Can't get Conky to work

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gibbs1984
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Level 5
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:40 pm
Location: Hemel Hempstead, England

Can't get Conky to work

Post by gibbs1984 »

Hi all,

I have installed Conky on my newly installed Mint 14 Cinnamon 32bit coming from Mint 13 MATE 32bit where it worked perfectly.

I have a .conkyrc file in /home/steve/Documents/Conky:

Code: Select all

# conky configuration

# set to yes if you want Conky to be forked in the background
background yes

# X font when Xft is disabled, you can pick one with program xfontsel
#font 5x7
#font 6x10
#font 7x13
#font 8x13
#font 9x15
#font *mintsmild.se*
#font -*-*-*-*-*-*-34-*-*-*-*-*-*-*


# Use Xft?
use_xft yes

# Xft font when Xft is enabled
#xftfont Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:size=8
#xftfont Terminus:size=8
xftfont Sans:size=10

# Text alpha when using Xft
xftalpha 0.2

# Print everything to console?
# out_to_console no

# mail spool
#mail_spool $MAIL

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1
# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
on_bottom yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,skip_taskbar,sticky
#own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky
background yes
own_window_colour blue
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type override
#own_window yes
#own_window_type desktop
#own_window_hints below

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 125 5

# Draw shades?
draw_shades yes

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 3

# border margins
border_margin 9

# border width
border_width 0

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color white

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
alignment top_left
#alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 5
gap_y 5

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale no


# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer yes
#Note: doesn't work in conky 1.2 =(

#   mldonkey_hostname     Hostname for mldonkey stuff, defaults to localhost
#   mldonkey_port         Mldonkey port, 4001 default
#   mldonkey_login        Mldonkey login, default none
#   mldonkey_password     Mldonkey password, default none


# Possible variables to be used:
#
#      Variable         Arguments                  Description                

#     addr              (interface)   IP address for an interface
#     acpiacadapter                   ACPI ac adapter state.                   
#     acpifan                         ACPI fan state                           
#     acpitemp                        ACPI temperature.                        
#     adt746xcpu                      CPU temperature from therm_adt746x       
#     adt746xfan                      Fan speed from therm_adt746x             
#     alignr            (num)         Right-justify text, with space of N
#     alignc                          Align text to centre
#     battery           (num)         Remaining capasity in ACPI or APM        
#                     battery. ACPI battery number can be      
#                     given as argument (default is BAT0).     
#     buffers                         Amount of memory buffered                
#     cached                          Amount of memory cached                  
#     color             (color)       Change drawing color to color            
#     cpu                             CPU usage in percents                    
#     cpubar            (height)      Bar that shows CPU usage, height is      
#                     bar's height in pixels                 
#     cpugraph          (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
#                     CPU usage graph, with optional colours in hex,
#                     minus the #.
#     downspeed         net           Download speed in kilobytes              
#     downspeedf        net           Download speed in kilobytes with one     
#                     decimal                                  
#     downspeedgraph    net (height),(width) (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
#                     Download speed graph, colours defined in
#                     hex, minus the #.
#     exec              shell command Executes a shell command and displays    
#                     the output in conky. warning: this      
#                     takes a lot more resources than other    
#                     variables. I'd recommend coding wanted   
#                     behaviour in C and posting a patch :-).  
#     execbar           shell command Same as exec, except if the first value
#                     return is a value between 0-100, it
#                     will use that number for a bar.
#                     The size for the bar is currently fixed,
#                     but that may change in the future.
#     execgraph         shell command Same as execbar, but graphs values
#     execi             interval, shell command
#                      Same as exec but with specific interval. 
#                     Interval can't be less than              
#                     update_interval in configuration.        
#    font          font        Specify a different font.  Only applies
#                    to one line.
#     fs_bar            (height), (fs)Bar that shows how much space is used on 
#                     a file system. height is the height in   
#                     pixels. fs is any file on that file      
#                     system.                                  
#     fs_free           (fs)          Free space on a file system available    
#                     for users.                               
#     fs_free_perc      (fs)          Free percentage of space on a file       
#                     system available for users.              
#     fs_size           (fs)          File system size                         
#     fs_used           (fs)          File system used space                   
#     hr                (height)      Horizontal line, height is the height in 
#                     pixels                                   
#     i2c               (dev), type, n  I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev   
#                     may be omitted if you have only one I2C  
#                     device. type is either in (or vol)       
#                     meaning voltage, fan meaning fan or
#                     temp/tempf (first in C, second in F)
#                     meaning temperature. n is number of the  
#                     sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on     
#                     your local computer.                     
#     if_running        (process)     if PROCESS is running, display
#                     everything if_running and the matching $endif
#     if_existing       (file)        if FILE exists, display everything between
#                     if_existing and the matching $endif
#     if_mounted        (mountpoint)  if MOUNTPOINT is mounted, display everything between
#                     if_mounted and the matching $endif
#     else                            Text to show if any of the above are not true
#     kernel                          Kernel version                          
#     linkstatus        (interface)   Get the link status for wireless connections
#     loadavg           (1), (2), (3) System load average, 1 is for past 1     
#                     minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for   
#                     past 15 minutes.                         
#     machine                         Machine, i686 for example                
#     mails                           Mail count in mail spool. You can use    
#                     program like fetchmail to get mails from 
#                     some server using your favourite         
#                     protocol. See also new_mails.            
#     mem                             Amount of memory in use                  
#     membar            (height)      Bar that shows amount of memory in use   
#     memmax                          Total amount of memory                   
#     memperc                         Percentage of memory in use
#     
#     metar_ob_time
#     metar_temp
#     metar_tempf                     Temp in F
#     metar_windchill
#     metar_dew_point                 There are a bunch of these
#     metar_rh                        and they are self-explanatory
#     metar_windspeed
#     metar_winddir
#     metar_swinddir
#     metar_cloud
#     metar_u2d_time
#     
#     ml_upload_counter               total session upload in mb
#     ml_download_counter             total session download in mb
#     ml_nshared_files                number of shared files
#     ml_shared_counter               total session shared in mb, buggy
#                     in some mldonkey versions
#     ml_tcp_upload_rate              tcp upload rate in kb/s
#     ml_tcp_download_rate            tcp download rate in kb/s
#     ml_udp_upload_rate              udp upload rate in kb/s
#     ml_udp_download_rate            udp download rate in kb/s
#     ml_ndownloaded_files            number of completed files
#     ml_ndownloading_files           number of downloading files
#     
#     mpd_artist            Artist in current MPD song
#                     (must be enabled at compile)
#     mpd_album            Album in current MPD song
#     mpd_bar           (height)      Bar of mpd's progress
#     mpd_bitrate                     Bitrate of current song
#     mpd_status                      Playing, stopped, et cetera.
#     mpd_title            Title of current MPD song
#     mpd_vol                MPD's volume
#     mpd_elapsed                     Song's elapsed time
#     mpd_length                      Song's length
#     mpd_percent                     Percent of song's progress
#     new_mails                       Unread mail count in mail spool.         
#     nodename                        Hostname                                 
#     outlinecolor      (color)       Change outline color                     
#     pre_exec          shell command Executes a shell command one time before 
#                     conky displays anything and puts output 
#                     as text.                                 
#     processes                       Total processes (sleeping and running)   
#     running_processes               Running processes (not sleeping),        
#                     requires Linux 2.6                       
#     shadecolor        (color)       Change shading color                     
#     stippled_hr       (space),      Stippled (dashed) horizontal line        
#             (height)        
#     swapbar           (height)      Bar that shows amount of swap in use     
#     swap                            Amount of swap in use                    
#     swapmax                         Total amount of swap                     
#     swapperc                        Percentage of swap in use                
#     sysname                         System name, Linux for example           
#     offset            pixels        Move text over by N pixels
#     tail              logfile, lines (interval)
#                     Displays last N lines of supplied text
#                     text file.  If interval is not supplied,
#                     Conky assumes 2x Conky's interval.
#                     Max of 30 lines.
#                     Max of 30 lines can be displayed.
#     time              (format)      Local time, see man strftime to get more 
#                     information about format                 
#     totaldown         net           Total download, overflows at 4 GB on     
#                     Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't 
#                     seem to be a way to know how many times  
#                     it has already done that before conky   
#                     has started.                            
#     top               type, num     This takes arguments in the form:
#                     top <name> <number>
#                     Basically, processes are ranked from 
#                     highest to lowest in terms of cpu
#                     usage, which is what <num> represents.
#                     The types are: "name", "pid", "cpu", and
#                     "mem".
#                     There can be a max of 10 processes listed.
#     top_mem           type, num     Same as top, except sorted by mem usage
#                     instead of cpu
#     totalup           net           Total upload, this one too, may overflow 
#     updates                         Number of updates (for debugging)        
#     upspeed           net           Upload speed in kilobytes                
#     upspeedf          net           Upload speed in kilobytes with one       
#                     decimal                                  
#     upspeedgraph      net (height),(width)  (gradient colour 1) (gradient colour 2)
#                     Upload speed graph, colours defined in
#                     hex, minus the #.
#     uptime                          Uptime                                   
#     uptime_short                    Uptime in a shorter format               
#     
#     seti_prog                       Seti@home current progress
#     seti_progbar      (height)      Seti@home current progress bar
#     seti_credit                     Seti@hoome total user credit


# variable is given either in format $variable or in ${variable}. Latter
# allows characters right after the variable and must be used in network
# stuff because of an argument

# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen

TEXT
${color }$nodename  ${hr}
${color #9fb6cd}${time %a, } $alignr${color }${time %e %B %G}
${color #9fb6cd}${time %Z,    }$alignr${color }${time %H:%M:%S}
${color #9fb6cd}UpTime $alignr${color }$uptime
${color #9fb6cd}Kernel$alignr${color }$kernel
${color #9fb6cd}Processes $alignr${color }$processes
${color #9fb6cd}Running   $alignr${color }$running_processes
${if_existing /proc/net/route wlan0}${color #9fb6cd}Wireless ${alignr} ${color }${wireless_link_qual wlan0}%${endif}

${color #9fb6cd}CPU1  ${cpu cpu1}%
${cpubar 8,250 cpu1}
${color #9fb6cd}CPU2  ${cpu cpu2}%
${cpubar 8,250 cpu2}

${color #9fb6cd}/root ${alignr}${color #9fb6cd} ${fs_used /} of ${fs_size /}
${fs_bar 8,250 /}
${color #9fb6cd}/home ${alignr}${color #9fb6cd} ${fs_used /home}of ${fs_size /home}
${fs_bar 8,250 /home}

${color #9fb6cd}RAM ${alignr}${color #9fb6cd} $mem of $memmax
${membar 8,250}
${color #9fb6cd}SWAP ${alignr}${color #9fb6cd} $swap of $swapmax
${swapbar 8,250}

${color #9fb6cd}Highest CPU
${color #ddaa00} ${top name 1}$alignr${top_mem cpu 1}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 2}$alignr${top cpu 2}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 3}$alignr${top cpu 3}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 4}$alignr${top cpu 4}
${color lightgrey} ${top name 5}$alignr${top cpu 5}

${color #9fb6cd}Highest RAM
${color #ddaa00} ${top_mem name 1}$alignr${top_mem mem 1}
${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 2}$alignr${top_mem mem 2}
${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 3}$alignr${top_mem mem 3}
${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 4}$alignr${top_mem mem 4}
${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 5}$alignr${top_mem mem 5}
$color$stippled_hr
${color #9fb6cd}Networking
${color #9fb6cd}Down: ${downspeed wlan0}k/s ${offset 40}Up: ${upspeed wlan0}k/s
${color #9fb6cd}${downspeedgraph wlan0 30,125 9fb6cd 9fb6cd} ${color #9fb6cd}${upspeedgraph wlan0 30,125 ${color #9fb6cd}
I have a .ssc.sh in /home/steve:

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
# click to start, click to stop

if pidof conky | grep [0-9] > /dev/null
then
 exec killall conky
else

sleep 40  # sleep not required for xfce on startup - 30 or more for others
conky -c ~/Documents/Conky/.conkyrc &
#conky -c ~/Conky/conkyforecast &

 exit
fi
I have set both these files to be executable by going to Properties > Permissions > Allow executing file as program

In Startup Applications I have the following setup:

Image

Now this setup in Mint 13 MATE used to work fine but now nothing starts up.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Linux Mint 20.3 (Cinnamon) 64bit.
Gord

Re: Can't get Conky to work

Post by Gord »

gibbs1984 wrote:Now this setup in Mint 13 MATE used to work fine but now nothing starts up.
I just recreated your setup in Mint 14 and actually conky does start up...
  • gord@CinnaMintVM01 ~ $ ps -e | grep conky
    2362 ? 00:00:05 conky
...but something in your .conkyrc is preventing the conky window from showing up. I verified that by creating a new default .conkyrc

Code: Select all

cp ~/Documents/Conky/.conkyrc ~/Documents/Conky/old.conkyrc 
conky -C > ~/Documents/Conky/.conkyrc
and then restarting my machine.

If that works for you then you can start moving your tweaks from old.conkyrc into .conkyrc until you find the one that breaks it under Mint 14.
gibbs1984
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:40 pm
Location: Hemel Hempstead, England

Re: Can't get Conky to work

Post by gibbs1984 »

Thanks :)

After doing a bit more searching I managed to find this thread, where it looks like the files were owned by root and not me, I've tried the solution and will test it in a minute as I'm just waiting for Synaptic to download some programmes.

If it doesn't work I'll try what you suggested, thanks for the response :)
Linux Mint 20.3 (Cinnamon) 64bit.
gibbs1984
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:40 pm
Location: Hemel Hempstead, England

Re: Can't get Conky to work

Post by gibbs1984 »

OK, so my solution didn't work.

I did what you said and copied the file and created an old.conkyrc file and left my .conkyrc file and then Conky started up when I restarted my computer.

I can't work out where Conky is loading it from though as my startup script points to the .conkyrc file so I don't see why another Conky file would open?
Linux Mint 20.3 (Cinnamon) 64bit.
Gord

Re: Can't get Conky to work

Post by Gord »

Conky is still loading its configuration from

~/Documents/Conky/.conkyrc

as specified in your shell script. The two commands in my previous post were...

Code: Select all

cp ~/Documents/Conky/.conkyrc ~/Documents/Conky/old.conkyrc
...which copied your old (broken in Mint 14) configuration to a file called 'old.conkyrc', and...

Code: Select all

conky -C > ~/Documents/Conky/.conkyrc
...which created a new "plain vanilla" default configuration (not broken in Mint 14). Now if you want conky to look and feel like it did before, you need to change the settings in the new .conkyrc to match those in old.conkyrc while avoiding the one(s) that make conky stop working in Mint 14. That could involve a bit of trial and error on your part.

If you want to verify that conky is reading the configuration file you *think* it is, just change the spelling of one of the labels in the TEXT section near the bottom of the file (e.g., change "Highest CPU" to "Mostest CPU") and see of the change shows up in the conky window (perhaps after a reboot).

For more information on configuring conky see

http://conky.sourceforge.net/docs.html
gibbs1984
Level 5
Level 5
Posts: 825
Joined: Mon Oct 27, 2008 2:40 pm
Location: Hemel Hempstead, England

Re: Can't get Conky to work

Post by gibbs1984 »

Thanks, I see what you did now, I'll have to keep experimenting with what works and what doesn't.
Linux Mint 20.3 (Cinnamon) 64bit.
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