Installing the Conky system monitor on your Ubuntu is pretty simple. The real deal is to make the application more useful by customizing it according to your needs. This can be done through the graphical front-end for managing Conky config files. It provides options to start/stop, browse and edit Conky themes installed on the system.
In this article, we will explain how you can install the Conky utility and the Conky Manager application through the Ubuntu command line.
We have run the commands and procedures mentioned in this article on a Ubuntu 18.04 LTS system.
Install Conky System Monitoring Software
Conky is a system monitor for X originally based on torsmo. Since its inception, Conky has changed significantly from its predecessor, while maintaining simplicity and configurability. Conky can display just about anything, either on your root desktop or in its own window. Not only does Conky have many built-in objects; it can also display just about any piece of information by using scripts and other external programs.
The Conky utility is easily available through the official Ubuntu repository and can easily be installed through the command line using the apt-get command.
Open your Terminal application either through the system Application Launcher Search or through the Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut.
The next step is to update your system’s repository index through the following command:
$ sudo apt-get update
This helps you in installing the latest available version of software from the Internet. Please note that only an authorized user can add, remove and configure software on Ubuntu.
Now you are ready to install Conky; you can do so by running the following command as sudo:
$ sudo apt-get install conky-all
The system might ask you the password for sudo and also provide you with a Y/n option to continue the installation. Enter Y and then hit enter; the software will be installed on your system. The process may, however, take some time depending on your Internet speed.
You can check the version number of the application, and also verify that it is indeed installed on your system, through the following command:
$ conky --version
Launch Conky
Please run the following command in your Terminal in order to launch Conky.
$ conky
This is how the Conky interface looks like:
You will notice that the Conky window is just a window that displays the system information in a hideous way, making it less informative for the user. The window even makes your desktop flicker, making it even less pleasing for the eyes.
Remove
In case you want to remove the Conky application through the command line, run the following command as sudo:
$ sudo apt-get remove conky-all
Enter y on the y/n prompt and the software will be completely removed from your system.
Install the Conky Manager
If you did not like the almost “useless” display of Conky, you can install a useful graphical utility, the Conky Manager. This will help you in configuring Conky and also add custom themes to it.
The Mark pcnetspec PPA repository includes a stable version of the Conky Manager that works well for Ubuntu 18.04. Follow these steps in order to install the Conky Manager through this PPA repository:
Installation
First, please open the Terminal either through the system Dash or the Ctrl+Alt +T shortcut.
Now, enter the following command to add the Mark pcnetspec PPA repository to your Ubuntu:
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mark-pcnetspec/conky-manager-pm9
Please note that only an authorized user can add, remove and configure software on Ubuntu. Enter the password for sudo, after which the PPA repository will be added to your system.
Tip: Instead of typing the command, you can copy it from here and paste in the Terminal by using the Ctrl+Shift+V, or by using the Paste option from the right-click menu.
The next step is to update your system’s repository index through the following command:
$ sudo apt-get update
This helps you in installing the latest available version of software from the Internet.
Now that you are done with adding the PPA, use the following command as sudo in order to install the Conky Manager to your system:
$ sudo apt-get install conky-manager
The system might prompt you with a y/n option to continue the installation. Please enter Y if you want to continue with the installation. The process might take some time, depending on your Internet speed, after which the Conky Manager will be installed on your system.
Launch the Conky Manager
You can access the Conky Manager from the Ubuntu application launcher bar as follows, or directly access it from the applications listing:
Alternatively, you can launch the Conky Manager through the command line by running the following command:
$ conky-manager
This is how the Conky Manager looks like:
Remove
Run the following command in your Terminal in order to remove the Conky Manager:
$ sudo apt-get remove conky-manager
You can also remove the PPA through which you installed the application. Run the following command to do so:
$ sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mark-pcnetspec-ubuntu-conky-manager-pm9-bionic.list
This was all about installing Conky and the Conky Manager. So now you can not only monitor your system but also configure Conky with various themes through the Conky Manager.