A panel plugin for XFCE4 that recreates the MorphOS Ambient Workbench top bar — the sleek screen-top menu bar of the Amiga-like MorphOS operating system — on your XFCE desktop.
- Classic Workbench-style menu titles at the top of the screen
- Ambient logo button — system menu (About, Preferences, Lock, Log Out, Restart, Shut Down)
- Workbench menu — Home, Documents, Terminal, Search, Empty Trash, Redraw / Refresh
- Ambient menu — System Info, Task Manager, Terminal, Run…, File Manager, Web Browser, Settings
- Icons menu — New Folder, Clean Up, desktop actions, Desktop Settings
- Disk menu — File Manager, Removable Media, Eject / Unmount, Disk Utility
- Applications menu — all installed apps (categorized) plus recently closed apps
- CPU, memory and disk gauges (Industrial / Glossy 3D / Plain styles)
- Netlamps — traffic-light diodes (red idle → yellow traffic → blue heavy)
- Drivelamps — amber disk-activity diodes
- Wi-Fi — embedded
xfce4-networkmanager(connect / disconnect, Wi-Fi toggle) - Volume — popup slider, mute toggle and mixer (PulseAudio)
- Battery indicator, System info button and Clock with calendar popup
- Three themes — Classic, Dark, Light — plus an "Override GTK theme" option
- Gauge style selection (Industrial / Glossy 3D / Plain)
- Ambient logo variants (Classic / Flat / Monochrome)
- Dynamic title — the title follows the foreground application
- Reorderable screenbar indicators
- Tabbed settings dialog with sections and per-option explanations
- Internationalization (gettext)
- Unit-tested (
meson test)
| Menu | Items |
|---|---|
| Ambient (logo) | About This Computer · Ambient Preferences · Lock Screen · Log Out · Restart · Shut Down |
| Workbench | Open Home · Open Documents · Open Terminal · Search Applications · Empty Trash · Redraw / Refresh |
| Ambient | System Info · Task Manager · Terminal · Run… · File Manager · Web Browser · Settings Manager · Screen Settings · Keyboard · Open Application Menu |
| Icons | New Folder · Clean Up Icons · Open Desktop Menu · Window List · Next Wallpaper · Reload Desktop · Desktop Settings |
| Disk | Open File Manager · Open Removable Media · Eject / Unmount… · Open Disk Utility |
| Applications | Recently closed apps · All installed apps (Accessories, Development, Games, Graphics, Internet, Multimedia, Office, Science, Settings, System, Other) |
| Desktop / Session | Compatibility Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| XFCE 4.20 | Full (Supported) | Tested on X11 (xfwm4) and Wayland (labwc/wayfire) via wrapper-2.0. |
| XFCE 4.18 / 4.16 | Compatible | Built against libxfce4panel-2.0 / GTK 3.24+. |
See DEPENDENCIES.md for full build/runtime requirements.
Runtime note: the Wi-Fi section embeds the xfce4-networkmanager panel plugin (
libxfce4-networkmanager.so). It isdlopen()ed at runtime (not linked at build time), so install that plugin for the Wi-Fi indicator to work.
- Debian / Ubuntu / Linux Mint (
.deb):sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y build-essential meson ninja-build pkg-config \ libglib2.0-dev libgtk-3-dev libxfce4panel-2.0-dev libxfce4ui-2-dev libxfce4util-dev libexo-2-dev - Arch Linux (
.pkg.tar.zst):sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel meson ninja pkgconf glib2 gtk3 libxfce4panel libxfce4ui libxfce4util exo
- Fedora / RHEL (
.rpm):sudo dnf install -y gcc meson ninja-build pkgconfig glib2-devel gtk3-devel \ libxfce4panel-devel libxfce4ui-devel libxfce4util-devel exo-devel
git clone https://github.com/theokeist/axfce4-workbench.git
cd axfce4-workbench
meson setup build --prefix=/usr
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install
# Restart XFCE Panel
xfce4-panel -rmeson setup build --prefix="$HOME/.local"
ninja -C build
ninja -C build install
gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t "$HOME/.local/share/icons/hicolor"
xfce4-panel -rThen add it through Panel Preferences → Items → Add → MorphOS Workbench, or on the command line:
# add to the first panel
xfce4-panel -a morphos-workbenchRight-click the plugin and select Properties to open a tabbed settings dialog (General, Workbench, Screenbar) with sections and per-option explanations:
- General: theme (Classic / Dark / Light), Ambient logo, gauge style (Industrial / Glossy 3D / Plain), and "Override GTK theme"
- Workbench: Ambient logo, title, dynamic title, and the menu toggles
- Screenbar: enable/disable each meter and indicator, and reorder them with Up/Down arrows (applied immediately)
Settings are persisted to ~/.config/xfce4/panel/morphos-workbench-<id>.rc.
Run the unit tests with:
meson test -C buildThe plugin ships with an embedded CSS provider that gives the bar its Ambient look (dark blue gradient, inset highlights, dark dropdown menus with blue hover). To override, add rules to ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css, e.g.:
.mwb-bar {
background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #101828 0%, #0b1120 100%);
}
.mwb-membar > trough > progress {
background-image: linear-gradient(to bottom, #6ee7b7 0%, #059669 100%);
}- Ensure the module was installed:
ls ~/.local/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libmorphos-workbench.so - Restart the panel fully:
xfce4-panel -r(or log out/in) so it re-scans plugin.desktopfiles. - Add it via Panel Preferences → Items → Add.
The icon is registered as ambient-logo. If missing, refresh the icon cache:
gtk-update-icon-cache -f -t "$HOME/.local/share/icons/hicolor"The Applications menu uses exo-open --launch <category>. Install exo-utils and register your preferred apps in Settings → Preferred Applications.
theokeist
- GitHub: https://github.com/theokeist
This project is licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later License - see the LICENSE file for details.
- MorphOS & the Ambient open-source team — for the desktop design inspiration
- XFCE Development Team for the panel plugin framework