Need help with Conky

**Mkellers** · July 13th, 2012

Hi

I'm pretty new to Ubuntu- and Linux in general for that matter- so don't berate me if the solution here is seemingly obvious

So I downloaded Conky from this website : http://conky.sourceforge.net/

I extracted the folder from the Terminal, then proceeded to configure the source files. Here's what came up: checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for a thread-safe mkdir -p... /bin/mkdir -p
checking for gawk... no
checking for mawk... mawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... yes
checking for gcc... gcc
checking whether the C compiler works... yes
checking for C compiler default output file name... a.out
checking for suffix of executables...
checking whether we are cross compiling... no
checking for suffix of object files... o
checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler... yes
checking whether gcc accepts -g... yes
checking for gcc option to accept ISO C89... none needed
checking for style of include used by make... GNU
checking dependency style of gcc... gcc3
checking build system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking host system type... x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu
checking for a sed that does not truncate output... /bin/sed
checking for grep that handles long lines and -e... /bin/grep
checking for egrep... /bin/grep -E
checking for fgrep... /bin/grep -F
checking how to print strings... printf
checking for ld used by gcc... /usr/bin/ld
checking if the linker (/usr/bin/ld) is GNU ld... yes
checking for BSD- or MS-compatible name lister (nm)... /usr/bin/nm -B
checking the name lister (/usr/bin/nm -B) interface... BSD nm
checking whether ln -s works... yes
checking the maximum length of command line arguments... 1572864
checking whether the shell understands some XSI constructs... yes
checking whether the shell understands "+="... yes
checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu format... func_convert_file_noop
checking how to convert x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu file names to toolchain format... func_convert_file_noop
checking for /usr/bin/ld option to reload object files... -r
checking for objdump... objdump
checking how to recognize dependent libraries... pass_all
checking for dlltool... no
checking how to associate runtime and link libraries... printf %s\n
checking for ar... ar
checking for archiver @FILE support... @
checking for strip... strip
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking command to parse /usr/bin/nm -B output from gcc object... ok
checking for sysroot... no
checking for mt... mt
checking if mt is a manifest tool... no
checking how to run the C preprocessor... gcc -E
checking for ANSI C header files... yes
checking for sys/types.h... yes
checking for sys/stat.h... yes
checking for stdlib.h... yes
checking for string.h... yes
checking for memory.h... yes
checking for strings.h... yes
checking for inttypes.h... yes
checking for stdint.h... yes
checking for unistd.h... yes
checking for dlfcn.h... yes
checking for objdir... .libs
checking if gcc supports -fno-rtti -fno-exceptions... no
checking for gcc option to produce PIC... -fPIC -DPIC
checking if gcc PIC flag -fPIC -DPIC works... yes
checking if gcc static flag -static works... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... yes
checking if gcc supports -c -o file.o... (cached) yes
checking whether the gcc linker (/usr/bin/ld -m elf_x86_64) supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether -lc should be explicitly linked in... no
checking dynamic linker characteristics... GNU/Linux ld.so
checking how to hardcode library paths into programs... immediate
checking whether stripping libraries is possible... yes
checking if libtool supports shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build shared libraries... yes
checking whether to build static libraries... yes
checking whether gcc and cc understand -c and -o together... yes
checking for pkg-config... yes
checking for pkg-config... /usr/bin/pkg-config
checking pkg-config is at least version 0.19... yes
checking for fopencookie... yes
checking for funopen... no
checking ncurses.h usability... no
checking ncurses.h presence... no
checking for ncurses.h... no
configure: error: required header(s) not found

To be honest I'm not exactly sure what to do here :/ Hence the coming on the forum lol. Is the config error because of something wrong with the release itself or do I have to go and do something??

I would be SO grateful if someone could help me with this! xD

**TheAlliedFleet** · July 13th, 2012

Conky should be in the Software centre, just search for it and download and the software centre should do the rest. Just in case you don't know you launch Conky from the Terminal

**sandyd** · July 13th, 2012

Go to unity dash -> type in "terminal", select terminal
type in

Code:

sudo apt-get install conky

**Kopkins** · July 14th, 2012

Do:

Code:

sudo apt-get install conky

as the previous poster said.

If you have a conky config file you want to use, run this from terminal:

Code:

conky -c /path/to/conky/config

Or you can move the file to the default conky config location.

Code:

mv /path/to/conky/config /home/your-username/.conkyrc

then,

Code:

conky

Best of luck with conky, it's a very useful program.
Kopkins

**Shadius** · July 14th, 2012

The folks over here can probably better assist you. They deal with all things Conky! Very good thread to subscribe to.

The method that was suggested to me is the following:

Code:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vincent-c/conky
sudo apt-get update

This method adds the PPA. I noticed that Ubuntu Software Center still has the previous version of 1.8.1 instead of the newer version that the conky site itself has. I was told that adding the PPA was the best method.

**Cheesemill** · July 14th, 2012

Originally Posted by Mkellers

So I downloaded Conky from this website : http://conky.sourceforge.net/

Your problem is that you downloaded software from a website, there is no need to do this when you are using Ubuntu. Instead all software should be installed from the Software Center or by using the apt-get command in a terminal:

Code: