Conky in Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala
Normally I like to keep this blog as distro-neutral as possible, but since lots of you are finding your way here via Googling for info on Conky in Ubuntu 9.10, I thought it prudent to reprint my quick guide to the packages that you will find in the Karmic repos, as they have changed so significantly from previous repository versions, and may be a tad confusing...
If you currently use the Conky package from the Jaunty repos, you'll be on version 1.6.1. The latest release is now 1.7.2, and is available in the Karmic repos.
However, there are now four versions of Conky in the Karmic repos! The four versions now available are:
- conky
- conky-all
- conky-cli
- conky-std
(First, I should point out that conky and conky-all are actually the same install...conky is in reality just a metapackage that will install the conky-all package. It is there to protect users currently using the repo conky package from upgrading and having things break. The other two packages are options for those who want to have a lighter or minimal Conky install...Further explanation below.)
From the package documentation, here is a brief explanation of the differences between the packages:
conky-cli is a basic package that can be useful in servers or piped with dzen2.
It includes the following support:
MPD, MOC, math, apcupsd and I/O stats
conky-std should be a good compromise for most users that do not need special features.
It includes the following support:
X11, XDamage, XDBE, Xft, MPD, MOC, math, hddtemp, portmon, wireless, ALSA mixer, apcupsd, I/O stats and lua
conky-all includes almost all of the available support:
X11, XDamage, XDBE, Xft, MPD, MOC, math, hddtemp, portmon, RSS, curl, Weather (METAR and XOAP), wireless, IBM, nvidia, eve-online, Imlib2, ALSA mixer, apcupsd, I/O stats, Lua and Lua bindings for the cairo and imlib2 libraries
It is highly advised that you upgrade to one of these packages as soon as you can, as the conky metapackage will eventually be removed.
Please feel free to post a comment here if you need any further explanation!
November 16th, 2009 - 17:07
Hi,
Have been using conky and ubuntu for about a year now, all the while learning plenty.
After upgrading to 9.10, I was excited to update conky via “sudo apt-get install conky” in my terminal.
I ran the command and restarted conky, yet the version still says 1.7.1.1 by using the $conky_version variable.
What step am I missing? It likely is rather obvious, so I apologize in advance.
E
November 17th, 2009 - 06:59
Also Jaunty users can also have a “conky-all” running if they wish. It can be had here:
https://launchpad.net/~norsetto/+archive/ppa/+packages
i386 and AMD64 versions available,
November 17th, 2009 - 12:36
@E: It appears as though you’ve obtained your version of Conky through another repository, not through the Jaunty repos, as 1.7.1.1 was never in an official Ubuntu repo. If you remove Conky (and the other repository if you can, to avoid further problems), and installing the appropriate new version from the Karmic repos, it should work.
(Thanks to Cesare Tirabassi — aka Norsetto — for the answer to this one.)
November 17th, 2009 - 17:28
Thanks for the info. I reckon I compiled 1.7.1.1 from the source…
at work right now but plan on tackling this when home!
so, if memory serves me right i should do the following:
“sudo apt-get remove conky”
then install by “sudo apt-get install conky”
Maybe I will need to tweak something in software sources?
Thanks so much! Can’t wait to start playing with cairo/lua!
E