C@ELOLJ<I Conky System Monitor Dfe`kfi`e^pflijpjk\dn`k_:febp This light-weight system monitor keeps you informed about your com- At this point you will see a number of options that are enabled or disabled by puter’s performance. BY JAN RÄHM default. For example, if you use the Audacious media player, you will want ystem monitoring utilities help and provides information on a media to enable matching support in Conky by users keep track of performance player if a player happens to be active. specifying --enable-audacious=yes. If Jmetrics, and the Linux environ- To configure what you want the system your computer does not have sensors ment offers a variety of useful monitor- monitor to show and how you want it that check the hard disk temperature, ing utilities. One of the simplest and eas- shown to you is quite simple. you might want to disable the corre- iest of these monitoring tools is a desk- sponding feature, enabled by default, by top gem called Conky [1]. @ejkXccXk`fe Conky’s history goes back more than Conky is available from the repositories Listing 1: conky.ds four years. At the time, the project was of most, but not all, popular distribu- (if launched under the name Torsmo. After tions. Unless your choice of distribution (is (window_class) "Conky") just one year, Conky forked from Tor- does not come with Conky or – and this (begin smo. The project founders were inspired is more likely – you want to do some- (pin) by the Canadian TV show “Trailer Park thing special with the tool, you will not (undecorate) Boys” and chose one if its protagonists need to build the system monitor your- (wintype "dock") as the project name. self. (skip_pager) Conky not only displays CPU load and For an overview of the supported op- (skip_tasklist) memory usage data, it also gives details tions, give the ./configure --help com- on your hard disk and network traffic, mand after downloading the source code (below) evaluates the data from various sensors, package [2] and unpacking it in a direc- ) integrates news feeds off the Internet, tory of your choice. ) 86 ISSUE 100 MARCH 2009 086-087_conky.indd 86 15.01.2009 14:11:41 Uhr Conky System Monitor C@ELOLJ<I specifying --disable-hddtemp. If you fail themselves with Conky’s attempts to make sure that the root window uses the to do so, Conky will issue an error mes- add its own output, the program flickers KDE wallpaper. The situation is similar sage when you try to launch it. or disappears, then reappears, and dis- on Gnome, although the symptoms are After completing the settings, you can appears again, and so on. different: missing icons on screen. The build and install Conky in the normal The options for both GUIs, titled own_ workaround in this case is the Devil’s way: make && window and own_window_ Pie [8] utility. make install. Then transparent yes, in .conkyrc In your home directory, install the tool give the conky tell Conky to use its own and create a hidden .devilspie directory. command for a window and apply pseudo- In the hidden directory, create a conky.ds trial run. If you transparency to the window, file and open it for editing. Now copy see a small win- respectively. Unfortunately, the lines from Listing 1 into the file and dow like that both desktops have a couple launch the program by entering devilspie shown in Figure 1, of issues with the transpar- at the command line. After doing so, or if Conky opens ency option. both Conky and the icons should be directly in the To resolve this, look for back to normal on the desktop. background as =`^li\(1CfZb\[lg`eB;<1 and enable the Support pro- shown in Figure 2, :febp`jkiXgg\[`eX]iXd\% gram in desktop window :feZclj`fej the installation option below Look & Feel | Ever since the program was released I was successful. Desktop | General in the KDE control have been running Conky on my own center. Now when you launch Conky, desktop, and I have not experienced any MXcl\j it will appear onscreen and hopefully problems in all these years – with the ex- To customize Conky, the basic configura- be flicker-free, although it will still use a ception of a couple of kernel configura- tion file – depending on your distribu- black background instead of the KDE tion changes that entailed device name tion – is in /etc/conky/ or /usr/share/doc/ wallpaper. To change this, install Qiv [7], changes in /sys and necessitated some conky/examples/. First copy the file to a tiny tool of just a couple of kilobytes, manual changes to the configuration ~/.conkyrc and open it in an editor. then launch it with the qiv --root file in rare cases. This probably makes The file with the settings is divided ~/background.png command using your Conky one of the best maintained, and into two sections: program options in chosen background image. definitely one of the most useful, pro- the first part and display options in the As an alternative, you could also use grams in the world of open source. p second part of .conkyrc. The TEXT line Feh. The command here is feh --bg-center separates the two. All of the content ~/background.png. Both Qiv and Feh INFO after this is displayed onscreen. A pound [1] Conky: http:// conky. sourceforge. net sign (#) will not comment out a line but will also appear onscreen. [2] Conky source code packages: In the first part, program options, http:// sourceforge. net/ projects/ conky/ Conky expects instructions on function- [3] List of popular program options: ality. For example, you can position the http:// conky. sourceforge. net/ config_ program in the top right corner of the settings. html screen with the alignment top_right [4] List of popular display options: command, and default_color white sets http:// conky. sourceforge. net/ the default color to white. variables. html The update_interval 1 option tells [5] Screenshots with configurations: Conky to parse and output the values http:// conky. sourceforge. net/ every second. The display options are screenshots. html too numerous for me to go into detail [6] Detailed, commented configuration: here. A list of common program and dis- http:// wiki. ubuntuusers. de/ Conky play options are on the project website [7] Qiv homepage: [3] [4]. If you prefer to refer to screen- http:// www. klografx. net/ qiv/ shots, some grabs of the matching [8] Devil’s Pie: http:// burtonini. com/ Conky configuration file are at the same blog/ computers/ devilspie address [5]. @jjl\ Science journalist Jan Rähm writes If you do not launch Conky in a separate stories and blogs about Linux and window, but directly on the KDE or =`^li\)1KiXejgXi\ekXe[\c\^Xek1Fe IT for LinuxUser, German national Gnome desktop, you are in for an un- =cloYfo#:febp`j[iXne[`i\Zkcpfek_\iffk radio stations Deutschlandfunk and pleasant surprise. n`e[fn%K_`jXggifXZ_`ek\^iXk\jk_\ Deutschlandradio Kultur, and other Because both KDE and Gnome draw jpjk\ddfe`kfin`k_k_\[\jbkfgXe[`jc\jj media. their own desktops without concerning [`jkiXZk`e^% AUTHOR THE MARCH 2009 ISSUE 100 87 086-087_conky.indd 87 15.01.2009 14:11:43 Uhr.