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Desktop Widget for Raspberry Pi using Conky

Hi! How to add a desktop system monitor widget to your desktop. this video was made possible because of your request through comments. thanks for the view!!

Equipment List

Raspberry Pi 3 ► Amazon | Ebay

USB HDD ► Amazon | Ebay

Software List

Raspbian Pixel ► https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/

github: https://github.com/novaspirit/rpi_conky

conky settings: http://conky.sourceforge.net/config_settings.html 

Process

To start we will need to install conky,

$ sudo apt-get install conky -y

now lets download the conky configuration file

$ wget -O /home/pi/.conkyrc https://raw.githubusercontent.com/novaspirit/rpi_conky/master/rpi3_conkyrc

to autostart conky on boot we will need to create 2 files, 1 will be a shell script to delay the boot process of conky. 2. will be the conky desktop files to allow lxdesktop to start the shell script

to create the shell script

sudo nano /usr/bin/conky.sh

paste this into the conky.sh file

#!/bin/sh
(sleep 4s && conky) &exit 0

now lets create the conky.desktop file for the autostart process

sudo nano /etc/xdg/autostart/conky.desktop

and paste this into the file

[Desktop Entry]
Name=conky
Type=Application
Exec=sh /usr/bin/conky.sh
Terminal=false
Comment=system monitoring tool.Categories=Utility;

the last thing to do is to reboot to make sure everything is working!

 

novaspirit: Avid Thinker, Computer Programmer, Web evangelist, Hacking / Breaking expert, Problem Solver, Technology Obsessed, Gamer, 3D printing, Coffee lover!

View Comments (24)

  • works only when i run conky from CLI. No autostart. Then again I'm on Ubuntu 16.04 for Pi 3. But conky does work so thanks for the widget!

    • Did this now it starts up to a black screen and the rpi4 conky on the right but I have no access to anything else I went back in and erased the script but it is still doing this

  • Thanks a lot Don! I'm running a dated Raspberry Pi 2. This worked like a charm on my device!

  • I'm interested in converting the Celsius to Fahrenheit. I've identified Line 44 as the code:

    [code]
    $font${color DimGray}Temp: $alignr ${exec /opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp | cut -c6-9} C
    [/code]

    and it looks like you may already be converting to Celsius, but I don't understand the [code] cut -c6-9 [/code] part. Any tips?

    • Someone shared the solution in the comments to the YouTube video. Replace line 44 with:

      $font${color DimGray}Temp: $alignr ${exec /opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp | cut -c 6- | awk '{print (($1 * 9 / 5))+32}'} F

  • this command worked for me

    $font${color DimGray}Temp: $alignr ${exec /opt/vc/bin/vcgencmd measure_temp | cut -c6-9 | awk '{print (($1 * 9 / 5))+32}'} F

  • Hi!

    Sorry, but why it doesn't work on my Raspberry Pi 4? On my RPI4 is installed "Raspbian Buster with desktop and recommended software".

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