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How to install Conky

Sat, 02/02/2008 - 2:42pm — Vinno


How to install Conky on your Linux desktop
Description: Conky is a system monitor software for the X Window System. It is available for Linux and FreeBSD. It is free software released under the terms of the BSD license. Conky is able to monitor many systems variables including CPU, memory, swap, disk space, temperature, top, upload, download, system messages, and much more. It is extremely configurable, however, the configuration can be a little hard to understand.

Here are few example screen shots of Conky on the Linux desktop showing your computer processor, memory, hard drive, network and many more statistics as seen on my one of my January desktop screen shot.

Example Screenshot:
example

NOTE: Please read this page as a reference before continuing on. As it may help, some references might relate to Ubuntu Linux.

For Ubuntu Linux users, first install it:

sudo apt-get install conky

To run it

conky

Edit your conky configuration file:

nano ~/.conkyrc

This is where you change the looks and what statistics to show on your Linux desktop, read the manual doc that comes with conky.

Here are some examples configurations at the Ubuntu forums.

This is my configuration file for conky.

background yes
use_xft no
update_interval 1.0
total_run_times 0
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 250 5
maximum_width 250
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color white
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment bottom_right
gap_x 12
gap_y 48
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
override_utf8_locale no
use_spacer yes

TEXT
$alignc ${time %H:%M.%S} / ${utime %R} (UTC)
$alignc ${time %a, %d %b %Y}
${color orange}${hr 2}$color
$alignc $sysname $kernel on $machine
$alignc Uptime: $uptime

${color orange}Processor ${hr 2}${color }
${tab 20}AMD Athlon 3000+ 64Bit
${color lightgrey}${tab 20}Load: ${color #ddaa00}${cpu cpu0}% ${color }${cpubar cpu0 6}
${cpugraph cpu0 10,150 000F83 B0B6E3}   ${freq_g cpu0}Ghz
	
${color orange}${tab 20}Top CPU: $alignr PID   CPU%
${color #ddaa00}${tab 40}${top name 1}$alignr${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1}
${color }${tab 40}${top name 2}$alignr${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2}
${color }${tab 40}${top name 3}$alignr${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3}
${color }${tab 40}${top name 4}$alignr${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4}
${color }${tab 40}${top name 5}$alignr${top pid 5} ${top cpu 5}
${color }${tab 40}${top name 6}$alignr${top pid 6} ${top cpu 6}

${color orange}Memory ${hr 2}
${color }${tab 20}Ram:  ${mem} / ${memmax} 
${color lightgrey}${tab 30}Used: ${color #ddaa00}${memperc}%${alignr}${color }${membar 6, 150}
${color }${tab 20}Swap:  ${swap} / ${swapmax}
${color lightgrey}${tab 30}Used:  ${color #ddaa00}${swapperc}%${alignr}${color }${swapbar 6, 150}

${color orange}${tab 20}Top Memory: $color $alignr PID   MEM%
${color #ddaa00}${tab 40}${top_mem name 1}$alignr${top_mem pid 1}  ${top_mem mem 1}
${color }${tab 40}${top_mem name 2}$alignr${top_mem pid 2}  ${top_mem mem 2}
${color }${tab 40}${top_mem name 3}$alignr${top_mem pid 3}  ${top_mem mem 3}
${color }${tab 40}${top_mem name 4}$alignr${top_mem pid 4}  ${top_mem mem 4}
${color }${tab 40}${top_mem name 5}$alignr${top_mem pid 5}  ${top_mem mem 5}
${color }${tab 40}${top_mem name 6}$alignr${top_mem pid 6}  ${top_mem mem 6}

${color orange}Linux Space ${hr 2}$color
/ $alignc ${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /} $alignr Free: ${fs_free_perc /}%
${fs_bar /}
/home $alignc ${fs_used /home} / ${fs_size /home} $alignr Free: ${fs_free_perc /home}%
${fs_bar /home}
${color orange}Mount space ${hr 2}${color }
Music $alignc ${fs_used /mnt/music} / ${fs_size /mnt/music} $alignr Free: ${fs_free_perc /mnt/music}%
${fs_bar /mnt/music}
Downloads $alignc ${fs_used /mnt/downloads} / ${fs_size /mnt/downloads} $alignr Free: ${fs_free_perc /mnt/downloads}%
${fs_bar /mnt/downloads}
Other $alignc ${fs_used /mnt/others} / ${fs_size /mnt/others} $alignr Free: ${fs_free_perc /mnt/others}%
${fs_bar /mnt/others}

${color orange}Network (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color
Down: ${color #ddaa00}${downspeedf eth0}k/s ${color }${alignr}Up: ${color #ddaa00}${upspeedf eth0}k/s$color
${color dark green}${downspeedgraph eth0 9,125 000000 000000} ${alignr}${color dark red}${upspeedgraph eth0 9,125 000000 000000}$color
${tab 20}Total: ${totaldown eth0}          Total: ${totalup eth0}

${color orange}${tab 20}Host / IP:
${color orange}0)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 0}
${color orange}1)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 1}
${color orange}2)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 2}
${color orange}3)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 3}
${color orange}4)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 4}
${color orange}5)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 5}
${color orange}6)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 6}
${color orange}7)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 7}
${color orange}8)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 8}
${color orange}9)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rhost 9}

${color orange}${tab 20}Port / Service:
${color orange}0)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 0}
${color orange}1)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 1}
${color orange}2)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 2}
${color orange}3)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 3}
${color orange}4)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 4}
${color orange}5)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 5}
${color orange}6)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 6}
${color orange}7)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 7}
${color orange}8)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 8}
${color orange}9)$color${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 rservice 9}

${color orange}Messages Log ${hr 2}$color
${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/messages | fold -w50}

${color orange}Auth log ${hr 2}$color
${execi 30 tail -n3 /var/log/auth.log | fold -w50}