weather, CPU temperature and volume executors

I tried to switch over to XFCE4¹ numerous times, nearly always put down by something I missed; finally I decided I'm going to force it. I want my speedy, snappy computer back from 2009 and I'm done with the fancy aesthetics; just make it work and make it stable.

Soon I replaced the built-in panel with tint2², mostly for it's unique little thing: executors. This makes tint2 similarly hackable as conky³ but due to the mouse handling actions, it can do even more.

Display and change volume

UPDATE (2017-04-03 09-25): The script below started to use an excessive amount of CPU due to the high amount of scans it performed so I moved on to use pnmixer⁴. It was also useful, since on Debian 9 with XFCE4, I don't have anything that handles the X86 audio keys with notifications correctly - pnmixer does the job and it's good enough, so I recommend it over volumeicon to display volume with tint2.

When you launch tint2 some of the indicators, like network and bluetooth tend to show up, but not the volume indicator. The usually mentioned fix is to install volumeicon⁵ - this is neat, but there is another way.

Since the script below uses the emoji range ( also known as astral plane characters ) from unicode, installing "ttf-ancient-fonts" might be required. I have no idea why it's called like that.

apt-get install ttf-ancient-fonts

Mouse interactions

left click: toggles Master (mute/unmute) output in pulseaudio
right click: toggles Mic (mute/unmute) intput in pulseaudio
middle click: opens pulseaudio controls
scroll up: volume up by 2%
scroll down: volume down by 2%

tin2rc snippet

#-------------------------------------
# Executor 3
execp = new
execp_command = ~/scripts/tint2_vol.sh
execp_interval = 1
execp_has_icon = 0
execp_cache_icon = 0
execp_continuous = 0
execp_markup = 1
execp_lclick_command = pactl list sinks | grep -qi 'Mute: yes' && pactl set-sink-mute 0 0 || pactl set-sink-mute 0 1
execp_rclick_command = pactl list sources | grep -A12 'Source #1' | grep -qi 'Mute: yes' && pactl set-source-mute 1 0 || pactl set-source-mute 1 1
execp_mclick_command = pavucontrol
execp_uwheel_command = amixer set Capture 2%+; amixer set Master 2%+
execp_dwheel_command = amixer set Capture 2%-; amixer set Master 2%-
execp_font = Liberation Mono 8
execp_font_color = #000000 100
execp_padding = 0 0
execp_background_id = 0
execp_centered = 1
execp_icon_w = 0
execp_icon_h = 0

tint2_vol.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

if [ "$1" == "up" ]; then
    /usr/bin/amixer set Master 5%+ >/dev/null 2>&1
elif [ "$1" == "down" ]; then
    /usr/bin/amixer set Master 5%- >/dev/null 2>&1
elif [ "$1" == "mute" ]; then
    a=$(amixer set Master 1+ toggle);
elif [ "$1" == "mic" ]; then
    pactl list sources | grep -A12 'Source #1' | grep -qi 'Mute: yes' && pactl set-source-mute 1 0 || pactl set-source-mute 1 1
fi

vpattern=".*\[([0-9]+)%\].*"
spattern=".*\[off\].*"

amixer="amixer -c1"

master=$($amixer sget 'Master')
mic=$($amixer sget 'Capture')

mavol=$(echo $master | grep '%' | sed -r "s/$vpattern/\1/")
mivol=$(echo $mic | grep '%' | sed -r "s/$vpattern/\1/")
mivol=0

jackdev=$($amixer contents | grep -i "'headphone jack'" | cut -d"," -f1,2)

THEME="/usr/share/icons/$(/usr/bin/gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme | tr -d "'")"


if grep -qi $spattern <<< $master; then
    icon="🔇"
    ipath="$(find "$THEME" -name *audio*mute* | grep 24 | head -n1)"
elif grep -qi 'values=on' <<< $($amixer cget "$jackdev"); then
    icon="🎧"
    ipath="$(find "$THEME" -name *headphone* | grep 24 | head -n1)"
elif [ $mavol -gt 0 ] && [ $mavol -lt 31 ]; then
    icon="🔈"
    ipath="$(find "$THEME" -name *audio*low* | grep 24 | head -n1)"
elif [ $mavol -gt 30  ] && [ $mavol -lt 60 ]; then
    icon="🔉"
    ipath="$(find "$THEME" -name *audio*medium* | grep 24 | head -n1)"
else
    icon="🔊"
    ipath="$(find "$THEME" -name *audio*high* | grep 24 | head -n1)"
fi

if [ -z $1 ]; then
    printf '%3s\n%3s%%' "$icon" "$mavol"
else
    notify-send -i $ipath "$mavol %"
fi

CPU temperature, fan speed and governor setting

Mouse interactions

left click: sets CPU governor to ondemand if governor is available
right click: sets CPU governor to powersave if governor is available
middle click: sets CPU governor to performance if governor is available

tin2rc snippet

#-------------------------------------
# Executor 2
execp = new
execp_command = ~/scripts/tint2_cputemp.sh
execp_interval = 30
execp_has_icon = 0
execp_cache_icon = 0
execp_continuous = 0
execp_markup = 0
execp_lclick_command = ~/scripts/tint2_cpufreq.sh ondemand
execp_rclick_command = ~/scripts/tint2_cpufreq.sh powersave
execp_mclick_command = ~/scripts/tint2_cpufreq.sh performance
execp_uwheel_command =
execp_dwheel_command =
execp_font = Liberation Mono 8
execp_font_color = #000000 100
execp_padding = 0 0
execp_background_id = 0
execp_centered = 1
execp_icon_w = 0
execp_icon_h = 0

tint2_cputemp.sh

#!/bin/bash

temp=$(sensors | grep -i temp1 | head -n1 | sed -r 's/.*:\s+[\+-]?(.*C)\s+.*/\1/')
rpm=$(sensors | grep -i fan | head -n1 | sed -r 's/.*?:\s+(.*?)\s+RPM/\1/')

printf '%8s\n%8s ' "$temp" "$rpm/m"

tint2_cpufreq.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

setto="$1"

if [ "$1" == '' ]; then
    exit 0;
fi

if [ ! -x "$(which cpufreq-selector)" ]; then
    exit 0;
fi

governors="$(cpufreq-info  | grep 'available.*governors' | head -n1)";

if ! grep -q "$setto" <<< "$governors"; then
    echo "this governor is not available"
    exit 0;
fi

declare out;
for proc in $(cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor | sed -r 's/^processor\s+:\s+(.*)$/\1/'); do
    out+="CPU#$proc governor is to '$setto';"
    cpufreq-selector -c $proc -g $setto
done

if [ -x "$(which notify-send)" ]; then
    THEME=$(gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme | tr -d "'")
    ICON="/usr/share/icons/${THEME}/rest/of/path/to/icon.svg"

    notify-send -a "cpufreq-selector" "$(tr ';' "\n" <<< $out)"
fi

exit 0;

Weather

Mouse interactions

left click: opens ascii art weather forecast from wttr.in Cambridge in browser

tin2rc snippet

#-------------------------------------
# Executor 1
execp = new
execp_command = ~/scripts/tint2_weather.sh
execp_interval = 300
execp_has_icon = 0
execp_cache_icon = 0
execp_continuous = 0
execp_markup = 0
execp_lclick_command = firefox http://wttr.in/cambridge
execp_rclick_command = firefox http://wttr.in/amsterdam
execp_mclick_command = firefox http://wttr.in/budapest
execp_uwheel_command =
execp_dwheel_command =
execp_font = Liberation Mono 8
execp_font_color = #000000 100
execp_padding = 0 0
execp_background_id = 0
execp_centered = 1
execp_icon_w = 0
execp_icon_h = 0

tint2_weather.sh

#!/bin/bash

geo="$(wget -O- -q http://geoip.ubuntu.com/lookup)"
if grep -qi '88.96.115.94' <<< $geo; then
    lat="52.218011"
    lon="0.140549"
else
    lat="$(sed -r 's/.*<Latitude>(.*?)<\/Latitude>.*/\1/g' <<< $geo)"
    lon="$(sed -r 's/.*<Longitude>(.*?)<\/Longitude>.*/\1/g' <<< $geo)"
fi

weather="$(wget -q -O- http://api.wunderground.com/auto/wui/geo/WXCurrentObXML/index.xml?query=$lat,$lon)"

kw="weather"
condition="$(sed -r "s/.*<$kw>(.*?)<\/$kw>.*/\1/g" <<< $weather)"

kw="temp_c"
temperature="$(sed -r "s/.*<$kw>(.*?)<\/$kw>.*/\1/g" <<< $weather)"

kw="relative_humidity"
humidity="$(sed -r "s/.*<$kw>(.*?)<\/$kw>.*/\1/g" <<< $weather)"

kw="wind_mph"
wind="$(sed -r "s/.*<$kw>(.*?)<\/$kw>.*/\1/g" <<< $weather)"

kw="windchill_c"
feelslike="$(sed -r "s/.*<$kw>(.*?)<\/$kw>.*/\1/g" <<< $weather)"

if grep -qi 'rain' <<< $condition; then
    icon="⛆"
elif grep -qi 'storm' <<< $condition; then
    icon="⛈"
elif grep -qi 'cloud' <<< $condition; then
    icon="⛅"
elif grep -qi 'clear' <<< $condition; then
    icon="☼"
elif grep -qi 'snow' <<< $condition; then
    icon="⛄"
else
    icon=$condition
fi

firstline="${icon}  ${temperature}°C (${feelslike}°C) "
secondline="${wind:-0}km/h ${humidity}"

echo "${firstline:0:12}"
echo "${secondline:0:12}"

(Oh, by the way: this entry was written by Peter Molnar, and originally posted on petermolnar dot net.)