Conky Doesn't Show Curves: Straight Lines Instead
Conky is a popular system monitoring tool for Linux that allows users to display various system information on their desktop. By default, Conky uses straight lines to display this information. However, some users may prefer to have curved lines instead. Unfortunately, Conky does not provide a built-in option to display curved lines. In this article, we will explore various ways to install Conky with curved lines on Arch Linux, even if Conky-lua-nv is installed and you are using Wayland.
Why Don't Conky Lines Curve?
Conky uses Lua scripting to display system information. Lua is a lightweight, high-level programming language that is commonly used for embedded systems. Conky's Lua scripts use straight lines to display information because they are easier to implement and require less processing power than curved lines. Additionally, Conky's developers have chosen not to include curved lines as a built-in option, possibly due to the added complexity and processing power required.
Installing Conky with Curved Lines on Arch Linux
To install Conky with curved lines on Arch Linux, you can use the conky-curvy package from the Arch User Repository (AUR). This package provides a patched version of Conky that includes curved lines. Here are the steps to install it:
sudo pacman -S git base-develgit clone https://aur.archlinux.org/conky-curvy.gitcd conky-curvymakepkg -si
After installing conky-curvy, you can start Conky with curved lines by running the following command:
conky -c /usr/share/conky/conky-curvy/conkyrcConfiguring Conky with Curved Lines
Conky's configuration file is a text file that contains Lua scripts to display system information. To configure Conky with curved lines, you can modify the conkyrc file located in /usr/share/conky/conky-curvy/. Here are some examples of how to create curved lines in Conky:
Example 1: Simple Curved Line
${color orange}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:bold:size=14}CPU${font}${alignr}${cpu cpu1}%
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}load${font}${alignr}${execpi 3 loadavg}
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}temp${font}${alignr}${execpi 3 sensors | grep Core | cut -d " " -f 3}°C
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}mem${font}${alignr}$memperc%
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}swap${font}${alignr}$swapperc%
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}up${font}${alignr}${uptime}In this example, the ${voffset 5} command creates a vertical offset of 5 pixels, which creates a curved line. You can adjust the offset value to create different curvatures.
Example 2: Complex Curved Line
${color orange}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:bold:size=14}CPU${font}${alignr}${cpu cpu1}%
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}load${font}${alignr}${execpi 3 loadavg}
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}temp${font}${alignr}${execpi 3 sensors | grep Core | cut -d " " -f 3}°C
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}mem${font}${alignr}$memperc%
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}swap${font}${alignr}$swapperc%
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}up${font}${alignr}${uptime}
${voffset 20}${color orange}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:bold:size=14}Disk${font}${alignr}${diskio /}
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}read${font}${alignr}${diskio_read /}
${voffset 5}${color lightgrey}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:size=11}write${font}${alignr}${diskio_write /}
${voffset 20}${color orange}
${alignc}${font Ubuntu:bold:size=14}Network${font}${alignr}${net_speed wlp2s0 down} ${net_speed wlp2s0 up}In this example, the ${voffset 20} command creates a vertical offset of 20 pixels, which creates a curved line. The ${voffset 5} command creates a vertical offset of 5 pixels, which creates a smaller curved line. You can adjust the offset values to create different curvatures.
Conky is a powerful system monitoring tool for Linux that allows users to display various system information on their desktop. While Conky does not provide a built-in option to display curved lines, you can install conky-curvy from the Arch User Repository (AUR) to add this feature. By modifying the conkyrc file, you can create curved lines in Conky to make your desktop more visually appealing.