HOWTO: VinDSL Conky Script

[VinDSL]

You're not going to believe this.

I ran the "killall conky && conkywx -c ~/.conky/weather/conkywx.conf -f && conky" to get a fresh display and noticed that conkywx was calling the underground information twice. The first time was for my location (Western Australia), the second time for somewhere in India [...]

I wish 42dorian was around!

This sort of stuff is right up his alley...

[AndyOpie150]

Installed Conky with instructions and download link from here: http://www.unixmen.com/configure-con...t-howto-conky/
Question: How do I edit the script to show the Temp in my area(instead of whatever area it's using), and how do I set this up to Run at boot (I have to open a terminal and type in conky at every reboot).

[stinkeye]

Installed Conky with instructions and download link from here: http://www.unixmen.com/configure-con...t-howto-conky/
Question: How do I edit the script to show the Temp in my area(instead of whatever area it's using), and how do I set this up to Run at boot (I have to open a terminal and type in conky at every reboot).

For the config you are using, go to http://weather.noaa.gov/ and choose your location and then get your metar station code from the address bar.
eg for Florida,Daytona Beach the code from the url is

http://w1.weather.gov/obhistory/KDAB.html

Then open your ~/.conkyrc config.

gedit ~/.conkyrc

Look for the line (around line 60)

${weather http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/data/obs...etar/stations/ LQBK temperature temperature 30}

and change LQBK to your metar code.

To start conky at boot add to startup applications with this in the command box.

conky -p 15

The -p 15 delays the start of conky for 15 secs which is needed for some window managers.

[stinkeye]

I wish 42dorian was around!

This sort of stuff is right up his alley...

Where did he go?
This thread has become very unruly.

[sparker256]

My internet was going in and out last night so any real testing was tough.

So untill we can get conky to do this automaticly is there a way to have that call run every 15 or 20 minutes?

Ps My internet just caught up and see this is already being worked on and looking forward to 0.7.4

Bill

[paramvir]

OK - have done my tests with vinDSL scripts and YESSSSS it works

We have to understand a few things about both conky and conkywx. - at least this is what I have found...

Lets first address conky:
If you work on a conkyrc file and save it - this will make conky reload the file automatically - in which case the conky timer is reset!!! So if an execpi call is set to 900 sec - and your last update was 10 min back then the next execpi call will be after next 900 sec or 15 min therefore it starts over again. So every time you save - conky reloads and resets the internal counters.
This reload by conky is based on the update_interval.

The text_buffer_size is surprisingly low about 640 [got the conkyrc from post #4 ] - I am not sure what is it you are now using but I needed to jack that fig up to 3900 to get a reliable conky working. If this figure is really low - you will either not get any error message and some info will not show on screen or they will be rather obscure with no relation to what you are doing. Then there is malloc error - which is BTW when the figure is just below the minimum requirement. Do not be too frugal with this value. You will have problems with conky not running execpi calls etc appropriately. conky will also show erratic behaviour.


Now about conkywx:
This is an external program and will only run when it is called. So if you are not seeing any activity on the terminal - then conky is not making that execpi call for reasons which include ones listed above.

conkywx does not run all the time in the background like conky. If a change is made to any conkywx config file - the change will only show when you run the program again or when conky calls it again.

You will notice that conky will reload the conkyrc if it is saved after an edit but will not reload if the template is edited and saved.

During development of new templates or conkyrc for conkywx - there is an option in the conkywx config file *minimum_fetch_time* - set this to zero. By default this is set to 870 seconds which is less than 900 sec call in conkyrc. So everytime you run conkywx it will download new data. For normal usage 870 value is good. This value MUST ALWAYS be LESS than the value in execpi call [900] in conkyrc.
Edit: Actually I keep this time to 870 as once i have the data - one does not need to make unnecessary calls to the net and restarts are faster.

You normaly should not need to use --forceupdate - this was meant for an offchance and you do not want to change 870 or edit config file - so you can run this on a terminal.

If for some reason the net is not at it's spunky best - the net call will be made again at the next cycle by conkywx

Regarding the -c option only looks for a file - it can be any file - if it cannot make sence of data inside - conkywx will use default values. The program only knows one location for looking for conkywx config file and that is at /etc/conkywx/ period - it does not do file system search - so you may have 10 copies of the same file - unless you pass that file with a -c option conkywx is not interested.

The -t option only looks for a file - it can be any file - if it finds elements - they get replaced with data and the file is dumped back *inline* into conkyrc - conkyrc in turn has no clue what happened - it just takes the whole data below TEXT and shows it on desktop.

In the vinDSL script it is better to combine the weather and time into a single template - that is how I am running it and it is working like a charm - just a single call to conkywx

##################################
## VinDSL | rev. 12-09-16 09:02 ##
##################################
##   CONKYWX WEATHER TEMPLATE   ##
##################################
${voffset 6}${goto 36}${font Weather:size=44}${color6}y${font}
${voffset -58}${font RadioSpace:size=33}${color6}${alignc}[PT]${font}
${voffset 2}${goto 85}${font}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=8}${color5}Feels${offset 1}:${offset 1}${color6}[FL]/${offset 2}[FCTT]${font}
${voffset -40}${goto 203}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=8.75}${color6}[D1T]${font}
${voffset 0}${goto 204}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=7.3}${color5}CoR${offset 1}:${offset 1}${color6}[D1P]${font}
${voffset -45}${goto 188}${font KRARound:size=41.5}${color8}I${font}
${voffset 7}${font Ubuntu:size=22.75}${color5}${alignc}[CT]${font}
${voffset 8}${goto 85}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=7.55}${color5}Humidity${offset 1}:${offset 2}${color6}[HM]${font}${voffset 11}${goto 84}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=7.55}${color5}Barometer${offset 1}:${offset 2}${color6}[BR]${font}${voffset 11}${goto 84}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=7.55}${color5}Bar${offset 3}Trend${offset 1}:${offset 2}${color6}[FCTP]${font}${voffset 11}${goto 84}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=7.55}${color5}Moonrise${offset 1}:${color6}[MR]${font}${voffset 11}${goto 85}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=7.55}${color5}Moonset${offset 1}:${color6}[MS]${font}
${voffset -61}${goto 16}${font ConkyWindNESW:size=41.6}${color6}[BF]${font}${voffset -36}${goto 196}${font MoonPhases:size=35}${color6}[MIF]${font}${voffset -36}${goto 198}${font MoonPhases:size=35}${color8}8${font}
${voffset -1}${goto 22}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=8.45}${color3}[WS] mph${voffset -1}${goto 203}[MP]${font}
${voffset 8}${goto 25}${font DroidSans:bold:size=8.5}${color5}[D2D]${goto 85}[D3D]${goto 144}[D4D]${goto 201}[D5D]${font}
${voffset 2}${goto 23}${font ConkyWeather:size=32}${color6}[D2F]${goto 83}[D3F]${goto 142}[D4F]${goto 200}[D5F]${font}
${voffset 1}${goto 25}${font DroidSans:bold:size=8.5}${color3}[D2T]${goto 85}[D3T]${goto 144}[D4T]${goto 201}[D5T]${font}
${voffset -1}${goto 24}${font DroidSans:bold:size=8.45}${color5}CoR${offset 1}:${offset 1}${color3}[D2P]${goto 84}${color5}CoR${offset 1}:${offset 1}${color3}[D3P]${goto 144}${color5}CoR${offset 1}:${offset 1}${color3}[D4P]${goto 201}${color5}CoR${offset 1}:${offset 1}${color3}[D5P]${font}
##################################
##     CONKYWX TIME SCRIPT      ##
##################################
${voffset 6}${font DroidSans:bold:size=8}${color4}TIME${offset 8}${color6}${voffset -2}${hr 1}${font}
##################################
## VinDSL | rev. 12-09-16 08:38 ##
##################################
##    CONKYWX TIME TEMPLATE     ##
##################################
${voffset -5}${font RadioSpace:size=32}${color3}${if_match ${time %l}<=9}${alignc 7}${time %l:%M%p}${else}${if_match ${time %l}>=10}${alignc -1}${time %l:%M%p}${endif}${endif}${font}
${voffset 1}${alignc 5}${font DroidSansFallback:bold:size=8.35}${color5}Sunrise${offset 1}:${color6}[SR]${offset 3}/${offset 3}${color5}Sunset${offset 1}:${color6}[SS]${font}

Please let me know if all this makes sence or if I have left anything out. Also I need feedback - if you make the required changes - does it work.

[AndyOpie150]

Thanks for the great info stinkeye, and paramvir as well.

EDIT: I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome classic. I can't seem to find Start Up Applications in the dropdown. I would have thought it was in the /System Tools/Administration directory. Checked everywhere. I must be blind in one eye (can't see out the other to good neither).

[paramvir]

Thanks for the great info stinkeye, and paramvir as well.

EDIT: I'm using Ubuntu 12.04 with Gnome classic. I can't seem to find Start Up Applications in the dropdown. I would have thought it was in the /System Tools/Administration directory. Checked everywhere. I must be blind in one eye (can't see out the other to good neither).

The best way to get started with using conky in general is to use google - you will get a world of information.

I did a google search with "where is startup applications in gnome classic ubuntu 12.04"

apparently you will need to use gnome-session-properties - see that search and you will get all the information.

cheers

[AndyOpie150]

Thanks. It sometimes seems I can't see the forest from the tree's.

[foodoo]

Hi AndyOpie150,

The quickest way to do this is:

press ALT+F2 together, this calls a command window, type in the window
"gnome-session-properties" without the quoats and press Enter, now you will see "Start Up Applications" !

Sean.