Conky – a light weight system monitor for Ubuntu Linux Systems

I just stopped here while searching for advanced configuration files and want to drop a hint i didn’t see here.

If conky is flickering while updates you need to enable double buffering in conky’s configuration file as it is to see above. This will have no effect until you enable double buffering in X11, too.

In order to do this one need to edit the xorg.conf (usually in /etc/X11 and edit as root) and add

Load “dbe”

to the

Section “Module”

Changes will have no effect until your restart the X11 server (e.g. with ctrl+alt+delete)

I lately ran into to this issue and think it’s worth a comment.

polarizer

Thanks for the article, worked like a charm!

Sorry being a bit picky but saying: “Conky – a light weight system monitor for Ubuntu Linux Systems” is completely wrong. Conky has NULL relation (and thankfully) with the horrible distro Ubuntu. It even has nothing binding it to Linux, runs fine on my BSD boxes.

Hmmmm, this is working in Ubuntu 8.10?

you dont need to edit the xorg.conf,
if you add the line :
“override_utf8_locale yes” (no quotes)
will stop the flicker, you may need to look and see if there is a similar line which says “no” in which case you can omit the line that contains “no”, just thought that it might help.

Also you can do some really funky stuff, I would suggest for new users the weather and lyrics add-ons, it takes some learning, but its not tough in the slightest and the result is often good, the chrunchbang forums have a really good conky thread upon which i stole most of my config

At what line is the end of the code to be copied? Is it all above the line:
“You can also extract the sample file using the following command”?
Milan

Sorry,but i cannot see the main purpose/significance of conky??

neither adding double buffer not the xorg.conf edit or adding the utf line makes any difference to flickering. this has been like this since jaunty 🙁 working perfectly in intrepid

Hi,

I configured my first conky config, and honestly been addicted to it.

Everything was working fine until yesterday before i logged off for the day.

Since today morning i started facing conky freezing issues. it used to freeze for seconds together, kind of choppy ! Have been trying to get it back to the performance it displayed yesterday but haven’t succeeded.

I realize there was an auto update (Ubuntu 9.04) today morning. Could that have messed up something ?

Now whenever i start conky through the application menu or startup entry. It either doesn’t display anything but continue to run when veiwed in the system monitor. If it starts then its pretty choppy. nowhere close to yesterday’s ‘Grand Premier’ opening i happen to witness. 🙁 but not for long 🙁

However when i launch the app through the terminal, the terminal freezes at the following with no display on the desktop.

”
Conky: desktop window (a5) is root window
Conky: window type – normal
Conky: drawing to created window (0x3a00001)
Conky: drawing to double buffer
”

and when i close the terminal window, i get the display on the desktop but in a froozen state !!!

Can you please help me fix the problem ?

PS: following were the auto updates that where installed
”
Upgraded the following packages:
dhcp3-client (3.1.1-5ubuntu8.1) to 3.1.1-5ubuntu8.2
dhcp3-common (3.1.1-5ubuntu8.1) to 3.1.1-5ubuntu8.2
google-chrome-unstable (4.0.295.0-r35884) to 4.0.302.2-r36665
”

thanks.

I’m having trouble with conky myself as well. I should say I’m an extreme n00b, I have Ubuntu 9.10. I installed X11-dev then installed conky thru the terminal, followed instructions from a separate ubuntu forum post, and when i went to run conky from the terminal, I got this:

Conky: border_margin is deprecated, please use window.border_inner_margin instead
Conky: statfs ‘/home/tmo’: No such file or directory
Conky: desktop window (22000cf) is subwindow of root window (ff)
Conky: window type – override
Conky: drawing to created window (0x3e00001)
Conky: drawing to double buffer
Conky: statfs ‘/home/tmo’: No such file or directory
Conky: obj->data.cpu_index 2 info.cpu_count 1
Conky: attempting to use more CPUs than you have!
Segmentation fault
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # UBUNTU-CONKY
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window yes
own_window: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_type override
own_window_type: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_transparent yes
own_window_transparent: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_hints: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ double_buffer yes
double_buffer: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # fiddle with window
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ use_spacer right
use_spacer: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ use_xft yes
use_xft: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Update interval in seconds
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ update_interval 3.0
update_interval: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Minimum size of text area
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ minimum_size 200 800
minimum_size: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Draw shades?
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ draw_shades no
draw_shades: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Text stuff
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_outline: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ draw_borders no
draw_borders: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ font arial
font: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Stippled borders?
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ stippled_borders 3
stippled_borders: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # border margins
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ border_margin 9
border_margin: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # border width
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ border_width 10
border_width: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ default_color grey
default_color: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_colour brown
own_window_colour: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ own_window_transparent yes
own_window_transparent: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Text alignment, other possible values are commented
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #alignment top_left
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ alignment top_right
alignment: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #alignment bottom_left
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ #alignment bottom_right
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # Gap between borders of screen and text
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ gap_x 10
gap_x: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ gap_y 10
gap_y: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # number of cpu samples to average
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # set to 1 to disable averaging
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ cpu_avg_samples 2
cpu_avg_samples: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ text_buffer_size 1024
text_buffer_size: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ # stuff after ‘TEXT’ will be formatted on screen
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ TEXT
TEXT: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ $color${font arial:size=9}
bash: $color${font arial:size=9}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ $nodename@$sysname $kernel on $machine${font arial:size=8}
bash: $machine${font arial:size=8}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Battery ${battery_bar 6 BAT0}
bash: ${battery_bar 6 BAT0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}CPU $color
bash: ${color orange}CPU: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${freq}MHz${alignr}Load: ${loadavg}
MHzLoad:: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${alignr}${loadgraph 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}
bash: ${alignr}${loadgraph 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ CPU Total:${color} ${cpu cpu0}% ${color}${alignr}Temp:${color} ${acpitemp}
bash: ${cpu cpu0}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${alignr}${cpugraph 0 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}
bash: ${alignr}${cpugraph 0 20,250 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Core one: ${color}${cpu cpu1}% ${alignr} Core two: ${color}${cpu cpu2}%
bash: ${color}${cpu cpu1}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${cpugraph 1 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}${alignr}${cpugraph 2 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}
bash: ${cpugraph 1 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}${alignr}${cpugraph 2 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ NAME${alignr}PID CPU% MEM%
NAMEPID: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 1}${alignr}${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
bash: ${top name 1}${alignr}${top pid 1}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 2}${alignr}${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
bash: ${top name 2}${alignr}${top pid 2}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 3}${alignr}${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
bash: ${top name 3}${alignr}${top pid 3}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${top name 4}${alignr}${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
bash: ${top name 4}${alignr}${top pid 4}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}MEMORY / DISK $color
bash: ${color orange}MEMORY: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Total: ${color}${memmax} ${alignr} Free: ${color}${memfree}
Total:: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ RAM: $memperc% ${alignr}Swap: $swapperc%
RAM:: command not found
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${memgraph 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E} ${alignr} ${swapbar 20,120 }
bash: ${memgraph 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ root: ${fs_used_perc /}% ${fs_bar 6 /}$color
bash: ${fs_used_perc /}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ home: ${fs_used_perc /home/tmo}% ${fs_bar 6 /home/tmo}$color
bash: ${fs_used_perc /home/tmo}%: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}WIFI (${addr wlan0}) $color
bash: syntax error near unexpected token `${addr wlan0}’
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${wireless_essid wlan0} ${wireless_link_bar 6 wlan0}
bash: ${wireless_essid wlan0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Down: $color${downspeed wlan0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed wlan0} k/s
bash: $color${downspeed wlan0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${downspeedgraph wlan0 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph wlan0
> 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}$color
bash: ${downspeedgraph wlan0 20,120 e5e5e5 F1AA0E}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Total: ${totaldown wlan0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup wlan0}
bash: ${totaldown wlan0}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ Inbound: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count} Outbound: ${tcp_portmon 32768
> 61000 count}${alignr}Total: ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}
bash: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count}: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${color orange}LOGGING $color
bash: ${color orange}LOGGING: bad substitution
dbook82@dbook82-laptop:~$ ${font arial:size=7}${execi 30 tail -n 10 /var/log/messages | fold -w45}

Some help please?
Or how can I delete it to reinstall fresh?
.

Using Mint Helena BTW

Conky+Lua looking great. Can collect any panel

Same as amir and indypat. Mint 9.

how can i have two conky at desktop on different side?
please help me i’m a new user.

I want to display the total amount of downloads, from ethernet + wifi
How do I ad and display the sum of (in my case) eth0 and wlan0?