I chose the beginning of the holiday season to update my home computer to Debian Jessie from Wheezy. It caused the normal amount of pain. There were 2 main problems after startup:
This is purely a setup issue.
Use the -d option for conky to daemonise (fork to background) + -px option to wait x secs before init.
Current desktop setup:
Conky file locations:
In XFCE4, the scripts and/or binaries that the system will autostart at startup need to be pre-existing. The setup dialog to maintain them is accessed through the menu:
(menu):Settings → Session and Startup → Application Autostart → (Add or Edit)
The command that worked for me was:
~/.conky/conkystart.sh &
At pressing 'OK', the xfce4 system creates a desktop file at:
~/.config/autostart/
Extra:
XFCE4 requires compositing ON ((menu):Settings → Windows Manager Tweaks)
, else the Conky cannot be transparent, or the LM background shows underneath.
In fact, whilst retaining compositing: ON I switched to the following setup for transparency:
own_window_type desktop
# own_window_transparent yes
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 0
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_hints below
Conky 1.9.0-6 options:-
$ /usr/bin/conky --help
Usage: /usr/bin/conky [OPTION]...
Conky is a system monitor that renders text on desktop or to own transparent
window. Command line options will override configurations defined in config
file.
-v, --version version
-q, --quiet quiet mode
-D, --debug increase debugging output, ie. -DD for more debugging
-c, --config=FILE config file to load
-C, --print-config print the builtin default config to stdout
e.g. 'conky -C > ~/.conkyrc' will create a new default config
-d, --daemonize daemonize, fork to background
-h, --help help
-a, --alignment=ALIGNMENT text alignment on screen, {top,bottom,middle}_{left,right,middle}
-f, --font=FONT font to use
-X, --display=DISPLAY X11 display to use
-o, --own-window create own window to draw
-b, --double-buffer double buffer (prevents flickering)
-w, --window-id=WIN_ID window id to draw
-x X x position
-y Y y position
-t, --text=TEXT text to render, remember single quotes, like -t '$uptime'
-u, --interval=SECS update interval
-i COUNT number of times to update Conky (and quit)
-p, --pause=SECS pause for SECS seconds at startup before doing anything
/usr/bin/conkystart.sh contents:-
#!/bin/bash
# /usr/bin/conkystart.sh
# universal file to startup conky
# using config file in user home dir
# 2015-12-26 added -p10 + -d to pause for 10 secs + daemonise
conky -p10 -dc ~/.conky/conkyrc
~/.conky/conkystart.sh contents:-
#!/bin/bash
# 2015-12-26 switched from 'sleep 10 &&' to conky options
/usr/bin/conkystart.sh &
# -p10 == pause for 10 secs
# -d daemon mode (fork to background)
# -c locate the config file
/usr/bin/conky -p10 -dc ~/.conky/conkyrc.weather
~/.config/autostart/conky.desktop contents:-
[Desktop Entry]
Categories=Application;System;Settings
Comment=Autostart Conky System Stats Desktop Display
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=~/.conky/conkystart.sh &
Hidden=false
Name=Conky
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Version=1.0
Icon=conky.png
--------- Alex Kemp