Autostarting conky not working in 12.04

[Frogs Hair]

Once you create the text document in gedit name & save it to any folder you want . Open that location right click the document , go to Properties > Permissions and select the Execute check box and close. When you add conky to startup applications under command use browse to navigate the folder where the script is saved. Select open and select save in the add to startup application dialog box

[Sector11]

It's interesting to see all the different problems with starting conky. It's pretty straight forward really.

In a terminal

conky

... will start one of the following in this order:
1. ${sysconfdir}/conky/conky.conf On most systems, sysconfdir is /etc, and you can find the sample config file there (/etc/conky/conky.conf).
2. User defined default file $HOME/.conkyrc or ~/.conkyrc or /home/username/.conkyrc

$HOME/.conkyrc being a user created custom "default" conky.

However a conky file can be anywhere and called just about anything:

1. ~/.conkyrc (user defaultt as seen above)
2. ~/myconky
3. ~/myconky-2
4. /media/5/Conky/top-conky
5. /media/5/Conky/bottom-conky
6. /media/5/Conky/email-conky

#2 through #6 can be started with: conky -c /path/to/the conky - ie:

• conky -c ~/myconky
• conky -c ~/myconky-2
• conky -c /media/5/Conky/top-conky
• conky -c /media/5/Conky/bottom-conky
• conky -c /media/5/Conky/email-conky

Example bash scripts to start a conky come in various forms as seen in this thread.

There is also a script that can start a conky if it's not running - or stop it if it is running: Start/Stop Conky - and as you see in that sample - it can be used for "multiple conkys as well.

It can also be used for your "autostart"

Mine for OpenBox is: S11_T2_SSC.sh and it is the last command in my ~/.config/openbox/autostart.sh file

## Start Conky after a slight delay
(sleep 2s && /media/5/Conky/OBMenuS/S11_T2_SSC.sh) &
exit

S11_T2_SSC.sh

   #!/bin/bash
   # click to start, click to stop
if pidof conky | grep [0-9] > /dev/null
  then
	exec killall conky
  else

# on all desktops
	conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_Email_1.conky &

# Start with low sleep and build up per desktop.
# on desktop 4 only
	(sleep 1s && wmctrl -s 3 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/mrp/conky3/conky3.conky) &

# on desktop 3 only
	(sleep 6s && wmctrl -s 2 && conky) &
	(sleep 6s && wmctrl -s 2 && conky -c /media/5/conky/Conky/conkymain) &
	(sleep 6s && wmctrl -s 2 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_HUD3.conky) &

# on desktop 2 only
	(sleep 8s && wmctrl -s 1 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_Dates.conky) &
	(sleep 8s && wmctrl -s 1 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_VNS.conky) &
	(sleep 8s && wmctrl -s 1 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_Rem_Cal.conky) &
	(sleep 8s && wmctrl -s 1 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_Disk_Activity.conky) &

# on desktop 1 only
        (sleep 10s && wmctrl -s 0 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_VSIDO_v9.conkyrc) &
        (sleep 10s && wmctrl -s 0 && conky -c /media/5/Conky/S11_Cal_br.conky) &
  exit
fi

[patrickcage]

I changed the delay in the script from 10 to 15 then to 20 - Conky now starts up as expected.

[Sector11]

[facepalm]Oops![/facepalm]

Should have seen that coming. Depending on the DE/WM there is a delay required for some in order to get the desktop drawn before conky starts.