How To Build And Install Conky

arclance · 2012-06-21 02:20:09

How To Build And Install The Current Stable Version of Conky

This is a walkthrough of how to build the current stable version of conky from git.
These instructions will work with the latest release, v1.9.0, or the current stable version in git v1.9.1.

These instructions are a work in progress..
Please post any problems you have here so I can try to help you through them.

I don't use any of the music players supported by conky so I don't know how to build those in yet.
If you use one of these music players I can try and figure those out if you are willing to test build instructions for me.

I recommend you build v1.9.1 since it has bug fixes not found in v1.9.0.

Step 0: Remove Current Conky
It is recommended but not required that you uninstall any other versions of conky you have installed now (from a package or somewhere else).
You will be warned when you must uninstall your current conky to proceed.

Step 1: Download Build Dependencies
Download the build dependencies for conky.

sudo apt-get install build-essential automake git docbook2x libxfixes-dev libasound2-dev libcairo2-dev libcurl4-gnutls-dev libglib2.0-dev libimlib2-dev libiw-dev liblua5.1-0-dev libncurses5-dev libtolua++5.1-dev libtool libx11-dev libxdamage-dev libxext-dev libxft-dev libxml2-dev

If you have an Nvidia graphics card also install this build dependency.

sudo apt-get install libxnvctrl-dev

Step 2: Choose A Build Directory
Choose a place to download the conky source files to then open a terminal and cd to that directory

cd Build_Directory

Step 3: Download The Source
Now download the source code for conky and cd to the directory containing it.
If you want to use v1.9.0.

git clone git://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky.git -b 1.9.0 conky_1.9.0
cd conky_1.9.0

If you want to use v1.9.1.

git clone git://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky.git -b 1.9.1 conky_1.9.1
cd conky_1.9.1

Step 4 (Optional): Apply Patches
Step A: Make Patch Directory
Make a patch directory to download your patches to like this.

mkdir patches

Step B: Download Patches
Download any patches you want to the patch directory you made in the last step.
There are two patches covered here at this time.

Patch 1: Debian apcupsd Patch
The Debian patch fix-apcupsd.patch fixes broken apcupsd functionality in conky.
You can download it here.
If you are building v1.9.0 you should download and apply the other two patches found on this page.

Patch 2: Fix Shade Postion When Using goto
Fixes the horizontal postion of shades drawn when using "draw_shades yes" in your .conkyrc.
You can download my patch for v1.9.0 here.
This bug has been patched in v1.9.1 there is no need to install the patch.

Step C: Apply Patches
Now apply the patches to the source code.
Run the following commands to apply the patches.

Patch 1:

patch -b -d ./src -i ../patches/fix-apcupsd.patch

Patch 2:

patch -b -d ./src -i ../patches/goto_shade_patch.diff

Step 5: Choose Your Build Options
For now I have only covered building with and without Nvidia support.
I will add more sections later if there is interest in them.

First run autogen.sh to setup your build environment.

sh autogen.sh

If you do not have an Nvidia graphics card use this configure line.

./configure --disable-mpd --disable-moc --enable-wlan --enable-imlib2 --enable-lua-cairo --enable-lua-imlib2

If you have an Nvidia graphics card use this configure line.

./configure --disable-mpd --disable-moc --enable-wlan --enable-nvidia --enable-imlib2 --enable-lua-cairo --enable-lua-imlib2

Step 6: Build And Install Conky
Now we will build and install conky.
Step A: Build Conky
Now build conky with by running make

make

If you want to do a multithreaded compile you can specify the number of threads like this where N is the number of threads to use.

make -j N

This step may take a while.

Step B: Build And Install Conky Lua Modules
Uninstall any conky packages you have installed now.
If you leave a conky package installed after this point you may break your conky install or worse.
Run these command one line at a time to build and install the conky lua modules.

cd lua
make clean
make
sudo make install

Step C: Build Man Pages
Now we build the man pages (so you can install conky) by running these commands one line at a time.

cd ../doc
docbook2x-man docs.xml

Step D (Optional): Test If Conky Is Working
You can now test if your new conky is working by running it like this.

../src/conky -c path_to_your/.conkyrc

Step E: Install Conky
Now we install conky with make install.
This will not make a package so you will need to keep the conky_1.9.X folder if you want to be able to easily uninstall conky.

After having removed all conky packages install conky by running these commands one line at a time.

cd ..
sudo make install

Step F: Test If Conky Is Working After Install
Open a new terminal window and start conky like this to test if it is working.

conky -c path_to_your/.conkyrc

You can verify the conky version and build options like this.

conky -v

How To Uninstall
To uninstall the conky installed following the directions above follow these instructions.
In a terminal cd to the conky_1.9.X directory you built conky in.
Then run these commands one line at a time to uninstall conky.

cd lua
sudo make uninstall
cd ..
sudo make uninstall

Possible Differences From Debian Packages
Build options are not the same as debian packages.
See "Build Options Not Covered In The Instructions" for more information.

Debian patches fix-CVE-2011-3616.patch and fix-kfreebsd-ftbfs.patch are not part of v1.9.0 but are part of v1.9.1.

Build Options Not Covered In The Instructions
If you are willing to help me test building for features I don't use I will add build instructions for them.

About The Master Branch
These build instructions will not work with the master branch of conky.
It can only be built using cmake not auto-tools so these instructions will not work.

I have recently been able to build a functional version of the master branch but I have not written instructions
for it yet.
This is because I am less familiar with cmake so I need to figure out a good way to write instructions for using "ccmake" to select build options.
I believe the dependencies are the same for building the master branch if you want to try building it on your own.

Last edited by arclance (2013-05-20 19:29:37)

arclance · 2012-06-21 02:28:12

Reserved

arclance · 2012-06-21 02:55:00

Reserved 2: Reserved Strikes Back

arclance · 2012-06-27 18:16:13

arclance wrote:

The version of patch 2 which fixes the horizontal postion of shades drawn when using "draw_shades yes" in your .conkyrc from the master branch has been applied to the 1.9.1 branch in git.
I tested the 1.9.1 branch using this patch and it does not work.
If this is not fixed in the next few days I will make a patch 2 for v1.9.1.
The old patch will still work with v1.9.0.

This bug is now fixed in git branch 1.9.1.

Last edited by arclance (2012-06-27 21:45:28)

VastOne · 2012-08-13 23:32:25

Added to Quick References, nice work and How To arclance!

arclance · 2012-08-14 00:02:34

^ Thanks.

As a heads up to everyone there is a memory leak in all top objects (top, top_io, top_mem, and top_time).
I see it when they are called from a lua script but I don't know if the also leak when called in the TEXT section of a .conkyrc.
The memory leak introduced by a recent commit was fixed but an old unnoticed leak was not.

This is what one of the conky devs has to say about when this will be fixed.

pavelo wrote:

Does the leak grow with time? It is my impression that it is constant. If
that is the case I would leave it for now.
I do not like leaks like this, but I do not want to expend effort in
solving things like this, because I have a feeling that If I started, I
would end up rewrting most of top.c. I think I'll leave this for conky 2.0,
where it will get rewritten anyway (and i'll make sure it doesnt leak
there)
cheers,
pavelo

Does anyone have any idea when conky 2.0 will be released (I don't think it will be anytime soon)?
What do you think about this timeline for fixing the bug.

CrunchBang Linux

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#1 2012-06-21 02:20:09

How To Build And Install Conky

#2 2012-06-21 02:28:12

Re: How To Build And Install Conky

#3 2012-06-21 02:55:00

Re: How To Build And Install Conky

#4 2012-06-27 18:16:13

Re: How To Build And Install Conky

#5 2012-08-13 23:32:25

Re: How To Build And Install Conky

#6 2012-08-14 00:02:34

Re: How To Build And Install Conky

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