Conky is a light-weight system monitor for X, that displays any information on your desktop. Conky is licensed under the GPL and runs on Linux and BSD.

The first step is of course to install Conky. Do this by issuing the following command:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install conky-all 

or search Synaptic for “conky” and choose the package conky-all.

You will need to create a configuration text file, this can by placed wherever, but I like keeping mine in /etc/conky/. You can go there with PCmanFM, then click Tools→Open current folder as root. You now can download and extract conkies from Art Wiki in to that folder. #! With Bodhi logo #! Minimalistic #! Bigger

Our conkies comes with 2 extra files, one is for running it, other for shutting it down. They are configured for /etc/conky/ folder. Just after downloading them, check start.sh and kill.sh permissions, in order to do that, right click on one of them, and select Properties, then in Tab select Permissions, then mark Make the file executable. Now you can double click these files for starting and closing your downloaded conky from our Art Wiki. PS: they all have delay, which is ~8 seconds. So click on start.sh only once, this is done for making them functionality work normally on system start up.

If you want to create your own conky, I recommend having a look at different peoples' conky configuration files, here's three great places from #! Forums and Ubuntu Forums and also #! deviantArt , but a quick google search for the phrase “Conky configuration” will give you lots of other sites. There is also a few threads in the Bodhi Linux Forums about Conky.

If you have downloaded conky from other sites and they do not have launcher, you can start it with this command::

conky -c </path/to/file>

If you have conky, but it is in black rectangle, you can add these lines to your conky configuration to make it transparent:

  own_window yes
  own_window_argb_visual true
  own_window_argb_value 0
  own_window_type desktop
  own_window_transparent yes

But you also need to have composite enabled. Go to Main Menu→Settings→Settings Panel→Extensions→Modules→Look in there click Composite and then load.
OR
You can use Ecomorph, but you will need to install it first and configure, it is a bit buggy, so not recommended.

If you want transparency in your conky, you can get it by utilizing your root desktop. That means your root desktop needs to have a copy of your personal desktop as it's wallpaper. It's not a big deal.

There are several programs that will set your root desktop wallpaper but I find using Eterm about as easy as it gets and leave a small footprint.

Do this…

1. Install the application “Eterm” either with your Synaptic Package Manager or type the following in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install eterm

Eterm automatically comes with a program called Esetroot. Esetroot will set wallpaper of your root desktop when called in a terminal, or as we will do here, at computer startup.

2. Take a screen shot of your desktop and save it somewhere as a .jpg or .png file.

3. Make a .desktop file that calls Esetroot. Start a text editor and paste the following to it:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=setrootback
Comment=Sets the root background for Conky
Exec=/usr/bin/Esetroot storage/rootback.png
Icon=false
NoDisplay=false
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=
StartupNotify=true

Notice the “Exec=” directive. The section that says “storage/rootback.png” needs to match the location of the screen shot you just made and it's name. You can call it setrootback.desktop if you wish. If you're not using your text editor as root, then save it somewhere in your home files then move it as root to ”/usr/share/applications/”:

sudo mv [directory]/setrootback.desktop /usr/share/applications/

If your test editor is in root then just save it to the above directory.

Now when you load Bodhi, it will set your root desktop to that screen shot. When you start conky and the conky.conf transparency is set correctly, your conky display will be transparent.

There are many ways to set your conky configuration but for the manner of this wiki, the following conky configuration does work. You can look through it and see what the display directives are and make sure your own conky configuration has similar settings. I.E. double_buffer=yes, the “own_window” settings can be very important.

total_run_times 0
alignment top_right
background no
border_width 1
cpu_avg_samples 2
default_color 88ffff
default_outline_color 88ffff
default_shade_color 88ffff
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
draw_outline no
draw_shades no
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans Mono:size=9
gap_x 5
gap_y 60
minimum_size 5 10
net_avg_samples 2
no_buffers no
out_to_console no
out_to_stderr no
extra_newline no
own_window yes
own_window_class Conky
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 1.0
uppercase no
use_spacer none
show_graph_scale no
show_graph_range no
double_buffer yes
use_spacer right

TEXT
# ${scroll 16 $nodename - $sysname $kernel on $machine | }
${voffset 5}${color 88ffff}${font Ubuntu:size=14}TIME [ ${time %Y} ]${color 88ffff} ${hr 2}${color}
# ${alignc 30}${font Ubuntu:size=24}${time %I:%M:%S:%p}${font}
${alignc 20}${color 88ffff}${font Ubuntu:size=24}${time %H:%M:%S}${font}
${alignc -8}${time %A %B %d}
${font}
${color 88ffff}$hr
${color 88ffff}Uptime:$color $uptime
${color 88ffff}Frequency (in MHz):$color $freq
${color 88ffff}Frequency (in GHz):$color $freq_g
${color 88ffff}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc% ${membar 4}
${color 88ffff}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc% ${swapbar 4}
${color 88ffff}CPU Usage:$color $cpu% ${cpubar 4}
${color 88ffff}Processes:$color $processes ${color 88ffff}Running:$color $running_processes
${color red}${font DejaVu Sans:size=9}CPU temp: ${hwmon 0 temp 1}°C${color}
$hr
${color 88ffff}File systems:
/ $color${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 6 /}
${color 88ffff}Networking:
Up:$color ${upspeed eth0} ${color 88ffff} - Down:$color ${downspeed eth0}
$hr

Put your conky.conf in /etc/conky/.

To make your conky start at boot, you need to make a .desktop file for that as well and put it in Startup Apps.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=conky
Comment=Starts conky at boot
Exec=/usr/bin/conky
Icon=false
NoDisplay=false
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=
StartupNotify=true

Put this also in /usr/share/applications/ just as the one before.

Now, go to Settings→Settings Panel→Apps→Startup Applications, find your file “conky” and add it.

That should do the job! There are other more advanced ways of getting transparency to your desktop, but I will leave that for another author. This is just a way to get you there quickly and easily using simulated transparency which is what most gui software use.

There are some small issues with conky currently

Conky and image on light colored desktop wallpaper
If conky uses transparency and has image in it, it also will by transparent. If your desktop has a dark wallpaper in that place where is conky, then it will by okay, but if wallpaper is light colored, you most likely will not see or will see hardly the image.

Gadgets bellow conky
Conky and E17 gadgets bellow them. Sometimes gadget reaction starts to lag, when they are bellow conky, and sometimes after clicking them, you will get gadget menu everywhere you click next.

If you want to start more then one conky with only one launcher, you can alter out start.sh file:

  #
 !/bin/bash
 sleep 3 &&
 conky -d -c /etc/conky/conky.conf &
 sleep 3 &&
 conky -d -c /etc/conky/conky2.conf &
 exit

You only need to add entry:
conky -d -c /path/to/file/filename &
In most cases file is called rc or conky.conf

If you want to have a normal menu entry for Conky, instead of terminal or start.sh file. You need to do this. Go to Settings→Settings Panel→Apps. In there select Create Launcher and fill text like this:

Basic
Name: Conky
Application: /etc/conky/start/sh
General
Categories: Utility
Options
Mark Show in Menus if it is not marked by default
Icon optional
Type word bodhi or navigate to your wanted icon.

Now you can test it from Main Menu→Applications→Accessories→Conky, it has 8 second delay, it was made that some conky scripts would work from the start of system, you can change delay time in start.sh. If it shows error, then check if you have made it executable (read a bit above this) and if you have entered good path to application. You also might want to create similar launcher for closing conky, if so, follow same steps, but instead of:

Basic
Name: Conky
Application: /etc/conky/start/sh

Type this:
Name: ConkyKill
Application: /etc/conky/kill/sh

To make it start up automatically go to Main Menu → Settings → All → Apps → Startup Applications and choose Conky in the dialog window.

How to change place in which conky starts
In order to change place you must find word alignment and change word next to it, it must by above word TEXT.
tr - top right
tl - top left
tm - top middle
br - bottom right
bl - bottom left
bm - bottom middle

 alignment tr

How to move conky from the edge of the screen
Alignment command only places in corner of desktop, in order to move it from corner type:
gap_x XX enter disaired number of pixels instead of XX, in order to move it in X axis
gap_y YY enter disaired number of pixels instead of YY, in order to move it in X axis
Numbers can by negative. Command must by above word TEXT.

 gap_x 10
 gap_y 50

Conky displaying incorrect ram usage
Add this line above word Text in your conky configuration:

 no_buffers yes

Where I can find color codes
You can use gcolor2 software, it allows to click on any place of desktop, then it will show color code.
Or you can use web pages like this one: Html Color Codes

Conky is flickering
Add this line above word Text in your conky configuration:

 double_buffer yes

How to change temperature units to fahrenheit
Add this line above word Text in your conky configuration:

 temperature_unit fahrenheit

More commands