How to use Conky? (was: Why use Conky?)

[neojim]

I love Conky and it runs fine in LMDE4 but i cannot get it running with conky-all and conky-manager on LMDE5.
Any help?

Steps I use on LMDE4 that installs it flawlessly.
# sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install conky-all
$ wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/teejee2008/conky-man ... -amd64.run
# chmod +x conky-manager-v2.4-amd64.run
# sudo ./conky-manager-v2.4-amd64.run

After I run those on LMDE4 and run conky-manager it just works.
If I do the same in LMDE5 it installs. I can run conky and it opens. If I try it from the conky manager and try to run a theme nothing happens.
Any help would be appreciated.

[zcot]

https://github.com/zcot/conky-manager2

There is the added "start in terminal" option so you can get some feedback about any config issue.

[Koentje]

And errors/warnings show up in your xsession-errors log.. if LMDE has this file?

[Termy]

[...]

AFAIK, that file does also exist in Debian, so will highly likely exist in Debian-based distributions like LMDE.

[sdibaja]

I love Conky and it runs fine in LMDE4 but i cannot get it running with conky-all and conky-manager on LMDE5.
Any help?

Steps I use on LMDE4 that installs it flawlessly.
# sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install conky-all
$ wget --no-check-certificate https://github.com/teejee2008/conky-man ... -amd64.run
# chmod +x conky-manager-v2.4-amd64.run
# sudo ./conky-manager-v2.4-amd64.run

After I run those on LMDE4 and run conky-manager it just works.
If I do the same in LMDE5 it installs. I can run conky and it opens. If I try it from the conky manager and try to run a theme nothing happens.
Any help would be appreciated.

older versions of conky script don't work in Debian 11.
I think conky manager is loaded with ancient ones.

this is what pushed me to find and use lean-conky
https://github.com/jxai/lean-conky-config
this is the Only part that doe nor work correctly: https://github.com/jxai/lean-conky-config/issues/2

[all41]

older versions of conky script don't work in Debian 11.
I think conky manager is loaded with ancient ones.

Yes-- some of the older conky.rc will not run on later kernels.
This is most noticable using xfce 20.x
Sigh--I will need to update my years-old conky scripts eventually
20.x Cinn and Mate runs those older conky.rc as expected--not xfce though.
I think it's a compositing issue.

[sdibaja]

older versions of conky script don't work in Debian 11.
I think conky manager is loaded with ancient ones.

Yes-- some of the older conky.rc will not run on later kernels.
This is most noticable using xfce 20.x
Sigh--I will need to update my years-old conky scripts eventually
20.x Cinn and Mate runs those older conky.rc as expected--not xfce though.
I think it's a compositing issue.

https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky
have a look at the Issues

it's a complex project, some things just don't work depending on the conky Version you use.
You might want to try another (older) version.

[all41]

older versions of conky script don't work in Debian 11.
I think conky manager is loaded with ancient ones.

Yes-- some of the older conky.rc will not run on later kernels.
This is most noticable using xfce 20.x
Sigh--I will need to update my years-old conky scripts eventually
20.x Cinn and Mate runs those older conky.rc as expected--not xfce though.
I think it's a compositing issue.

https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky
have a look at the Issues

it's a complex project, some things just don't work depending on the conky Version you use.
You might want to try another (older) version.

Thanks

This script is ancient--maybe even used with Petra.
It originated from older conky manager scripts and tweaked to my liking.
The puzzling part--the same conky.rc works perfectly with MATE, Cinnamon, LMDE and several others
xfce reports an error near the word 'yes' (there are a couple dozen yes statements).

I am thinking the latest terminology is 'true or false' instead of 'yes or no'.
It's a rabbit hole to explore someday--on the bucket list.
I don't recall having this problem with 19.x

[Koentje]

There is a lua conversion script to convert old versions of conky scripts to new.. it's worth a try!

Convert_old_scripts.tar.gz

(2.35 KiB) Downloaded 45 times

[zcot]

My apologies.

I revisited this issue and realize I was mistaken, had done some testing in the last month checking conky-manager2 for the new releases but it was against Ubuntu 22.04, not LMDE5. I just checked though.


This was all mentioned above, but just reiterating it.

The scripts that are failing on LMDE are just the older ones(pre 1.10 lua based format) that end up requiring the use of conky's internal automatic conversion script, -that happens when you load a pre-1.10 format config.

The newer conky, from 1.10 on, after BrendenMatthews took it, does have its own internal, automatic, conversion script on initiation of any script(backward compatibility).

But it is failing after some update on 1.11, although manually converting the script works fine, and then conky handles it fine.


You can manually use the script conversion tool, provided by BrendenMatthews or the conky team, that is provided, and that makes it work on LMDE5, which is using conky version above 1.11, -at least the few I tested worked without issue using the default conky-manager2 provided configs. Read about it here: https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky/wi ... igs-to-110

You need to have lua installed to use that conversion script. On LMDE5, apt install lua5.4 to get the latest, or 5.2, or 5.3 is available as well, and each worked for the conversion script.


I did update the conky-manager2 on github with an already converted initial themepack, so at least those 5 default provided configs will work by default.


Not related to the above, I was seeing garbled graphics on one test, possibly others have the same issue, this is the solution.

Conky Seamod:
the original has these 2 lines at about line 34

Code: Select all

own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_visual no

-that's redundant, and odd.
Using the converted script you can either comment out the second line or just remove it

Code: Select all

own_window_argb_visual = true,
--own_window_argb_visual = false,

Also, I notice this line above that in the config:

Code: Select all

own_window_type = 'normal',

but to get where there is not a window button on the taskbar, or where the window should not be interfered with

Code: Select all

own_window_type = 'desktop',

If you have any specific issues, post them, there are plenty of knowledgeable users willing to help.