Howto: setup Conky in Hardy and Ibex

[seldon77]

FOR HARDY AND IBEX. NOTE: for old Ubuntu versions, see here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=205865

Conky is an powerful desktop app that posts system monitoring info onto the root window. It used to be hard to set up properly (had unlisted dependencies, special command line compile options, and requires a mod to xorg.conf to stop it from flickering, and needed devilspie to work without being annoying). It's a lot easier these days, but there are still some tricks.

1. Make sure the universe repo is enabled, and install 'conky' from universe repo. ie:

	sudo apt-get --assume-yes install conky

2. Make a configuration file in your home directory (ie. /home/bob). This is the code that describes what you want displayed on your conky desktop.

gedit /home/bob/.conkyrc

3. Obviously, you can put whatever you want in your .conkyrc.

One of the cutest scripts at the moments is called Conky Colours (as in the screenshot above) - http://www.gnome-look.org/content/sh...?content=92328, but it is a little harder than other scripts to install.

Otherwise, for a very functional conky that I've mashed up from other scripts, you could paste the following code into the file and save / exit. I've added in some cool code that will show what programs on your machine are trying to connect to the outside world (should give you some warning of spyware, etc. on your machine), as well as a summary of whats being written in your /var/log file (system error msgs, etc), and also a list of the top few programs that are chewing up your CPU and memory:

# UBUNTU-CONKY
# A comprehensive conky script, configured for use on
# Ubuntu / Debian Gnome, without the need for any external scripts.
#
# Based on conky-jc and the default .conkyrc.
# INCLUDES:
# - tail of /var/log/messages
# - netstat shows number of connections from your computer and application/PID making it. Kill spyware!
#
# -- Pengo
# 
 
# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
 
# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes
 
# fiddle with window
use_spacer right

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048
 
# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 3.0
 
# Minimum size of text area
# minimum_size 250 5
 
# Draw shades?
draw_shades no
 
# Text stuff
draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_borders no
uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
 
# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 3
 
# border margins
border_margin 9
 
# border width
border_width 10
 
# Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5
default_color grey
 
own_window_colour brown
own_window_transparent yes
 
# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right
 
# Gap between borders of screen and text
gap_x 10
gap_y 10
 
# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen
 
TEXT
$color
${color orange}SYSTEM ${hr 2}$color
$nodename $sysname $kernel on $machine
 
${color orange}CPU ${hr 2}$color
${freq}MHz   Load: ${loadavg}   Temp: ${acpitemp}
$cpubar
${cpugraph 000000 ffffff}
NAME             PID       CPU%      MEM%
${top name 1} ${top pid 1}   ${top cpu 1}    ${top mem 1}
${top name 2} ${top pid 2}   ${top cpu 2}    ${top mem 2}
${top name 3} ${top pid 3}   ${top cpu 3}    ${top mem 3}
${top name 4} ${top pid 4}   ${top cpu 4}    ${top mem 4}
 
${color orange}MEMORY / DISK ${hr 2}$color
RAM:   $memperc%   ${membar 6}$color
Swap:  $swapperc%   ${swapbar 6}$color
 
Root:  ${fs_free_perc /}%   ${fs_bar 6 /}$color 
hda1:  ${fs_free_perc /media/sda1}%   ${fs_bar 6 /media/sda1}$color
 
${color orange}NETWORK (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color
Down: $color${downspeed eth0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${downspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 ff0000} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0 
25,140 000000 00ff00}$color
Total: ${totaldown eth0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup eth0}
${execi 30 netstat -ept | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $9}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr}
${color orange}LOGGING ${hr 2}$color
${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/messages | awk '{print " ",$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10}' | fold -w50}
 
${color orange}FORTUNE ${hr 2}$color
${execi 120 fortune -s | fold -w50}

If the network connections graph does not work, you will have to change all "eth0" references to "ppp0" (for modem) or "ath0" (for some other devices).

5. Run 'conky' to see if it works without flickering. If there is flickering, add the dbe module to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf to reduce flickering.

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

anywhere near the end add:

Section "Module"
        Load    "dbe"
EndSection

if there isn't already a Module section, otherwise just add 'Load "dbe"' into your Module section.

6. If you do not have funky desktop effects on your desktop (Compiz, etc) - then for vanilla Ubuntu (Gnome), Go to System, Preferences, Sessions, Startup Programs and add 'conky' to the list of start up progams. Reboot. Conky will be active after your next reboot.

NOTE: Kubuntu users ONLY make the following changes:
Open .conkyrc and comment out the lines

own_window yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,skip_taskbar
background yes

Since we don't use nautilus in Kubuntu, we don't need it.

Also, to get Conky to autostart in Kubuntu, you need to add a link to the bin file (in /usr/bin) to

~/.kde/Autostart

For XFCE ONLY make the following changes to .conkyrc

own_window yes
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent yes

7. If you do have funky desktop effects on your desktop (Compiz, etc) place a startup script called .conky_start.sh in your home directory:

#!/bin/bash
sleep 60 && conky;

This would start conky after 60 seconds of your login. That way, compiz doesn't draw shadows around conky and try to do funky things with it. Make sure the script is executable:

chmod a+x .conky_start.sh

and add it to your startup programs (menu: system->preferences->session->startup programs).

Please add comments if anything doesn't work or if you have other ideas and I can update the instructions.

[trazart]

To remove the shadow from the conky window you can also play with your Window Decoration preferences. Change which windows should have, or should not have, shadows.



And add the line below to your .conkyrc file.

own_window_title mi_conky

[AardvarkSagus]

I have a question myself about the transparency of the window. On my desktop, when I start conky, everything seems to run just fine except the background is only correct for my old monitor resolution of 1024x768. I have recently obtained a new monitor that I pushed to 1152x864 and it is a little disorienting to see this discrepancy between the two images. Thankfully I have a fairly sparce background so this is relatively minor, but I would like it to work properly.

Occasionally the background will correct itself to the proper resolution, but after a while I will find it back to too small again. I tried changing backgrounds to something else and it appeared correct. When I returned it also appeared correct, but sure enough, a few minutes later, it was messed up again.

My background image is 1280x1024, so I know it's not just an issue with an image that is too small. Any ideas?

[eternalnewbee]

Thank you seldon77.
Very nice.

[gcranston]

by the way, make sure all your scripts have #!/bin/bash at the FIRST LINE AND ONLY THE FIRST LINE, or you'll wind up hating yourself for hours trying to figure out why it works in the ####ing terminal and not in conky...


Sorry, but I needed to vent that somewhere.

[seldon77]

Thanks for the comments and the 'thankses'!

As always, please let me know if you run into any bugs in the instructions above or if it isn't working for you. My first conky instructions were read by 250,000 or something people so I want to get them right!

Here is some cool code that I've done up which can be added into any homebrew .conkyrc file:

1. This little item is great for figuring out if you've got spy-ware or are being DOS attacked. It will list any programs that are connecting to the outside world, and tell you how many connections they are making:

${execi 30 netstat -ept | grep ESTAB | awk '{print $9}' | cut -d: -f1 | sort | uniq -c | sort -nr}

2. This one will list the latest 3 system log (error, etc) messages on your machine. Great to see if some piece of software or hardware isn't working right:

${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/messages | awk '{print " ",$5,$6,$7,$8,$9,$10}' | fold -w50}

3. This one will show if a program is stealing too much CPU or memory or has become a zombie eating up your resources. Good also for diagnosing which program is borking itself if your computer is hanging:

${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}

you can then kill the problem program easily from the command line = "kill [insert pid number]"

[mvalviar]

Hi, I followed you instructions for the installation and used copied your config. I have a problem though. I have conky on my desktop and everytime I click my mouse on the area where the conky display is shown it draws a select area even though I didn't drag the mouse. The box starts from the left side of the screen to the mouse pointer. Dragging my mouse on the conky area is also buggy. I also tried the conky colors config with the same result. In addition I can click and drag items on the desktop when I click on the conky area even though the items are on the left side of the desktop.

[jesseruu]

Great post mate! helped me allot!

[SR_ELPIRATA]

Great tutorial. I've been seeing many of these hardware/software monitors directly on the desktop and I was wondering how that was setup. Now, comparing my conky to the screenshot on top, it looks much different, though I still like it. (Edit: After another reading finally noticed that the one pictured is a different script).

One of the things I've noticed is that when I execute the command conky in the terminal, it says that cant find the Arial font. I just copied and pasted as instructions said. From what I can tell, the font is installed on my system so dont undertand the error. Would like to change to another font more similar to the one in the screenshot.

Again, lots of thanks for the tutorial

ELP

[seldon77]

Hi, I followed you instructions for the installation and used copied your config. I have a problem though. I have conky on my desktop and everytime I click my mouse on the area where the conky display is shown it draws a select area even though I didn't drag the mouse. The box starts from the left side of the screen to the mouse pointer. Dragging my mouse on the conky area is also buggy. I also tried the conky colors config with the same result. In addition I can click and drag items on the desktop when I click on the conky area even though the items are on the left side of the desktop.

from what I gather, you are saying that the conky is all up and working fine but that clicking on it behaves differently from clicking on other parts of the desktop (it draws a select rectangle??)

that is just what conky does. It would be nice if you could put icons, etc. over conky but it doesn't allow that unfortunately. It's really just like an application window, which has had the title, scroll bar, and all other decorations etc. stripped off.