[SOLVED] Conky freeze or GPU issue?

[thomas.raines]

Since upgrading to mint 18.3, I have encountered several issues. But most have been easily resolved. One that I cannot seem to figure out though, is that after running for a bit, and sometimes not until I put my box under a heavy load, my conky seems to freeze. But if I run killall conky in terminal, my conky still shows on screen in it's frozen state. It's not until I bring up the display manager and change my resolution does it disappear. I have updated my conkyrc to be compatible with conky v1.10. I have tried xserver-xorg-video-radeon and amdgpu-pro graphics drivers, as well as different kernels like 4.10, 4.13, and 4.15. But still the issue remains. I'm not sure what is causing this or where to look. Any insight into this would be much helpful. I have Googled my fingers off searching this issue but everything I am finding doesn't seem to fit my situation.

FYI: I'm using an ATI Radeon R7 260X graphics card. I'm running a custom built kernel v 4.14.48.

EDIT: So it appears the fix was to install dbus-user-session.

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install dbus-user-session

[darsh]

I have the same graphics card, or a very close version of it, and recently installed Conky myself. It blinks each time the data updates, which is irritating to me. But I do not have the issue that you have. If I may suggest these ideas to consider:

1. Restart your computer (if you haven't done so since installing Conky).
2. Play around with the display settings in Conky.
3. Update to Linux Mint 19, which is simply a slightly prettier and more advanced version of 18.3, if you want Conky and nothing else works.
4. Consider just dealing with the few steps you had to take being ritual each time you close Conky. Perhaps set yourself up a script file on your desktop that you simply double click to close Conky, it closing the app and refreshing the screen.

If it's only Conky that does it, then you'd suspect it's Conky. BUT, it also makes sense that's the operating system's rendering. OR the GPU, indeed, which I have had some issues with myself, unfortunately, us AMD folks, in other places anyway.

On Windows I would sometimes have that problem, where a closed window would remain. And simply dragging another window over it's area would remove it (does that work for you, the same as changing the resolution does?), but closing some applications and/or restarting explorer or the entire windows computer, would usually fix it. It was usually an overwhelmed system, or something being busy or bugged, a file or a cache.

Perhaps someone else can be more of use, good luck! I know Google can have a lot of great results and yet also seem like it's not giving you what you want, or you can't find what you had.

[smurphos]

It blinks each time the data updates, which is irritating to me. But I do not have the issue that you have.

Is it resizing the window to fit in an output that can be different character lengths? If so I had the same issue solved by including a sufficiently wide minimum_width = declaration in conky.config

[darsh]

Thanks for the idea smurphos, I just reduced the font size as an idea based on the principle of what you're saying and it reduced the blink frequency, so I appreciate the help! For some reason adjusting the minimum width won't actually change the application's width for me. But changing font size from 12 to 10 and background draw from false to true, it's every 3 or so updates tops now that it blinks. A step up!

[smurphos]

No worries...this is the conky.config section for mine which is blink free - it might help identify other possible causes..

Code: Select all

conky.config = {
    own_window = true,
    own_window_class = 'Conky',
    own_window_type = 'desktop',
    own_window_transparent = false,
    own_window_argb_visual = true,
    own_window_argb_value = 51,
    own_window_hints = 'below',
    own_window_colour = 'black',
    own_window_title = 'NET',
    minimum_width = 320,
    double_buffer = true,
    gap_x = 20,
    gap_y = 50,
    alignment = 'top_right',
    use_xft = true,
    font = 'Roboto-Light:size=8',
    xftalpha = 1,
    override_utf8_locale = true,
    draw_shades = false,
    draw_outline = true,
    default_outline_color = 'black',
    uppercase = false,
    default_color = 'daeaf2',
    color1 = '23b29a',
    color2 = 'CC823F',
    draw_borders = false,
    stippled_borders = 0,
    border_inner_margin = 5,
    border_outer_margin = 0,
    border_width = 0,
    draw_graph_borders = false,
    background = false,
    use_spacer = 'left',
    text_buffer_size = 256,
    no_buffers = true,
    short_units = true,
    pad_percents = 2,
    temperature_unit = 'celsius',
    update_interval = 1,
    if_up_strictness = 'address'
}

[darsh]

Much ablidged, I feel I have made further progress, some of those settings weren't in my config to modify so I added them manually, I should probably check my conky version/repository/update/etc. and read more on it in case I'm unaware of something others know, but also I have some blinking still just when some numbers update it's like the bottom half only re-draws a little slow, but if I remove the bottom half then the top half does it, and the white gets a little less white then back to more brightly white, but ever since taking your advice it's been better, it can update quite a few times without any blinking, then some are more mild than others too. I'll continue to fiddle!

I don't know if launching Conky from terminal has an alternative more direct method like a launcher that wouldn't blink if somehow my system was to blame, which is possible actually of my video card / display, it has some problems. This page for example after I loaded Conky and switched back to this forum window it was had tons of vertical and horizontal lines through it until I minimized/maximized it. Not to say it's related but I was wary of buying a touch screen in the first place, have had multitude disabled on startup ever since getting this otherwise excellent laptop.

[thomas.raines]

No worries...this is the conky.config section for mine which is blink free - it might help identify other possible causes..

Code: Select all

conky.config = {
    own_window = true,
    own_window_class = 'Conky',
    own_window_type = 'desktop',
    own_window_transparent = false,
    own_window_argb_visual = true,
    own_window_argb_value = 51,
    own_window_hints = 'below',
    own_window_colour = 'black',
    own_window_title = 'NET',
    minimum_width = 320,
    double_buffer = true,
    gap_x = 20,
    gap_y = 50,
    alignment = 'top_right',
    use_xft = true,
    font = 'Roboto-Light:size=8',
    xftalpha = 1,
    override_utf8_locale = true,
    draw_shades = false,
    draw_outline = true,
    default_outline_color = 'black',
    uppercase = false,
    default_color = 'daeaf2',
    color1 = '23b29a',
    color2 = 'CC823F',
    draw_borders = false,
    stippled_borders = 0,
    border_inner_margin = 5,
    border_outer_margin = 0,
    border_width = 0,
    draw_graph_borders = false,
    background = false,
    use_spacer = 'left',
    text_buffer_size = 256,
    no_buffers = true,
    short_units = true,
    pad_percents = 2,
    temperature_unit = 'celsius',
    update_interval = 1,
    if_up_strictness = 'address'
}

Thanks for posting your conky.config section. I failed to say this earlier, but I used the automatic converter to convert my old .conkyrc to the new format for v1.10. When I diffed yours side-by-side to mine, I found that mine still had colours defined with # proceeding them and there were a few extra separators (comas) here and there. removing the # and the extra comas seems to have fixed it. I'm still testing, but I have diffed 4 sets of large repos, ran 2 kernel builds simultaneously, and 6 android rom builds and conky still hasn't frozen up. I ran conky in terminal so I could monitor it and it seems it was crashing when it tried to refresh. it has refresh several times without issue... I will continue testing for a little longer and mark this thread as solved accordingly.

EDIT: Spoke too soon. About 3 minutes after making this post, conky froze. Although, this time, it did not close in terminal. Could this be a formatting issue?

[thomas.raines]

Code: Select all

conky.config = {
	own_window = true,
	own_window_class = 'Conky',
	own_window_transparent = true,
    own_window_argb_value = 51,
	own_window_hints = 'undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager',
	own_window_argb_visual = true,
	own_window_argb_value = 180,
	minimum_width = 850, minimum_height = 1100,
	maximum_width = 225,
	double_buffer = true,
	gap_x = 0,
	gap_y = 0,
	alignment = 'top_right',
	use_xft = true,
    override_utf8_locale = true,
	max_text_width = 0,
	draw_shades = false,
	draw_outline = false,
	default_shade_color = '1f1f1f',
	default_outline_color = '1f1f1f',
	uppercase = false,
	draw_graph_borders = true,
	default_color = 'BB1E39',
	color1 = 'slategrey',-- Horizonal lines
	color2 = 'cdcdcd',-- Text
	color6 = 'darkblue',-- Text
	draw_borders = false,
    stippled_borders = 0,
    background = false,
    use_spacer = 'left',
    text_buffer_size = 256,
	no_buffers = true,
    short_units = true,
    pad_percents = 2,
    temperature_unit = 'fahrenheit',
    update_interval = 1,
    if_up_strictness = 'address',
	cpu_avg_samples = 2,
	net_avg_samples = 2,
	background = false,
	font = 'Zekton:size=7.5:bold',
	font = 'Zekton:size=7.5:bold',
	xftalpha = 0.9,
	update_interval = .5,
	total_run_times = 0,
};

conky.text = [[
CPU${cpugauge cpu0 30,60} ${alignr}RAM${memgauge 30,60}
Dev-IO: ${diskio /dev/sdd1}%  ${alignr}Ccache-IO: ${diskio /dev/sdc1}%

${voffset -5}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}MainFrame ${voffset 4}${color1}${hr 2}${color}
${font Zekton:size=32}${time %l}:${time %M}${font Zekton:size=20} ${time %p} ${time %a}
${font Zekton:size=32}${time %b} ${font Zekton:size=22}${time %e} ${time %Y}

${voffset -40}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}WEATHER ${voffset 2}${color1}${hr 2}
${color}
${execi 600 bash $HOME/Conky/weather/1_accuweather -f}
${image $HOME/Conky/weather/0.png -p  5,205 -s 30x26}${execi 600  sed -n '23p' ~/Conky/weather/curr_cond}${font Zekton:size=8:bold}${goto 55}${voffset -30}CURRENTLY: ${execpi 600 sed -n '2p' $HOME/Conky/weather/curr_cond}°
${goto 55}${execpi 600 sed -n '4p' $HOME/Conky/weather/curr_cond|fold -w30}${color1}

${voffset 20}${goto 55}${image $HOME/Conky/weather/1.png -p  5,255 -s 30x26}${font Zekton:size=8:bold}${goto 55}${voffset -20}${execpi 600 sed -n '1p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}: ${execpi 600 sed -n '3p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°/${execpi 600 sed -n '4p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°
${goto 55}${execpi 600 sed -n '5p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days|fold -w30}

${voffset 20}${goto 55}${image $HOME/Conky/weather/2.png -p  5,300 -s 30x26}${font Zekton:size=8:bold}${goto 55}${voffset -20}${execpi 600 sed -n '6p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}: ${execpi 600 sed -n '8p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°/${execpi 600 sed -n '9p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°
${goto 55}${execpi 600 sed -n '10p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days|fold -w30}

${voffset 20}${goto 55}${image $HOME/Conky/weather/3.png -p  5,350 -s 30x26}${font Zekton:size=8:bold}${goto 55}${voffset -20}${execpi 600 sed -n '11p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}: ${execpi 600 sed -n '13p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°/${execpi 600 sed -n '14p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°
${goto 55}${execpi 600 sed -n '15p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days|fold -w30}

${voffset 20}${goto 55}${image $HOME/Conky/weather/4.png -p  5,395 -s 30x26}${font Zekton:size=8:bold}${goto 55}${voffset -20}${execpi 600 sed -n '16p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}: ${execpi 600 sed -n '18p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°/${execpi 600 sed -n '19p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°
${goto 55}${execpi 600 sed -n '20p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days|fold -w30}

${voffset 20}${goto 55}${image $HOME/Conky/weather/5.png -p  5,445 -s 30x26}${font Zekton:size=8:bold}${goto 55}${voffset -20}${execpi 600 sed -n '21p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}: ${execpi 600 sed -n '23p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°/${execpi 600 sed -n '24p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days}°
${goto 55}${execpi 600 sed -n '25p' $HOME/Conky/weather/first_days|fold -w30}

${voffset -10}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}SYSTEM ${voffset 2}${color1}${hr 2}
${color}${voffset 2}${offset -2}${font OpenLogos:size=12}Z${voffset -4}${font}${offset 3}${sysname}${offset 3}${kernel}${alignr}${machine}
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=10}A${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}AMD FX-8230 Black${alignr}${freq_g cpu} GHz
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=10}A${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}ATI Radeon R7 ${alignr}260X
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=10}A${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${exec cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/board_vendor|cut -c1-7}${alignr}${exec cat /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/board_name}

${voffset -10}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}PROCESSOR INFO ${voffset 2}${color1}${hr 2}${color}
${voffset 1}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${color2}Max-Freq: ${color2}${freq_g 0} GHz${color}
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset -2}${font}${offset 2}CPU 1 ${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu1 10,50 scale -t}${offset 28}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset 2}${offset 1}${font}${voffset -2}CPU 2${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu2 10,50 scale -t}
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset -2}${font}${offset 2}CPU 3${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu3 10,50 scale -t}${offset 28}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset 2}${offset 1}${font}${voffset -2}CPU 4${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu4 10,50 scale -t}
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset -2}${font}${offset 2}CPU 5${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu5 10,50 scale -t}${offset 28}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset 2}${offset 1}${font}${voffset -2}CPU 6${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu6 10,50 scale -t}
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset -2}${font}${offset 2}CPU 7${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu7 10,50 scale -t}${offset 28}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}k${voffset 2}${offset 1}${font}${voffset -2}CPU 8${offset 5}${cpugraph cpu8 10,50 scale -t}

${voffset -10}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}TEMP ${voffset 4}${color1}${hr 2}
${color}${font}${voffset -2}CPU Core: ${execi 8 sensors -f| grep -A 0 'CPU Temp'|cut -c13-17}°F ${alignr}CPU Fan:${execi 8 sensors -f| grep -A 0 'CPU-Fan'|cut -c13-21}
${voffset 2}My MOBO:${execi 8 sensors -f| grep -A 0 'MOBO'|cut -c13-17}°F${alignr}MOBO Fan: ${execi 8 sensors -f|grep -m 1 'Chassis-Fan'|cut -c13-17} RPM

${voffset -10}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}DRIVES & MEMORY ${voffset 2}${color1}${hr 2}
${color}${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}${offset -1}x${voffset -2}${font}${offset 4}Linux${goto 80}${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /}${alignr}${fs_free_perc /}%
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}${offset -1}x${voffset -2}${font}${offset 4}Dev${goto 80}${fs_used /media/Dev} / ${fs_size /media/Dev}${alignr}${fs_free_perc /media/Dev}%
${voffset 2}${font StyleBats:size=9.9}${offset -1}x${voffset -2}${font}${offset 4}ccache${goto 80}${fs_used /media/ccache} / ${fs_size /media/ccache}${alignr}${fs_free_perc /media/ccache}%

${voffset -10}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}PROCESSES ${voffset 2}${color1}${hr 2}
${voffset -3}${color2}${font StyleBats:size=10}z ${offset -2}${voffset -3}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}Running ${running_processes}${offset 40}Usage${alignr}Total ${processes}${color}
${voffset 4}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 1}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 1}${alignr}${top_mem mem 1}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 2}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 2}${alignr}${top_mem mem 2}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 3}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 3}${alignr}${top_mem mem 3}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 4}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 4}${alignr}${top_mem mem 4}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 5}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 5}${alignr}${top_mem mem 5}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 6}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 5}${alignr}${top_mem mem 6}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 7}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 5}${alignr}${top_mem mem 7}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 8}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 5}${alignr}${top_mem mem 8}%
${voffset 1}${font StyleBats:size=10}h${voffset -1}${font}${offset 5}${top_mem name 9}${goto 120}${top_mem mem_res 5}${alignr}${top_mem mem 9}%

${voffset -10}${color2}${font Zekton:size=9:bold}${offset -1}NETWORK ${voffset 2}${color1}${hr 2}
${color}${if_up wlp6s0}
${voffset -15}${font Poky:size=14}Y${font}${goto 32}${voffset -8}Wi-Fi ${alignr}${wireless_essid wlp6s0}
${goto 32}Signal:${wireless_link_qual wlp6s0}%${alignr}${wireless_link_bar 8,60 wlp6s0}
${voffset -1}${font VariShapes Solid:size=14}Q${font}${goto 32}${voffset -6}Download Speed:${alignr}${downspeedgraph wlp6s0 8,60}
${voffset -1}${goto 32}${downspeed wlp6s0}${alignr}Total:${totaldown wlp6s0}
${voffset -1}${font VariShapes Solid:size=14}q${font}${goto 32}${voffset -6}Upload Speed:${alignr}${upspeedgraph wlp6s0 8,60}
${voffset -1}${goto 32}${upspeed wlp6s0}${alignr}Total:${totalup wlp6s0}
${endif}
]];

Here is my .conkyrc.

[thomas.raines]

I have the same graphics card, or a very close version of it, and recently installed Conky myself. It blinks each time the data updates, which is irritating to me.

In my research to my conundrum, I invoked a horrible screen flicker as well. Luckily, I made a backup copy before I started messing with things and found a fix for the flicker by changing:

Code: Select all

	double_buffer = false,

to

Code: Select all

	double_buffer = true,

[darsh]

In my research to my conundrum, I invoked a horrible screen flicker as well. Luckily, I made a backup copy before I started messing with things and found a fix for the flicker by changing:

Code: Select all

	double_buffer = false,

to

Code: Select all

	double_buffer = true,

That worked entirely.. that setting was missing for me so I typed it in manually. Thanks!

[thomas.raines]

So, another update...
One of my friends suggested I should look in ~/.Xsession-errors to see if something is being reported around the time of the crash. Well, there are a bunch of errors, and I ended up getting side tracked on one about keyring (forgot what the error was). None-the-less, I had to install dbus-user-session. Which actually did fix that error after a reboot. Oddly though, my conky has been running just fine since then. I normally don't leave it on all day, but I just had to test the waters, and so far, so good... Unfortunately, there are a BUNCH more errors I need to fix... But I am doing some benchmark right now and will post an update in the morning... Hopefully, the issue is fix...

[thomas.raines]

In my research to my conundrum, I invoked a horrible screen flicker as well. Luckily, I made a backup copy before I started messing with things and found a fix for the flicker by changing:

Code: Select all

	double_buffer = false,

to

Code: Select all

	double_buffer = true,

That worked entirely.. that setting was missing for me so I typed it in manually. Thanks!

Glad I could help!

[thomas.raines]

Although I am not really sure of the correlation between conky timing out and freezing on screen and dbus-user-session, conky has been running just fine since I installed it.Therefore, I am marking this thread solved...