CrunchBang Linux

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

[SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

Note for anyone else looking for similar answers: be sure to read the entire thing, there was quite a bit of trial & error involved.

I never did like VNC servers running totally silent, as I tend to forget to shut them off . I only start it when I need to (with the -forever flag). I'd like to know if there's a way to change the obmenu entry that will start it without terminator (i.e not "nohup terminator command=.."). If there is, I'd also like to know what entry I could add for stopping the server.

Lastly, I know conky can display text file output; is there a way to somehow make it poll whether or not x11vnc is running, and if there's anyone connected?

/Savonlinna

Last edited by Savonlinna (2009-05-20 18:08:43)

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

there are two ways you could check that I know of if vnc is running, do a netstat and check the ports, or ps aux | grep [vnc executable.... not susre if it's just vnc]
you could write a simple shell script then call it from conky with execi, something along the lines of this
#!/bin/sh
if ps aux | grep vnc ; then
  echo "vnc running"
else
   echo "vnc not running"
fi

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

there are two ways you could check that I know of if vnc is running, do a netstat and check the ports, or ps aux | grep [vnc executable.... not susre if it's just vnc]
you could write a simple shell script then call it from conky with execi, something along the lines of this
#!/bin/sh
if ps aux | grep vnc ; then
  echo "vnc running"
else
   echo "vnc not running"
fi

Sweet, that's in the right direction. Is there any way to exclude things? I currently have it doing grep "x11vnc -usepw -forever", but that will also include the obmenu entry as well as the grep command itself. Don't want it saying it's running just because I asked if it was

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

you could try:
ps aux | grep vnc | grep -v grep
the -v means everything that doesn't match that pattern, I would need to know what the obmenu entry looks like to know how to exclude it. Hope that helps.

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

you could try:
ps aux | grep vnc | grep -v grep
the -v means everything that doesn't match that pattern, I would need to know what the obmenu entry looks like to know how to exclude it. Hope that helps.

The obmenu entry is simply terminator --command="x11vnc -usepw -forever".

Edit:
On a related note; if I do get it to output to conky correctly, can the obmenu entry be edited to have terminator run the (or any, for that matter) command without it staying open? I know nohup will let you close the terminal, but it still has to be closed manually the way I understand it. Sorry if I'm being a bit of a crackhead here, I'm not even entirely sure what to google for in this case : )

Last edited by Savonlinna (2009-05-20 14:08:09)

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

I think this should work then:
ps aux | grep x11vnc | grep -v grep terminator
if that doesn't work try:
ps aux | grep x11vnc | grep -v grep | grep -v terminator
also for the connected clients try:
x11vnc -query clients

I'm not sure on the terminator thing...you could try changing the obmenu entry to just "x11vnc -usepw -forever" without the terminator part and see if it still runs.

Last edited by iggykoopa (2009-05-20 14:12:05)

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

ps aux | grep x11vnc | grep -v grep | grep -v terminator works fine when it's not running. It still outputs when it is running, though

robin     9946  0.0  0.5  23908  7828 ?        S    17:06   0:00 x11vnc -usepw -forever

Obviously the process itself. Getting very close now!  And your obmenu solution was flawless btw!

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

yup if you change that line in the script it should output correctly now i.e.

#!/bin/sh
if ps aux | grep x11vnc | grep -v grep | grep -v terminator ; then
  echo "vnc running"
else
   echo "vnc not running"
fi

save that to a file then chmod +x whatever.sh . Then call it from conky, ${execi 1 /path/to/whatever.sh} and you should be good. If you removed the terminator part from the menu you should be able to remove the grep -v terminator part as well. Also you could modify the shell script to make a pipemenu that shows "start vnc" when it is stopped and "stop vnc" when it is running. Did the x11vnc -query clients command work? If it did you can call it from conky also.

Last edited by iggykoopa (2009-05-20 15:39:07)

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

ps aux | grep x11vnc | grep -v grep didn't change it. Still shows the process. Pipe menu's a good idea, I'll have to look in to that.
-query clients doesn't want to play nice, but -query client_count does It also adds some stuff I'd want to have omitted though, I just want the number:

x11vnc -query client_count

>>> sending remote command: "qry=client_count" via X11VNC_REMOTE X property.
aro=client_count:1

---

"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

try:
x11vnc -query client_count | grep aro | sed 's/aro=client_count://'

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

now it's down to
>>> sending remote command: "qry=client_count" via X11VNC_REMOTE X property.
1

---

"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

ok tested out the script on my machine and it was doing the same thing....try this:
#!/bin/sh

running=`ps aux | grep x11vnc | grep -v grep | grep -v terminator`
if [ -n "$running" ] ; then
  echo "vnc running"
else
   echo "vnc not running"
fi

---

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

and for the other command try this:
x11vnc -query client_count 2> /dev/null | sed 's/aro=client_count://'

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

script master indeed thanks alot for all the help!
one last thing (sorry, man )

${alignr}${execi 1.2 ~/./scripts/vncc.sh} works fine
${alignr}${execi 1.2 ~/./scripts/cvnc.sh} does not. any idea why?

Edit:
vncc being active/inactive check and cvnc the client count

Last edited by Savonlinna (2009-05-20 17:06:27)

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

did you chmod +x cvnc.sh?

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

yup

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

and cvnc.sh looks like this?

#!/bin/sh

x11vnc -query client_count 2> /dev/null | sed 's/aro=client_count://'

other than that I'm not sure what could be wrong...maybe try absolute paths instead of ~
glad it's working other than that for you though, I like working on stuff like this.

---

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

to the letter.
thought so too, but it didn't help. but i'm pretty sure i'll survive it not working

Edit:
thought i'd at least have the count run in terminator, with a pause when it's done;
terminator --command="x11vnc -query client_count & read -p 'Press any key when done'" works. sort of. know of a remedy for the awkward read message?

>>> sending remote command: "qry=client_count" via X11VNC_REMOTE X property.
Press any key when donearo=client_count:0

Last edited by Savonlinna (2009-05-20 17:41:27)

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

terminator --command='x11vnc -query client_count 2> /dev/null & echo "Press any key when done" & read'

---

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

resolved. again, thanks for the help!

gotta ask though, /dev/null is the "black hole" of unwanted output/errors, right? and 0, 1, 2 are in, out, error respectively unless i'm mistaken. so, is that simply telling it that any output below 2 from the command preceding it, will be /dev/null'd?

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."

iggykoopa

Script Master

Registered: 2008-12-13

Posts: 1,486

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

I'm just having it send the
>>> sending remote command: "qry=client_count" via X11VNC_REMOTE X property.
line to /dev/null. Don't know why it runs that way(having that as error output) But yeah you have the right idea.

edit: just reread your post 2> makes it discard any errors...not anything less than two, think of the > as redirecting it, you could say 2> somefile.txt and it would write the errors to somefile.txt

Last edited by iggykoopa (2009-05-20 18:07:23)

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I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may.

Savonlinna

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2009-05-19

Posts: 35

Re: [SOLVED] x11vnc status and conky entry question(s)

i'll have to read up on it then. seems like it could be real useful.
thanks again, marking thread solved!

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"History is the fiction we invent to persuade ourselves that events are knowable and that life has order and direction."