Conky and Fedora

[LazarusLong]

Recently came across this system monitor for the desktop (in PartedMagic). I liked it, thought it would be fun to play with. It bills itself as being for Ubuntu, but it appears to be available through the Fedora repo.

I'm just wondering if anyone is/has run it on their Fedora install? The Conky site doesn't appear to have any Fedora related documentation. Note, I'm not looking for instructions, just wondering if any Fedora users are actually running it.

Are there Fedora equivalents if Conky isn't recommended?

[oz]

Conky has been around for a while and should run on pretty much any distro. You can check the following thread for some screenshots and a few conkyrc files that our members have posted:

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/cof...reenshots.html

...and sometimes, the following website runs some interesting articles about configuring conky:

Conky Hardcore!

[LazarusLong]

Excellent. Thanks Ozar.

[oz]

You might find Conky to be somewhat addictive, or at least I certainly do. It seems that I'm always playing with the config file trying to get it all laid out perfectly and just when I'm satisfied, I see someone else's conky screenshot and something within it that I really like, so the process repeats itself!

[LazarusLong]

Yes... I'm already 'going down the rabbit hole' with regards to the rc's and screenshots and I haven't even cranked it up for myself yet. Is this Linux crack? I needs my conky fix?

[oz]

The easiest way to get started is to install conky, then copy your favorite conkyrc file or the default one found at /etc/conky/conky.conf to your home folder and rename it .conkyrc, then restart X. From there, you can begin changing the .conkyrc file up to suit your own likes and needs. Hope you'll have fun with it!

[LazarusLong]

So I must be missing something. I'm just starting with the default conkyrc (from conky.conf), restarted, but don't see anything. I also tried the conkyrc that PartedMagic uses - no joy there either.

I don't see a conky or torsmo process in the gnome system monitor.

Do I need to set something up under the rc directory as well? I can certainly run this from the command line, but I get the impression that conky is supposed to start up upon login (provided I did whatever it is I'm supposed to do correctly).

[oz]

I don't use any display manager such as KDM or GDM, but use the .xinitrc file instead, and I start conky from there by putting the following line in it:

conky &

If you use a display manager, you should be able to set conky to startup whenever your desktop environment starts by saving your session, or by putting conky in a listing of startup apps. Maybe some of the others will chime in with some other startup methods for starting it. Otherwise, you can start it manually from a terminal within your desktop environment.

Also, note that the conky window won't show up on screen in some instances if you should have a bad command within the conkyrc file, but you will usually see a print out about the problem when you log out, or look in your xsessions log.



Edit: if you are running Gnome, I've heard some say that Conky and Nautilus don't always get along. In that case, I think you are supposed to set conky to the following variables:

double_buffer yes
own_window yes

Here are a couple of FAQs that might also answer some questions for you:

ConkyFAQ - Novel Wiki

Conky - Frequently Asked Questions

[glennzo]

I've been using Conky with Fedora since maybe Fedora 11 or 12. Currently running it under Fedora 14. No problems. I agree that it may be crack for Linux!

[LazarusLong]

Found another good link with Conky info:
Expert's Guide to Configuring Conky

Is there a list of supported colors?
I know you can specify colors in Hex, but the rc I'm working off of now uses color variables like 'red', 'green', 'goldenrod'(!). I thought maybe it was the bash colors, but there's a lot of differences between the two. Made me wonder if there's a comprehensive list out there somewhere. If not, does someone know where these colors are defined for conky? Is it in the src, or is there some other config file or data file that conky uses?

Also, and perhaps I just need to do more research myself on this, is there a way to find out if your system A) supports xft and B) what fonts you have installed/available?