Conky System Monitor

Conky is a system monitor that is shown constantly on the main desktop window. I find it neat especially on the laptop as it even gives the heat level of the mainboard and processor. To install it in ubuntu use the synaptic software installer or via the console sudo apt-get install conky. To run it properly you need to have a configuration file placed into your main home directory and the file has to be called .conkyrc

Create the .conkyrc file and copy and paste the following into it, the result when you run conky is shown in the image below.

Another basic conky design is shown further down the page. This design is specific to my machine but you can easily see what Ive done and modify it to suit your needs. How I got temperature sensors for the hard drives and motherboard is through a program called sensors. You have to install and set that up. If you would like that there is a quick guide in the top of the file

# sudo apt-get install lm-sensors # sudo sensors-detect # Follow Sugestions / Guidelines / Results from that command # reboot or "sudo modprobe MODULENAME" # run "sensors" to test all sensors are ok # sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/hddtemp --to make hd temp work # background yes use_xft yes xftfont 123:size=8 xftalpha 0.1 update_interval 1 total_run_times 0 own_window yes own_window_type normal own_window_transparent no own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager double_buffer yes minimum_size 275 5 maximum_width 400s draw_shades no draw_outline no draw_borders no draw_graph_borders no default_color gray default_shade_color red default_outline_color green alignment top_right gap_x 10 gap_y 10 no_buffers no uppercase no cpu_avg_samples 2 net_avg_samples 1 override_utf8_locale yes use_spacer yes text_buffer_size 256 TEXT ${voffset -5} ${color DimGray} ${font} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}SYSTEM ${color DarkSlateGray} ${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}Battery: ${battery_percent BAT1}% ${alignr}${battery_bar 6, 140 BAT1} $font${color DimGray}GPU${goto 50}CPU1${goto 100}CPU2${goto 150}SYS${goto 200}SDB${goto 240} $font${color DimGray}${execi 20 nvidia-settings -t -q GPUCoreTemp}°C${goto 50}${execi 20 sensors |grep "Core 0"| awk '{print $3}'| cut -d"+" -f2}${goto 100}${execi 20 sensors |grep "Core 1"| awk '{print $3}'| cut -d"+" -f2}${goto 150}${execi 20 sensors |grep "temp1"| awk '{print $2}'| cut -d"+" -f2}${goto 200}${execi 20 hddtemp /dev/sdb | awk '{print $4}'} Updates Available: ${execi 1200 aptitude search "~U" | wc -l | tail}${font} ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}PROCESSORS ${color DarkSlateGray}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}CPU1 ${cpu cpu1}% ${cpubar cpu1} CPU2 ${cpu cpu2}% ${cpubar cpu2} CPU1 ${freq_g cpu0}Ghz $alignc GPU:${execi 20 nvidia-settings -t -q GPUCurrentClockFreqs}MHz $alignr CPU2 ${freq_g cpu1}Ghz ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}MEMORY ${color DarkSlateGray}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}MEM $alignc $mem / $memmax $alignr $memperc% $membar Swap: $alignr ${swapperc}% $swapbar ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}HDD ${color DarkSlateGray}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}MAIN $alignc ${fs_size /} $alignr ${fs_used /} / ${fs_free /} ${fs_bar /} $font${color DimGray}Read ${diskio_read /dev/sda1}$alignr${diskio_write /dev/sda1} Write HD2 $alignc ${fs_size /home/davinci/hd2} $alignr ${fs_used /home/davinci/hd2} / ${fs_free /home/davinci/hd2} ${fs_bar /home/davinci/hd2} $font${color DimGray}Read ${diskio_read /dev/sdb1}$alignr${diskio_write /dev/sdb1} Write ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}TOP PROCESSES ${color DarkSlateGray}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}NAME${goto 125}PID${goto 170}MEM${goto 220}CPU ${top_mem name 1}${goto 120}${top pid 1}${goto 160}${top mem 1} % ${goto 210}${top cpu 1} % ${top_mem name 2}${goto 120}${top pid 2}${goto 160}${top mem 2} % ${goto 210}${top cpu 2} % ${top_mem name 3}${goto 120}${top pid 3}${goto 160}${top mem 3} % ${goto 210}${top cpu 3} % ${top_mem name 4}${goto 120}${top pid 4}${goto 160}${top mem 4} % ${goto 210}${top cpu 4} % ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan2}NETWORK ${color DarkSlateGray}${hr 2} $font${color DimGray}Public IP${alignr}${execi 1800 wget -q -O - checkip.dyndns.org | sed -e 's/[^[:digit:]\|.]//g'} $font${color DimGray}IP on LAN $alignr ${addr eth0} DOWN ${downspeed eth0} kb/s $alignr ${upspeed eth0} kb/s UP $font${color DimGray}IP on WIFI $alignr ${addr wlan0} SSID: $alignr ${wireless_essid wlan0} WiFi Signal: ${alignr}${wireless_link_bar 6, 140 wlan0} DOWN ${downspeed wlan0} kb/s $alignr ${upspeed wlan0} kb/s UP ${font Arial:bold:size=10}${color Tan2}TIME ${color DarkSlateGray}${hr 2} ${color DarkSlateGray} ${font :size=30}$alignc${time %H:%Mh} ${voffset -30}${font :bold:size=10}$alignc${time %A} ${time %d %b. %Y}

A basic conky is below, not as detailed but not as hard on the system either

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus) own_window yes own_window_type override own_window_transparent yes own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager # Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone) double_buffer yes # fiddle with window use_spacer yes use_xft no # Update interval in seconds update_interval 5.0 # Minimum size of text area # minimum_size 250 5 # Draw shades? draw_shades no # Text stuff draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes draw_borders no font arial uppercase yes # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase # Stippled borders? stippled_borders 3 # border margins border_margin 9 # border width border_width 10 # Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #e5e5e5 default_color grey own_window_colour brown own_window_transparent yes # Text alignment, other possible values are commented #alignment top_left alignment top_right #alignment bottom_left #alignment bottom_right # Gap between borders of screen and text gap_x 10 gap_y 10 # stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen TEXT $color ${color orange}SYSTEM ${hr 2}$color $nodename $sysname $kernel on $machine ${color orange}CPU ${hr 2}$color ${freq}MHz Load: ${loadavg} Temp: ${acpitemp} $cpubar ${cpugraph 000000 ffffff} NAME PID CPU% MEM% ${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1} ${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2} ${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4} ${color orange}MEMORY / DISK ${hr 2}$color RAM: $memperc% ${membar 6}$color Swap: $swapperc% ${swapbar 6}$color ${color orange}NETWORK (${addr eth0}) ${hr 2}$color Down: $color${downspeed eth0} k/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed eth0} k/s ${downspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 ff0000} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph eth0 25,140 000000 00ff00}$color Total: ${totaldown eth0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup eth0} Inbound: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count} Outbound: ${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 count}${alignr}Total: ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}

Feel free to modify that file but I find it gives me enough information about my system. Below is a picture of the output of the above configuration file