Conky Manager on Debian and Kali Linux

Conky Manager is a graphical front-end for managing Conky config files. It provides options to start/stop, browse and edit Conky themes installed on the system. Packages are currently available in Launchpad for Ubuntu and derivatives (Linux Mint, etc).

Release info

Latest Version: 2.0 (2014-06-17)
Platform: Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
Language: Vala & GTK3

ProjectPage: https://launchpad.net/conky-manager

Features

  • Start/Stop, Browse and Edit Conky themes
  • Run Conky on system startup
  • Options to change location, transparency and size of Conky widget window
  • Options to change time and network interface

Installation

Well of course you must install Conky first. Easy to do:

root@kali:~# apt-get install conky-all

Install Conky-all on Debian or Kali Linux

Ubuntu-based Distributions (Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc)

If you are using Ubuntu or its derivatives (like Xubuntu, Linux Mint, etc) you can install it from the Launchpad PPA. Builds are available for the following Ubuntu releases:

  • 13.10 (saucy)
  • 14.04 (trusty)
  • 14.10 (utopic)

For any other release, you can install it using the DEB files given below.

conky-manager-latest-i386.deb (32-bit, 1 MB)
conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb (64-bit, 1 MB)

To install from PPA, type the following commands one by one in a terminal window:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install conky-manager

Updates will be installed automatically if you have enabled automatic updates enabled on your system. The package can also be updated manually by running the install command again.

sudo apt-get install conky-manager

Debian Linux

To install from PPA, type the following commands one by one in a terminal window:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install conky-manager

The DEB files are available from following links:

conky-manager-latest-i386.deb (32-bit, 1 MB)
conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb (64-bit, 1 MB)

Kali Linux

Kali as usual will cry a howl when using PPA. I can still use PPA but using .deb package seems a lot easier.

Install conky-manager from .deb package

(this applies to both Ubuntu or Debian distributions)

Download .deb package on 32-bit System

root@kali:~# wget -q http://dl.dropbox.com/u/67740416/linux/conky-manager-latest-i386.deb

Download .deb package on 64-bit

root@kali:~# wget -q http://dl.dropbox.com/u/67740416/linux/conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb

Download Conky-Manager using Wget

The DEB files are available from following links:

conky-manager-latest-i386.deb (32-bit, 1 MB)
conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb (64-bit, 1 MB)

Because I use a 64-bit system, I’ve installed using the following commands:

First you make conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb executable using chmod +x command. Next you install it using dpkg  -i command with –ignore-depends flag. The reason we are ignoring dependencies is because Kali Linux doesn’t seem to resolve them too well.

root@kali:~# chmod +x conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb 
root@kali:~# dpkg -i conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb --ignore-depends

Use DPKG to install Conky-Manager with irnore-deps flag - blackMORE Ops

Launch Conky Manager

Press ALT+F2 and type in conky-manager

Press ALT+F2 and run conky-manager

You should be able to configure Conky using Conky Manager now.

Theme Packs

The default installation contains only a few sample themes. For more themes, download the theme pack given below and install it using the Import button on the tool-bar.

Use the following command to download Conky Manager Theme pack.

root@kali:~# wget http://download2183.mediafire.com/s9p1h3ja73yg/icvmpzhlk7vgejt/default-themes-extra-1.cmtp.7z --progress=bar

Download Conky-manager themes using wget - blackMORE Ops

Import it using the import button.

import_themes on Conky-Manager

Configure Conky-Manager

Now that you got themes and widgets imported, you can open Conky Manager again and start making your desktop more usable.

Conky Manager default window

A somewhat modified desktop with Conky Manager

Here’s something I came up with… Not very neat but you get the idea

Conky-Manager and blackMORE Ops desktop - 500px -2
Click to enlarge image

Conclusion:

All your config files are in the following folder.

root@kali:~/.conky#

If you are familiar with Conky (trust me, it’s easy to learn and no, you won’t break stuff by doing stuffs to conky… well unless you start using shell commands … but who does that anyway).

As usual, thanks for reading. Please share.

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19 comments

  1. Hi BMO,is nice to see you back.
    Very nice tutorial as always.
    If you want more options setings you will find on ubuntu forum: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=281865
    (is haven of setings ;) )

  2. Hi BMO, this tuturial is cool as usal, but i have a question, i installed the software but when i treid to import the theme file it doesn’t want to import, something else when i use the –ignore-depends option in dpkg, then when i try to use apt-get to install anything it won’t start and claims to use apt-get -f install to correct the problem, but if i use it it will go and remove Conky, so what do you suggest, please i really like that package especially the weather gadgets !!!

    • Hi shahin,
      I wrote this article because someone requested me to do so. Personally, I wouldn’t use apt-get install -f for anything if I can. I suggest you use conky-colors that doesn’t ask you to force anything and you can still get all the goodies you’re after. I am dead against using a package that doesn’t meet the requirements of a particular distro. Conky comes in all formats and all it takes is some tweaking to make it work the way you want. You can follow the link Volkermord posted (from Ubuntu Forums) and you will get all the ideas you’ll ever need to use vanilla conky to anything you like. Enjoy
      -BMO

  3. It’s difficult to find a well-made conky manager install tutorial. Nice work. There are dependency issues as you alluded to in step 3 of the installation process. Despite using “–ignore-depends” there are still unresolved glib dependency errors, and this affects the installation of other programs. One solution that I’ve found to be much more effective is to use a source that was made for Ubuntu, but does not conflict with the Kali Linux dependencies.

    root@kali:~# apt-get install realpath

    root@kali:~# wget https://launchpad.net/~teejee2008/+archive/ubuntu/ppa/+files/conky-manager_2.3.3%7E132%7Eubuntu12.04.1_amd64.deb

    root@kali:~# chmod +x conky-manager_2.3.3~132~ubuntu12.04.1_amd64.deb

    root@kali:~#dpkg -i conky-manager_2.3.3~132~ubuntu12.04.1_amd64.deb

    Note: This is not the fully updated conky, but it retains the same GUI appearance as the new versions. I’ve found that the only unmet dependency is realpath.

    It works great without error.

  4. On Debian
    sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:teejee2008/ppa
    sudo: apt-add-repository: command not found
    any help?

  5. help me!!!!

    root@Gearcapitan:~/Downloads# apt-get upgrade
    Leyendo lista de paquetes… Hecho
    Creando árbol de dependencias
    Leyendo la información de estado… Hecho
    Tal vez quiera ejecutar «apt-get -f install» para corregirlo.
    Los siguientes paquetes tienen dependencias incumplidas:
    conky-manager : Depende: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.35.9) pero 2.33.12+really2.32.4-5 está instalado
    Depende: realpath
    Depende: conky pero no está instalado
    E: Dependencias incumplidas. Pruebe de nuevo usando -f.

  6. my error while installing software-center. please help me fix it. tks

    apt-get install software-center
    Reading package lists… Done
    Building dependency tree
    Reading state information… Done
    You might want to run ‘apt-get -f install’ to correct these:
    The following packages have unmet dependencies:
    conky-manager : Depends: libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.35.9) but 2.33.12+really2.32.4-5 is to be installed
    Depends: realpath but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: conky but it is not going to be installed
    software-center : Depends: aptdaemon (>= 0.40) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: gir1.2-webkit-3.0 but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: python-aptdaemon (>= 0.40) but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: python-aptdaemon.gtk3widgets but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: python-defer but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: python-lazr.restfulclient but it is not going to be installed
    Depends: synaptic but it is not going to be installed
    Recommends: gir1.2-launchpad-integration-3.0 but it is not installable
    Recommends: update-notifier but it is not going to be installed
    Recommends: software-properties-gtk but it is not going to be installed
    Recommends: sessioninstaller but it is not installable
    Recommends: zeitgeist-core but it is not going to be installed
    E: Unmet dependencies. Try ‘apt-get -f install’ with no packages (or specify a solution).

  7. nice tutorial. but i have question sir. while i tried to run conky manager , there was warning and it said
    Commands listed below are not available:

    conky

    Please install required packages and try running it again
    could you help me ? thank you

  8. Okay, I’ve install conky-manager by using this tutorial once before and it worked like a charm. Now, as I’m trying to install it again, I’m running into an error. Alt + F2 -> conky-manager… I get an error, ” Missing Dependencies * conky .. Please install required packages and try running it again. Any ideas?

    • As a note, I’m running kali 2.0

      • Find the dependency mentioned and download it from your repos, In my case I was missing libgee-0.8.so.2 so I searched Debian packages and found libgee-0.8 then used “$ apt install libgee-0.8.so.2” All done and working now.

  9. Im having a trouble with
    Commands listed below are not available:

    * conky

    • i am having same problem and get this error:

      apt-get install conky-all
      Reading package lists… Done
      Building dependency tree
      Reading state information… Done
      E: Unable to locate package conky-all

      i have conky manager installed but my computer refuses to acknowledge the existance of the normal conky file and i am unable to launch the manager because conky has not been downloaded

  10. hi bmo i tried installing conky but when i type this command “wget -q http://dl.dropbox.com/u/67740416/linux/conky-manager-latest-amd64.deb” it isnt working wht to do pls help me

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