#3243·polybar

[Bug]: xwindow seems to break mouse interactions on spectrwm

Author: aaronmgriffinCreated Mar 7, 2026Updated Mar 7, 2026

Labelsbugneeds confirmation

Checklist

I have read the appropriate section in the contributing guidelines
I believe this issue is a problem with polybar itself and not a misconfiguration on my part
I have searched for other open and closed issues that may have already reported this problem
I have checked the known issues page for this problem.
I have followed the debugging guide to narrow down the problem to a minimal config.

Steps to reproduce

I cannot confirm if this is a spectrwm bug, but I didn't fiddle around with other WMs to confirm

Minimal config

dosini

[bar/spectrwm]
# uncomment window to reproduce
modules-left = workspaces #window
modules-right = pulseaudio
override-redirect = false

[module/workspaces]
type = internal/xworkspaces

[module/window]
type = internal/xwindow
# using a narrow title in case there is some weird overlap
label = %title:0:20:...%

[module/pulseaudio]
type = internal/pulseaudio

Polybar log

### with window enabled
$ polybar -l info -c .polybar.minimal.conf
notice: Parsing config file: .polybar.minimal.conf
* Loaded monitor eDP1 (1920x1080+0+0)
* Configured DPI = 96x96
* Bar geometry: 1920x24+0+0; Borders: 0,0,0,0
notice: Loading module 'workspaces' of type 'internal/xworkspaces'
notice: Loading module 'window' of type 'internal/xwindow'
notice: Loading module 'pulseaudio' of type 'internal/pulseaudio'
notice: pulseaudio: using default sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
notice: Loaded 3 modules
* Starting application
* Entering event loop (thread-id=1)
* renderer: Using 32-bit TrueColor visual: 0xaa
warn: No fonts specified, using fallback font "fixed"
notice: Loaded font "fixed" (name=Noto Sans, offset=0, file=/usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoSans-Regular.ttf)
* Bar window: 0x1000001
* Starting module/workspaces
* Starting module/window
* Starting module/pulseaudio
* module/workspaces: Rebuilding cache
* module/window: Rebuilding cache
* module/pulseaudio: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
* module/window: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
* module/window: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
* module/window: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
notice: Received signal(2): Interrupt
* Eventloop finished
notice: Termination signal received, shutting down...


### without window
$ polybar -l info -c .polybar.minimal.conf
notice: Parsing config file: .polybar.minimal.conf
* Loaded monitor eDP1 (1920x1080+0+0)
* Configured DPI = 96x96
* Bar geometry: 1920x24+0+0; Borders: 0,0,0,0
notice: Loading module 'workspaces' of type 'internal/xworkspaces'
error: Disabling module "#window" (reason: Missing section "module/#window")
notice: Loading module 'pulseaudio' of type 'internal/pulseaudio'
notice: pulseaudio: using default sink alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo
notice: Loaded 2 modules
* Starting application
* Entering event loop (thread-id=1)
* renderer: Using 32-bit TrueColor visual: 0xaa
warn: No fonts specified, using fallback font "fixed"
notice: Loaded font "fixed" (name=Noto Sans, offset=0, file=/usr/share/fonts/noto/NotoSans-Regular.ttf)
* Bar window: 0x1000001
* Starting module/workspaces
* Starting module/pulseaudio
* module/workspaces: Rebuilding cache
* module/pulseaudio: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
* No matching input area found (btn=1)
* Forwarding action to modules (module: 'workspaces', action: 'focus', data: '1')
* module/workspaces: Requesting change to desktop #1
* Delivered action to 1 module
* module/workspaces: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
* No matching input area found (btn=1)
* Forwarding action to modules (module: 'workspaces', action: 'focus', data: '0')
* module/workspaces: Requesting change to desktop #0
* Delivered action to 1 module
* module/workspaces: Rebuilding cache
* Redrawing bar window
notice: Received signal(2): Interrupt
* Eventloop finished
notice: Termination signal received, shutting down...

Expected behavior

Mouse clicks and scrolls should work with the window module enabled

Actual behavior

Mouse clicks and scrolls do not even appear to be sent to polybar

Window Manager and Version

spectrwm 3.7.0

Linux Distribution

ArchLinux (kernel 6.18.8-arch2-1)

Polybar version

polybar 3.7.2

Features: +alsa +curl +i3 +mpd +network(libnl) +pulseaudio +xkeyboard

X extensions: +randr (+monitors) +composite +xkb +xrm +xcursor

Build type: Release
Compiler: /usr/bin/c++
Compiler flags: -march=x86-64 -mtune=generic -O2 -pipe -fno-plt -fexceptions         -Wp,-D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=3 -Wformat -Werror=format-security         -fstack-clash-protection -fcf-protection         -fno-omit-frame-pointer -mno-omit-leaf-frame-pointer -Wp,-D_GLIBCXX_ASSERTIONS -g -ffile-prefix-map=/build/polybar/src=/usr/src/debug/polybar -flto=auto -O3 -DNDEBUG -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Wdeprecated-copy-dtor -Wsuggest-override
Linker flags: -Wl,-O1 -Wl,--sort-common -Wl,--as-needed -Wl,-z,relro -Wl,-z,now          -Wl,-z,pack-relative-relocs -flto=auto -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Wdeprecated-copy-dtor -Wsuggest-override  -Wall -Wextra -Wpedantic -Wdeprecated-copy-dtor -Wsuggest-override

Additional Context / Screenshots

No response

Source: polybar/polybar

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