[Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Beta release - BRAVE TESTERS WANTED! :)

Conky is a strong and powerful tool to watch what is going on on your system. Sadly, it is able to do a lot more than you could display at your small screen at the same time.

But now comes Conky Layout Switcher

This Application makes it possible to switch your Conky status Monitor fast and live between 4 Layouts - depending of your current use case (general, system load, Network Traffic and Disk usage)

It is made up of 3 parts:

• Statusbar Applet
  http://garage.maemo.org/docman/view..../Applet-ON.png

• Configuration Application
  http://garage.maemo.org/docman/view....655/Config.png

• The Layouts (still in a draft state - will finish later)
  
  Layout 1 - generic
  http://garage.maemo.org/docman/view....51/Layout1.png
  
  Layout 2 - CPU
  http://garage.maemo.org/docman/view....52/Layout2.png
  
  Layout 3 - Network
  http://garage.maemo.org/docman/view....57/Layout3.png
  
  Layout 4 - Disk usage
  http://garage.maemo.org/docman/view....56/Layout4.png
  
  The 2 columns Layout Idea is based on a Layout by GaRy delaMer. Thanks a lot!

You have to enable Conky Layout Switcher first using the Setup Application. If you disable the application later your default Conky Config file is used again. (Warning: If your currently using the outdated Version 1.6.1 from conky your layout gets updated to the new one from Version 1.9.6 !) Don't forget to disable Conky Layout Switcher if you want to uninstall it. (I hope you wouldn't) :D

If you want to create your own Layouts that interacts with Conky Layout Switcher put your own Layouts simply at /home/user/MyDocs/ as before. Simply Name the file conkyLS.conf
Have a look at /etc/conky/conkyLS.conf how it works! :)

Known Issues, small drawbacks and bugs:

• [FIXED] somewhere is a ${endif} clause missing - this slows down conky a lot - I have to find it soon...
• [IMPROVED] currently very resource hungry (perhaps you shouldn't keep conky open)
• [OPTION ADDED] I have to draw all graphs in each layout to keep them updated and synchronous while not shown
• You have to deactivate Conky Layout Switcher before uninstalling - otherwiese you must simply reinstall Conky

Please note: This Application will install Conky-N900 and ttf-droid to your N900 if not already installed. But it won't touch your current *.conf files (I hope) so nothing will break. But creating a small Backup is never a bad idea. ;)

If you are brave enough you can find this small application currently at extra devel or download it at the package page: Conky Layout Switcher

The usual warning applies: It's the first release of this Application. Perhaps there could be a lot of bugs inside. So please test it only if you know what you're doing or wait what will happen in this Thread. And don't forget to create a backup (just in case). I only want to share my little application. But I hope for a lot of positive feedback! :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Ok sorry found out myself theme is already there :D

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

My intention is to make it as easy to use as possible. So a suitable conf file is already included. ;)

Exactly. But I'm still fighting with it. I still have a lot of problems... So it is not already polished. But every update should improve the conf automatically. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

@helex
A bug report...
It won't run at all you forgot to set execute permissions to /opt/usr/bin/ConkyLayoutSwitcher :p

Also all conf files on /etc/conky have *-new on the end so conky still can't find them :D

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Ok I found alot more so I'll just post this

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Yes, sometimes I realized strange *.dpkg-new and *.dpkg-old files in /etc/conky - I thought this is because I edited the files manually on my device and dpkg thought it should keep the previous version because of the difference. Strange that you have the same issue?! :confused:

But /opt/usr/bin/ConkyLayoutSwitcher should have execute permissions. I had no problems so far. I have this line in my postinstall script:
Were there other errors during the installation?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

I haven't tried v0.0.7-2 since I already left home. But What I have posted up there are all the problems I encountered so far on 0.0.6-2 I manually fixed all those problems listed and seems like conkylayoutswitcher worked already

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

What version have you installed?

I uploaded a new version (0.0.7-2) with a small preinstall script to prepare /etc/conky
I hope this could help.

But nothing changed regarding /opt/usr/bin/ConkyLayoutSwitcher


Edit:
Ah, okay. Sorry. I guess I'm writing to slow. :D

v0.0.7-2 has some changes in the preinstall and postinstall script. And the config files are included. ConkyLayoutSwitcher wrote those itself before. Hope this could help...

Thanks for your feedback so far! :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

I must say that this is a great app! I really liked it.

A small request: any chance to make the app detect eth0 as a network connection? I'm using a USB network adapter as my primary connection to the internet and it tells me that there are no network connections.

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Thanks a lot! :)

Hmm... I haven't thought about this possibility. And I'm unable to test and debug it.

Perhaps you could modify it yourself in the file /etc/conky/conkyNetwork.conf (but the next update will overwrite your changes again!)

I'm planing to reconstruct several parts of the Network config. (but trying to keep the layout) I will look how this could work with eth0. But I need a brave tester until it is well-engineered. ;)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

There you go :P

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Thanks drucula :)

Worked the installation process without problems for you?
Which version have you installed?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

No, no problems at all. The installation went smoothly.
I'm using the latest version from extra-devel, 0.0.7-2.

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

This is indeed a great innovative new approach to Conky although I'm experimenting an issue...my default conky is not working anymore. It seems your installation has modified the original when I though it wouldn't?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

I added screenshots and they are there... or perhaps they were there.... yesterday... :(

Sadly it seems the security certificate from maemo garage has expired. :(
Have a look here: garage.maemo.org

But you could visit the MeeGo Coding Competition 2011 Page. There are the same pictures (only 1 is missing).

I hope someone will fix the certificate problem as soon as possible. :)

Edit: I added a Link to the first post. Thanks for reporting. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Hmm... yes, it isn't really "modifing" the Conky installation. It only changes a Shellscript from Conky as soon as you enable Conky Layout Switcher. (but it reverts this changes as soon as you disable Conky Layout Switcher) - perhaps my post was not clear enought. I tried to ensure that user modified config files will not get deleted and I hope this works definitifly. (it's a lot of work if you modify this files yourself before)

BUT my Application depends on the Conky-N900 package, not Conky. There is a note in the package info at the application manager. So if you have not already installed Conky-N900 on your Device this application will install it together with a special font it needs to work. I don't know what Conky-N900 does with your Conky installation if you have only the old package installed.

Please open the Terminal type conky and post here what happens. Perhaps we could see what isn't working. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Great app! Thank you very much!
Stupid question: "Update interval" - what is it (the second number)?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Thanks! Thats the best feedback a programmer could get. :)

There are no stupid questions. Only stupid answers. :)

The first number is the update interval and the second number is the Diagram x-axis that you get with this update interval. :)
You can see this numbers at each Conky Layout in the middle at the top.

I find it very useful to see when something happened and how long. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Ahh, is it my mistake then. I did not realize the difference between Conky-N900 and Conky. Before your instalation, I had the original settings for Conky, which I got used to. Your app brought even more option, but I think it would've been better if Layout 1 stayed the original Conky...(my opinion lol). Anyways here is what I got:


~ $ conky
Conky: desktop window (180eebc) is subwindow of root window (44)
Conky: window type - normal
Conky: drawing to created window (0x7c00001)
Conky: drawing to double buffer
Conky: can't open /sys/class/power_supply/bq27200-0/uevent: No such file or directory
Conky: can't open /sys/class/power_supply/bq27200-0/uevent: No such file or directory

and then it goes to your new Conky-N900

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Ah, now I see... Thanks! :)
You're always able to turn off Conky Layout Switcher. Simply start my application, disable it by unchecking "Enable Layout Switcher" and press save. The next time you start Conky again you have the "original" Layout.

In your case, sadly the original Layout from Conky-N900 (version 1.9.6). Not the Layout form the outdated Version 1.6.1. :(

Hmm... the aviable screen area has changed since version 1.6.1 a little bit. My own Layout looked ugly when I updated to version 1.9.6 - so I don't know if the Layout form Version 1.6.1 could work.

I attached a zip file containing the layout from Conky 1.6.1 (I hope this is the correct one)
Please extract it to the root of your mounted N900 mass storage drive or directly on the device to /home/user/MyDocs/
This way you can test it without replacing original files. (remove the usb cable before you start Conky, or it won't find the file) If everything works correct and you know how you can replace the file /etc/conky/conky.conf with this one. (you may need root access)

Okay. It seems normal to me except the last 2 rows. Perhaps I use something from the newer power kernel. I guess I have to check this. :confused:
Does it show the battery information correctly?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

I just uploaded a small update. Several fixes for the Layouts and a new feature. Now you're able to switch off "update graphs in background".
If you don't switch the layouts back and forth a lot you could save a little bit cpu time this way - but then the graphs are not longer synchronized across the 4 different Layouts - you should close conky and start it with a different layout if you wan't to compare the graphs across the timeline.

drucula, could you check if the Network part is still working when you're using the USB network adapter?
I changed a lot at the config file to make it more maintainable. But I'm unable to check if it works properly. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Sorry, introduced a small bug in the applet. Try to fix it tomorrow. It doesn't switch to the correct window at the moment. :(

Edit: Fixed! :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Hi helex, I tried conky switcher some days ago and already deinstalled it again as it's way too hungry for letting it run in background all the time (I had a cpu workload of 30% minimum!).
Nevertheless, I like your config file (the 'normal' cpu one) and consider using it with standard conky. Could you tell me wether the config files itself have some ressource hungry parts or is it just the switching and updating process thats consumes so much power?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Hi x-lette,
Yes, it is very resource hungry. This is the main problem I have at the moment. But 30% is to much... perhaps you had a fast update interval in the settings?

I have 8% CPU with 4,5sec update interval and about 18% CPU usage with 1sec update interval. But still to lot to keep it running in the background all the time. (in my opinion 5% would also be to much in the long term - so I close mine if I don't need it)

But you're always able to turn it off and use the default layout and switch it on if you wan't to see more details. :)

The switching takes a lot of ram, but not that much cpu as far as I'm able to check. But drawing the graphs take A LOT of CPU time, especially the Disk specific. And I have to draw all graphs at each layout, even if they are not visible. I'm still searching for a workaround. If you have a Idea I would love to hear it. I still haven't gave up. ;)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

I think I had interval to middle setting.

OK so if not using layout switcher and only using one of the layouts would also result in high cpu load? I'd like to have something stable with some more information than the "old" conky layout. But of course nothing which keeps the load permanently high.

I guess I'll have to dig into that myself and create my own layout. :rolleyes:

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Yes. higher than the default layout because of the more displayed information. But not that much. :)

Or you could perhaps wait until Conky Layout Switcher is finished and see how it works then. :)
Its like the most software in a early Beta stage, a lot of debugging code is still inside and slows the whole thing down a lot but helps to make the development a lot easier.

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

I removed some parts from the config file I used to debug my layouts. They made it for me easier to move the parts until the positions are settled. (I hope I won't need them anymore) ;)

Please don't hesitate to report bugs. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

eth0 works perfectly with 0.0.9-1.
again, great work!

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

hey, if you didn't figure it out, the bq2700 error was caused by something i added to the new versions of conky. if that error comes up, you are missing the required module to read the battery info from sysfs. conky reads it from dbus instead in this case, but due to some weird nokia bug the charge level is not updated when the phone is charging. It's suggested to install the missing module...

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Thanks Creamy Goodness,
I have no idea about this and have not seen such kind of error so far. :confused:
As far as I know the charge level is anyway not displayed while charging? I'm only able to read the Voltage Level during charging. So I don't show any kind of level while plugged in. I thought this is the right way...

But suggestions are welcome! :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Yeah I don't even know how it works, probably running the power kernel gets the sysfs entries working to report the correct charge levels while charging. Then loading the bq27x00_battery module after that gets the temperature to work also. I could be wrong though. Let me check my conky code changes, I documented this **** somewhere I hope.

Yeah I dunno, I promise Conky works fine to update the % and mAh if you're running power kernel. I have no idea why, though.

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Thanks, Creamy Goodness. I'm sorry for my late reply. I had a very bussy week following other projects... (like work, family and something else ;))

I guess I got now the point. But, despite of the temperature, I want to get Conky Layout Switcher working and running on every N900. Power Kernel installed or not. If that would only work with Power Kernel installed this would be very sad. So I guess it is not the best idea to integrate it by default in my little application.

I have already thought about disable the Temperature prompt by default and to make it configurable in the future... :rolleyes: But complex is not as good as it seems on a device with limited resources. (I'm still trying to learn this fact :D)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

OK guys, can somebody tell me what's wrong here?

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

The screenshot is very small. So it's hard to read. I'm unable to decipher the conky update interval. Perhaps you could go to the settings and move the slider to the maximum.

But as far as I see Conky uses anyway only 5% CPU usage. But "hildon-status-m" is very high. That's not normal. Does a reebot fix this?

And the 3rd highest process is something with tube at the ending. This is also very resource hungry. And from your WiFi connection and your Download speed I guess you currently downloading something. Sadly this always slows the N900 down a lot. I have this problem at gpodder, too. As far as I know there is no working solution except waiting until the download has finished. :(

I hope I was able to help. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

OK thanks, first image is with power supply connected and new one is it without.

imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/screenshot01u.png/

Look carefully, really something's wrong here but I don't know what and why. Phone are not clocked.

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

Ah, now I see. You're running conky in the fastest setting. This will use a lot of your power. Run it only in this setting if you want to track fast stuff (internet connections at example)

Please go to the settings screen fron Conky Layout Switcher, move the interval slider to the right and press save. At the next startup Conky will run slower and not as recource hungry as currently. :)

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

You don't understand, Conky is not a problem. See Battery Voltage and Temperature, it's so high and CPU also, all the time on max speed (600MHz).

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

The high CPU usage is caused by the fast update interval.

But you're right. The Voltage is not correct. The temperaure also not.
What language settings are you using? I guess there is a problem with the decimal separator. But I have currently no Idea how to test this myself. It's working here fine. :confused:

Re: [Announce] Conky Layout Switcher
 

It worked fine on old Conky but when I updated to Layout Switcher thet the problems are came. Also I checked old Conky the same problem again.

I forgot that I have updated kernel power to 47 also. On 46 everything worked normal, and with new version my N900 restarts very often. I don't know why because device are not overclocked, I using it only when I need it.
Somebody know solution?