HOWTO: VinDSL Conky Script

[davesbrain]

Not looking to shabby.

conky02b.png

[basec0m]

Well... Weather worked this morning

now this...

[42dorian]

Well... Weather worked this morning

now this...

Indeed. Weather.com is cancelling support for the weather. Until VinDSL adopts or experiments with another way to do it, this thread will go pretty silent in that section.

Remember, this thread's title is "Howto: VinDSL Conky Script", and I only wrote it to troubleshoot what he had at the time. Now that there's this big change coming, you gotta give him time to figure out what he's doing to replace the old weather data.

I promise, if and when the weather section gets replaced, I will revise the Howto. Until then, check the big Conky thread, or the new alternative that is growing in popularity.

That is the best I can do for you for now.

[Gmasterhyde]

Indeed. Weather.com is cancelling support for the weather. Until VinDSL adopts or experiments with another way to do it, this thread will go pretty silent in that section.

My weather is still working... should I expect it to go out soon? I wasn't all that sure how to get the weather working to begin with when I first started playing with Conky and I didn't bother looking up any documentation on how to get it working either... I pretty much just went through some crazy steps on weather.com to sign up for the service and get the info required - granted I'm not sure if that's the typical procedure or not.

[basec0m]

I received an email from weather.com that things were changing and here we are.

Looking forward to the wunderground or Google script. Looks like some nice progress already.

[42dorian]

November 15th is when everything goes down permanently with weather.com. We're waiting for a fix to VinDSL's setup via VinDSL himself. This thread, this Howto as a whole, is about his Conky setup, so that is why we're waiting for him.

It was created because the big Conky thread wasn't getting along with him. Myself and several other people were getting tired of people copying his script and then, before they had learned anything about Conky, come crying to the rest of us for help, thinking it was "Broken" for them. I wrote this Howto so they would be redirected to one place where they would learn what they need to learn to get it working for themselves. Don't get me wrong, VinDSL HIMSELF is a very funny and interesting guy, I consider him a friend. But his Conky just irritates me to no end because of it's popularity with new users. Since writing this Howto, he and I have both heard about 99% fewer issues with people not understanding his Conky. That was the goal, and that will continue to be the goal. Until he has an answer to his Conky setup, there is nothing I can say here in this thread besides go learn Conky in the big thread and replace what's broken with something else. You're not stuck to his Conky setup alone.

VinDSL is busy with some personal stuff in his, you know, real life. He hasn't been toying with Conky in a long time. How do I know? The same reason I'm the one who wrote this Howto. I try to keep in contact with him regarding his, very popular, Conky setups. He's ignoring all new requests for help though. That's to do with his personal stuff, not the lot of you. I made him aware of the weather problem weeks ago, and he will get to it when he's figured something out, and has some time.

In the mean time, go to the big conky thread and, as boring and painful as it might be, go back around 500 or more pages for the most up to date setups, and start reading to the current page. There are code snip-its, backup posts (which are single posts that dump all of the scripts they're currently using for other users to see, and for them to go back to should there be a loss of their data in some way.) from the pros with Conky, and tons of tutorials on various things you can do with Conky itself. You aren't stuck with just this thread. Just don't ask about getting VinDSL's setup going there. There are certain sections and techniques you can add to your own setup, stealing chunks of code from other people and putting them in yours where and how you want them, that you can get there. You will also, very rapidly, get taught LUA if you pay enough attention. And then your Conky setups have little to no limits.

[wildmanne39]

Hi 42dorian, I just wanted to say thank you for writing this guide as you may remember I installed and got his script working in April of this year and it was a hard script to get to work, but I had gotten a very basic on written first before I attempted his script.

It was interesting getting it going in 11.10 but was not to big of a challenge I just needed to do some reading.

I am going to wait a little while and see how things shake out before I use another weather script because I like the way VinDSL's looks.
Thanks again this is a great guide.

[42dorian]

I have indeed updated the Howto with a warning about the weather section. You're on your own for a while folks.

[VinDSL]

Bingo! Think I got it...

Accurate, too.

Ubuntu 12.04 pre-alpha 1 / Conky 1.8.1-2 / Lua / Unity / Banshee / New Weather API (Click image to expand)

[cociuba]

what is the weather api you are using?