Everyday use
Control Center
The panel at the top right: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Focus, brightness, sound, Now Playing and a grid of tiles, including tiles from plugins.
On this page
What it is
Control Center is the panel you open from the menu bar's top right corner. It holds the controls you reach for every day: a connectivity card (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) next to Focus and Dark Mode, the Display and Sound sliders, Now Playing, and a grid of square tiles. It narrows on a narrow display and ends above the Dock.
Why
Opening Settings for every small change is slow. The panel stays resident and refreshes only while it is visible, so it opens at once and costs nothing when closed. In 0.12 it got a new tile grid, a Sound page and a Display page, so the common jobs (switch the output, mirror a display, turn on Night Shift) are two clicks. Tiles can also come from plugins (Shell plugins).
How
Open it by clicking the Control Center icon in the menu bar, or with wol shell toggle control-center. Esc closes it. Since 0.12 it no longer closes itself as it opens, and moving from one panel to another works every time.
What is on it
| Part | What it does |
|---|---|
| Wi-Fi and Bluetooth | Each has a page: Networks with Join and Join Other Network (network name and password), or Devices with paired devices. |
| Focus | Do Not Disturb. Pick how long (for example until tomorrow morning). |
| Dark Mode | Switch light and dark. |
| Display | Brightness slider. Its page has Night Shift and Screen Mirroring (it says "No other display" when there is nothing to mirror to). |
| Sound | Volume slider. Its page lists Output devices (with the Bluetooth codec for headsets) and Input devices, and Mute/Mute Microphone. |
| Now Playing | The track that is playing, with controls. |
| Tiles | Battery, Screen Mirroring, Keyboard Brightness, Night Shift, Screenshot, Record, the accessibility tiles (Reduce Motion, Increase Contrast, Zoom), Stay Awake, and tiles added by plugins. |
Which optional parts appear is a choice in Settings > Control Center.
Quick switches on the keyboard
| Keys | Does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl+Super+N | Night Shift on or off (wol toggle nightlight) |
| Ctrl+Super+D | Do Not Disturb (wol toggle dnd) |
| Ctrl+Super+I | Stay Awake (wol toggle stay-awake) |
| Shift+Super+3 / 4 / 5 | Screenshot of the screen, a region, or the screenshot panel; add Ctrl for the clipboard instead of a file |
wol toggle alone lists the toggles; wol toggle <name> [on|off] sets or flips one. wol toggle knows night-light, night-shift, stay-awake (idle, awake, caffeine), silence (dnd) and focus.
Tiles from plugins
A plugin can add a tile, and a tile can run commands. They run only after you allow the plugin to (Privacy and permissions). A tile whose command is not a wol verb needs the plugin's run permission. See Plugin API reference.
If something goes wrong
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Bluetooth is unavailable" | There is no Bluetooth adapter or it is off. Check Settings > Bluetooth and wol bluetooth. |
| "No networks found" | Wi-Fi is off or out of range. Turn it on (the control asks for the administrator password), or use Join Other Network for a hidden name. |
| Screen Mirroring says "No other display" | Only one display is connected. Connect a second and check Settings > Displays. |
| "No output devices" or "No microphone is connected" | Nothing is plugged in or paired. See Sound. |
| A key such as mic mute or brightness does nothing | Both work in 0.12; the on-screen sign for mic mute shows the microphone, not the speaker. If not, run wol audio doctor and wol hw. |
| A plugin tile does nothing | The plugin may be off or lack permission; check Settings and wol plugin list. A plugin that keeps failing is turned off on its own. |
| The panel is gone after the window manager restarted | The desktop reconnects by itself. wol shell reload reloads the shell. |