What is conky? Mmmmm, I would call it a lightweight, text-based system monitor.
When configured properly it’s stunning (and a bit geeky too).
That’s what it looks like after some thinkering with it.
(click on it)
If you didn’t realize it, it’s the white text in the top right corner.
The way conky looks and what it can display can be (should be) altered, but more on that later.
Let’s get this puppy installed first.
Open up a terminal and past this:
sudo apt-get install conky
Then paste this:
zcat /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conkyrc.sample.gz > ~/.conkyrc
You can start conky with “alt+f2″ and typing “conky”. Or you could add it to the applications menu:
- right-click applications, go to system tools and press “add entry”
- name everything conky
Conky can do alot, you might want to take a look at these:
- Add gmail support
- Add weather forecasting support
Alot (alot alot) conky files can be found here.
Just paste the code you found there in .conkyrc (press ctrl+h to see the hidden files) in the home folder, after deleting it’s content.
You will have to restart x (ctrl+alt+backspace) or use the “killall conky” command in the terminal after you change the way it looks.
If you want conky to start at boot up you need to go to “system -> preferences -> session”, press “add” and type “conky” three times.
Update: I wrote a how-to on how to add weatherforecasting, audio info and gmail support in conky here.
12 Comments
January 18, 2008 at 5:33 pm
[...] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWhat is conky? Mmmmm, I would call it a lightweight, text-based system monitor. When configured properly it’s stunning (and a bit geeky too). [...]
April 4, 2008 at 3:25 pm
[...] a custum conky setup Jump to Comments I’ve wrote about conky before here, but this time I’ll explain how I got the extra’s (gmail, weather, audio) to work with [...]
April 6, 2008 at 5:55 pm
hehe i like the name it’s cute!
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June 7, 2008 at 4:29 am
Hi there
Great info, thanks.
But to work with the latest version, you need to change
zcat /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conkyrc.sample.gz > ~/.conkyrc
to
zcat /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conky.conf.gz > ~/.conkyrc
Hope this helps,
Z.
July 22, 2008 at 9:48 pm
[...] Installations notes [...]
August 2, 2008 at 12:59 am
ZabiGG u are my god :] 10x a lot searching every where for this and in all forum is conkyrc.sample.gz i go to the dir to see the file and it was there but i didnt notes the different name 10x
August 22, 2008 at 12:36 pm
[...] 22 08 2008 Been playing around with Conky and had this text in the terminal: benjamin@moser-linux:~$ conky Conky: use_spacer should have an [...]
December 16, 2008 at 8:45 pm
after putting this in a terminal:
zcat /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conkyrc.sample.gz > ~/.conkyrc
I get
gzip: /usr/share/doc/conky/examples/conkyrc.sample.gz: No such file or directory
???
December 17, 2008 at 12:32 am
In you /home folder just created a .conkyrc file.
Paste a conky configuration file in there, there are loads to be found on the internet.
Just google for “post your conkyrc” and you should fine thousands.
December 27, 2008 at 8:34 am
Your second terminal command for conky results in “no such directory exists”
December 28, 2008 at 9:49 am
See previous comment.
April 11, 2009 at 11:46 am
hey love ur setup. how did u get ur ubuntu panel to look like that, what theme is that?