Howto: Get a beautiful Conky 1.4.2 setup

[Kuraboy]

no one knows how I can solve the ram usage thing?

[Kashirigi]

I can't answer the RAM usage thing, but I can solve a problem that was plaguing me for a long time in XFCE.

In XFCE, conky wouldn't write to the root window correctly. Setting it to be its own window worked, but if you had the composite manager showing shadows, it would be ugly, and against the spirit of conky.

After peering through the man pages, for XFCE, make sure you this in your .conkyrc

own_window yes
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent yes


the key is the override.

Goodbye adesklets.

[spockrock]

hey I have a question I would like to add a couple of temperatures from my configured lm-sensors to conky but I am not sure how.

when I enter sensors in terminal I get this

it8712-isa-0290
Adapter: ISA adapter
VCore 1:   +1.33 V  (min =  +1.42 V, max =  +1.57 V)   ALARM
VCore 2:   +1.17 V  (min =  +2.40 V, max =  +2.61 V)   ALARM
+3.3V:     +6.56 V  (min =  +3.14 V, max =  +3.46 V)   ALARM
+5V:       +4.95 V  (min =  +4.76 V, max =  +5.24 V)
+12V:     +11.71 V  (min = +11.39 V, max = +12.61 V)
-12V:     -13.74 V  (min = -12.63 V, max = -11.41 V)   ALARM
-5V:       -1.24 V  (min =  -5.26 V, max =  -4.77 V)   ALARM
Stdby:     +4.97 V  (min =  +4.76 V, max =  +5.24 V)
VBat:      +3.10 V
fan1:     1110 RPM  (min =    0 RPM, div = 8)
fan2:     2008 RPM  (min = 3013 RPM, div = 8)          ALARM
fan3:     4115 RPM  (min = 3013 RPM, div = 8)
CPU Temp:    +33°C  (low  =   +15°C, high =   +40°C)   sensor = diode
PWMIC Temp:
             +36°C  (low  =   +15°C, high =   +45°C)   sensor = thermistor
Nforce 4 Temp:
             +48°C  (low  =   +15°C, high =   +45°C)   sensor = thermistor

ds1621-i2c-1-4e
Adapter: SMBus nForce2 adapter at 1c40
temp:      +0.00°C  (low  =  +0.0°C, high =  +0.0°C)

The two Temps I would like to add are pwmic temp and the nforce 4 temp but I have no idea what variables to call I am going throught the man pages but I cant seem to find it.

[spockrock]

never mind I figured it out.

and thanks for the great guide.

[ophanim]

Great HOWTO! I've always wanted to get Conky setup properly, but never could. Thanks to your HOWTO, I've got a great lookin' Conky on my desktop.

However, I have one question...I use XGL/Compiz and use the "fade" plugin with it. The fade plugin for XGL/Compiz darkens a window that is not selected to put it out of focus and put it in the background. The problem is that it darkens Conky when a window is selected, which makes it seem as if it's not blended with my wallpaper...which is ugly. Is there some way I can exempt Conky from fading in XGL/Compiz? I've attatched screenshots to show you what it looks like when it's faded and what it looks like when it's not.

Try:

own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky

[Ahriman]

no one knows how I can solve the ram usage thing?

Can you post or attach your .conkyrc for us to look at? It could be as simple as a slight spelling error or referencing the wrong function in the RAM section.

[kurup]

I've got the "dbe" module but conky still flickers a bit. I changed the refresh time to 1 min not to make it so annoying.
Can the flickering be completely eliminated?
Btw, I use Compiz as window manager.

I got (I think) a nice config for my conky.

Thats a brilliant looking conky config! Can you please share the .conkyrc file?

[Kuraboy]

Can you post or attach your .conkyrc for us to look at? It could be as simple as a slight spelling error or referencing the wrong function in the RAM section.

here is my .conkyrc, I have looked at others and it seems okay.

# Conky configuration
background yes
use_xft yes
xftfont Monospace:size=9
xftalpha 0.8
out_to_console no
update_interval 2
total_run_times 0
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
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 yes
stippled_borders 5
border_margin 4
border_width 1
default_color grey
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color black
alignment bottom_left
gap_x 1
gap_y 1
no_buffers no
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 2
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer no

TEXT
${color white}$alignc$sysname $kernel @ ${freq_g}GHz
${color white}$alignc${exec whoami} @ $nodename
$color$stippled_hr
${color}Date: ${color white}${time %A,%d %B}
${color}Uptime: ${color white}$uptime
$color$stippled_hr
${color}CPU:        ${color white} ${cpu cpu1}% ${cpubar cpu1}
${color}RAM:        ${color white} $memperc% ${membar}
${color}Swap:       ${color white} $swapperc% ${swapbar}
$color$stippled_hr
${color}Root:       ${color white} ${fs_free /}   ${fs_bar /}
${color}Lin2:       ${color white} ${fs_free /media/hda2}   ${fs_bar /media/hda2}
${color}WinXP:      ${color white} ${fs_free /media/hda1}   ${fs_bar /media/hda1}
${color}WinLin:     ${color white} ${fs_free /media/hda5}   ${fs_bar /media/hda5}
${color}BigStorage: ${color white} ${fs_free /media/hdb1}  ${fs_bar /media/hdb1}
${color}TheHeart:   ${color white} ${fs_free /media/hdd1}   ${fs_bar /media/hdd1}

[seldon77]

Thanks everyone for the further followup questions and suggestions.

I've made some updates to the how-to page to add everyones ideas. In particular, i've added the instructions for XFCE.

Also, I've added

${execi 60 wmctrl -a conky}

to .conkyrc

As people have said, conky has a bug where in some circumstances, like after a screensaver has come on or if you have hit the 'show desktop' button that conky will disappear. I think that code will ensure that conky will make sure that it is on the root desktop every 60 seconds. I've tried it for a while, and it seems to work, but i'll listen to feedback on it.

Note you will need the 'wmctrl' program, which I have now also put into the dependencies, will need to be installed from universe.

[seldon77]

hey is there a solution to the XGL/Compiz issue?

if there is, i'll add it to the how-to