Conky

Install software

sudo apt-get install conky,hddtemp,lm-sensors

Install the Fonts

Install fonts into ~/.fonts - I got some from here: http://www.quicktweaks.com/2008/09/27/gmail-weather-beauty-right-on-your-ubuntu-desktop/

Scripts

My scripts are in ~/scripts/conky (or should be)

Weather

For Weather read here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=869328

Documenation

Conky is documented here: http://conky.sourceforge.net/docs.html

My .conkyrc script

# conky configuration
# edited by Mark Buck (Kaivalagi) <m_buck@hotmail.com>

# set to yes if you want Conky to be forked in the background
background no

# X font when Xft is disabled, you can pick one with program xfontsel
#font 5x7
#font 6x10
#font 7x13
#font 8x13
#font 9x15
#font *mintsmild.se*
#font -*-*-*-*-*-*-34-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes

# Xft font when Xft is enabled
xftfont Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:size=9

# Text alpha when using Xft
xftalpha 0.8

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1.0

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window no

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 300 0
maximum_width 300

# Draw shades?
draw_shades yes

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 8

# border margins
border_margin 4

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color white

# own window options
own_window		yes
own_window_transparent	yes
own_window_type		override
own_window_hints	undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 10
gap_y 35

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer right

# colours
color1 white
# light blue
color2 6892C6
# orange
#E77320
color3 FC8820
# green
color4 78BF39
# red
color5 CC0000

text_buffer_size 2048

# variable is given either in format $variable or in ${variable}. Latter
# allows characters right after the variable and must be used in network
# stuff because of an argument

# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen

TEXT
${color1}
${font Radio Space:size=33}${time %H:%M}
${font Radio Space:size=22}${time %a %e %b} 
${execpi 1800 conkyForecast --location=NZXX0022 --template=/usr/share/conkyforecast/example/conkyForecast.template}
${color C2E078}${font StyleBats:size=18}P${font}Up: ${uptime_short} $sysname $kernel 
${font weather:size=28}x ${font}CPU:$acpitemp C HDD:${execi 1 ~/conkyscripts/hddmonit.sh} C 
${color C2E078}${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=16}J${font}   $mem $membar
${color C2E078}${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}  CPU0: ${cpu cpu0}% ${cpubar cpu0}
${font StyleBats:size=16}A${font}  CPU1: ${cpu cpu1}% ${cpubar cpu1}
	NAME $alignr PID    CPU
	${top name 1} $alignr ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1}
	${top name 2} $alignr ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2}
	${top name 3} $alignr ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3}
${color F8DF58}${font StyleBats:size=16}8${font}  Wifi: ${wireless_bitrate wlan0} ${wireless_link_bar wlan0}
${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=16}v${font}  ${upspeed wlan0} Kb/s ${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=16}M${font} ${totalup wlan0}
${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=16}r${font}  ${downspeed wlan0} Kb/s ${font PizzaDude Bullets:size=16}S${font} ${totaldown wlan0}

${color ffffff}${font StyleBats:size=16}8${font}  Battery: ${battery_percent BAT1}% ${battery_bar BAT1}

Delay start

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=357807

Do this:

Go to your home folder, and create a new document. Call it something like ‘.conky_start.sh’ It should contain the following

#!/bin/bash
sleep 6 && conky;

The # after ’sleep’ tells the computer how long to wait until starting conky. This way you can wait until after the desktop is drawn, and then put conky on top of it

Then do a chmod on it and add execute privileges

sudo chmod +x .conky_start.sh

Finally, go to system -> prefeneces -> sessions
pick the ’statup’ tab
remove the conky entry
click add
browse for your ‘.conky_startup.sh’ file

and you should be good to go.