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jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 05:38 AM
Hello!

I left my Dapper installation a month ago to move to something more recent, Gutsy that is.

And, being a perfectionist, I got from a server installation to a minimal gnome d.e. to a system that fits my needs and lacks useless stuff like games.

I installed conky, used my old .conkyrc file from Dapper and set it to start upon login to gnome.
My problem is that the fonts are NOT antialliased at first. I have to killall conky and restart it to get the fonts to become smooth.
Here is my .conkyrc
background yes
use_xft yes
xftfont Verdana:size=11
xftalpha 0.8
update_interval 5.0
total_run_times 0
color1 orange
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
#own_window_colour black
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color white
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color white
alignment bottom_right
cpu_avg_samples 5
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer no
gap_y 0
gap_x 0
#maximum_width 1280
#minimum_size 150 5

# USB stick check script
# ${if_mounted /media/usbdisk}USB stick $alignc ${fs_used /media/usbdisk} / ${fs_size /media/usbdisk} $alignr ${fs_free_perc /media/usbdisk}% $else not mounted ${endif}
# Internet ip check
# ${execi 1800 curl -s http://whatismyip.org/}
# Weather forecast
# ${execi 900 pymetar LGBL | grep Weather:}
# Calendar (USE ONLY MONOTYPE FONTS)
# ${font DejaVu Sans Mono:size=10}${execi 3600 cal}

TEXT
$alignr ${offset -35}${font Verdana:bold:size=18}${time %H:%M}$font
$alignr ${time %A %d %b. %Y}
$alignr down $color1${downspeed eth0} kb/s$color up $color1${upspeed eth0} kb/s$color
$alignr drive temp $color1${hddtemp /dev/sda}$color // cpu temp $color1${hwmon temp 2}°C$color
$alignr linux $color1${fs_free_perc /}%$color free // windows $color1${fs_free_perc /mnt/windows}%$color free // large $color1${fs_free_perc /mnt/large}%$color free

I will post screenshots after next reboot, if requested

erginemr
March 3rd, 2008, 05:49 AM
I am no Conky expert, but I suggest you to visit the following very long thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=281865

and compare your .conkyrc file with the ones and screenshots posted there.

jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 05:51 AM
I have searched this thread and I visit it often for ideas, but no luck.

Thank you.

I forgot to mention that I am not using compiz or something

erginemr
March 3rd, 2008, 06:44 AM
Maybe this site will help:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=308266

With respect to the attached screenshots:

1) I have first tried to change the settings from under Appearance -> Fonts

2) It didn't help with Conky.

3) I have then created the file "~/.Xdefaults" in my home folder as suggested by the link above (It didn't exist before.) and added the following lines:
Xft*dpi: 96
Xft*antialias: true
Xft*hinting: full

4) Restarted X server with Ctrl+Alt+BackSpace to get much smoother Conky fonts.

I hope this will solve your problem.

jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 11:40 AM
Thanks a lot erginemr!!!

I can finally have a smoooooth conky!

And... a new challenge just popped up. When I pressed Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to restart X, everything (conky, gnome, wbar, even the mouse cursors) unloaded and I was left there staring at the wallpaper! It did not go back to gdm :( and the only way out is REISUB.

I will make a new thread about that, but does enyone know any log files that I can I can check to see what happened?

erginemr
March 3rd, 2008, 11:52 AM
As long as you get everything back when you restart the computer, you don't have to bother.

jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 11:54 AM
Oddly, I just found the answer to my Ctrl+Alt+Backspace problem. It is some ati thing running. Killed it, restarted X and everything is ok.

Even conky reverted itself back to no-antialiasing mode! Why? And all seemed so nice some minutes ago!

erginemr
March 3rd, 2008, 11:58 AM
I suggest you to switch off your computer completely now. And then switch it on. If everything is fine as expected, then you are good to go...

jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 12:10 PM
I just rebooted, got to desktop, conky is ugly again.

I got disappointed, restarted X just to see, and conky remained ugly!
It seems the only solution is to kill it and restart it!

erginemr
March 3rd, 2008, 12:16 PM
Sorry, if you are sure that there is still a "~/.Xdefaults" file (with a capital X) inside your home folder with:
Xft*dpi: 96
Xft*antialias: true
Xft*hinting: full
then I am afraid it doesn't work. :( You can check its existence and contents with:
cat ~/.Xdefaults
from Gnome terminal.

Strangely, it seems to work in my system.

jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 12:44 PM
The file is still there and contains the same text!

I dont know why it stopped working :(

I assume there is a "file" that overrides .Xdefaults, like it happened once with mplayer

jim_p
March 3rd, 2008, 04:15 PM
3 hours have passed, I rebooted my pc twice since then and now they show up antialiased! What is going on?