[plasma5] howto: fix disappearing conky

[wizard10000]

Some of us have issues with conky disappearing at times; I've searched for a solution for a couple of weeks and finally found one that appears to work. My own conky installation is now stable and doesn't disappear when I right-click the desktop or any other activity I've tried so far.

First, credit where credit is due: https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky/issues/145

This requires a small change to ~/.conkyrc and a window rule to force conky to behave, but it seems to work -

First, let's hack up ~/.conkyrc

Set own_window_type to dock like this

own_window_type dock

Next, we need a window rule.

systemsettings --> Window Behavior --> Window Rules and click 'New', then





Apply and exit. Enjoy

[Snowhog]

Thank you for this 'fix'. I've been experiencing this disappearing conky on my laptop for some time now. I knew how to get it back, so it was merely an annoyance, but this 'fix' is nice; just applied it. Now to monitor and see if it in fact fixes the problem.

[vinnywright]

yes ,,,,, I have been away for a wile (no net) and to find this on my first day back is nice

will test as well .

applying it in a min

VINNY

[Snowhog]

Noticed after applying this fix, that the bottom half of my last line of data output was 'cut off'. I attribute this to the change of own_window_type normal to own_window_type dock, so I changed it back, killed conky, and restarted it. The last line of data output was once again displayed fully. I'm keeping the Window Rule in place. IF conky doesn't start disappearing again, then maybe it is the window rule alone that is needed.

[wizard10000]

Please let us know, snowhog - if all we need is the window rule that'd be excellent.

cheers -

edit: Mine seems to work just fine on normal, setting it to desktop broke it.

[MoonRise]

Yes let us know. Also, setting to Dock, does transparency still hold?

[wizard10000]

Yes let us know. Also, setting to Dock, does transparency still hold?

Yup.

I had conky disappear once when set to normal so I set it back to dock. Can't explain Snowhog's disappearing half-line, though.

[vinnywright]

Yup.

I had conky disappear once when set to normal so I set it back to dock. Can't explain Snowhog's disappearing half-line, though.

it seams as though setting to "dock" makes conky use the hole hight of the screen or @hear it seams so .

the bottom of my conky has a graphic that did sit right on top of the panel at the bottom ,,,,now it go's behind the panel some ,,,,but the panel is transparent so ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

I have had no disappearance of conky since doing this "fix" however.

VINNY

[MoonRise]

Just made this change. Report back soon.


EDIT:

Well, no disappearing yet, but I do get the below effect if you click on the CONKY Window instead of the window shown.

[wizard10000]

...Well, no disappearing yet, but I do get the below effect if you click on the CONKY Window instead of the window shown.

If I have own_window_type set to 'dock' I get some artifacts like you; when set to 'normal' mine quits doing that.

I have had conky disappear once when on normal; I just put it back that way and will report back if it's less than stable

[wizard10000]

Reporting back

I've seen conky disappear once more when own_window_type was set to normal. Have had some trouble duplicating it but it appears to have disappeared when my display went to sleep - haven't found a way to make it fail consistently, though. Right-clicking the desktop made it come back and so far that's acceptable.

[MoonRise]

Well, I've left the fix in place and can say no disappearing/reappearing act and I haven't yet been bothered by that overlay issue so I'm happy with this at the moment!

[MoonRise]

Well, I can say I've had that Disappearing/Reappearing issue for a long time and nothing ever seemed to work. I've even had it in the past few updates where Conky just crashes and exits.

So, looking at a command line option to see of I can get any kind of trace I found you can daemonize by starting it with the -d option. Has to be lowercase "d". Since doing that on two machines that I deal with the most, that seems to have stopped all the bad behavior. At least in appearance so far. Again, we shall see and I'll definitely report if otherwise.

[wizard10000]

Well, I can say I've had that Disappearing/Reappearing issue for a long time and nothing ever seemed to work. I've even had it in the past few updates where Conky just crashes and exits.

So, looking at a command line option to see of I can get any kind of trace I found you can daemonize by starting it with the -d option. Has to be lowercase "d". Since doing that on two machines that I deal with the most, that seems to have stopped all the bad behavior. At least in appearance so far. Again, we shall see and I'll definitely report if otherwise.

That's the way I've always started conky, sorry for not sharing. I do have issues now with conky failing to autostart about 3/4 of the time and when I filed a bug against Sid for it I was told it was the -d switch causing the issue; it wasn't, but since the DD was able to get conky to autostart consistently the problem is most likely in my config.

[MoonRise]

Really odd though as I haven't seen updates to Conky and those started after other updates. Yeah, conky autostart problematic here too but as stated, only recently after system updates.