I wrote a couple of scripts that make text based icons that give info about battery and volume level. The part of the volume script that gets the value for the volume was based off of some script I found somewhere on the internet. These scripts were written for xmobar, but I suppose you can use them for pretty much any text-based status bar.
Script for volume level:
$ cat ~/bin/getvolume
-----------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
# Get L/R volume info
left=`amixer sget Master | grep Left:`
right=`amixer sget Master | grep Right:`
llevel=${left#*[}
llevel=${llevel%\%]*}
rlevel=${right#*[}
rlevel=${rlevel%\%]*}
active=${left##*[}
active=${active%]}
# Find average level
if [ $llevel == $rlevel ]
then
level=$llevel
else
level=$(($llevel + $rlevel))
level=$(($level / 2))
fi
#Create displays
if [ $active == "off" ] || [ $level == "0" ]
then
echo "Mute"
elif [ $level == "100" ]
then
echo "))(("
elif [ $(($level <= 33)) == "1" ]
then
echo "*)"
elif [ $(($level <= 66)) == "1" ]
then
echo "*))"
else
echo "*)))"
fi
Script for battery level:
$ cat ~/bin/battery
-----------------------------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
# Echo battery level
function batt_indicator () {
if [ $(($1 <= 25)) == "1" ]
then
echo "[-!-]"
elif [ $(($1 <= 50)) == "1" ]
then
echo "[$2 ]"
elif [ $(($1 <= 75)) == "1" ]
then
echo "[$2$2 ]"
else
echo "[$2$2$2]"
fi
}
# Find level and state
str=`acpi -b`
batt_state=${str#Batt*:\ }
batt_state=${batt_state%%,*}
batt_level=${str#Batt*,\ }
batt_level=${batt_level%\%*}
# Determine output
if [ $batt_state == "Charging" ]
then
batt_indicator $batt_level '+'
elif [ $batt_state == "Discharging" ]
then
batt_indicator $batt_level '-'
else
echo "[===]"
fi
