[SOLVED]conky text flashing

Inxsible · 2011-06-12 04:33:54

I run 2 instances of conky and pipe them to dzen to line up along my i3 workspace bar.

Here's how I call them in my i3config:

exec conky -c ~/.config/conky/.conkyrcstatic | dzen2 -h 18 -w 750 -ta r -x 1150 -y 1032 -fn '123-9' -bg '#000000' &
exec conky -c ~/.config/conky/.conkyrcupdating | dzen2 -h 18 -w 750 -ta c -x 450 -y 1032 -fn '123-9' -bg '#000000' &

However, ever since I started using the dzen, the entire text in the conkyrc file after the keyword TEXT keeps flashing on my screen. sometimes its only for a fraction of a second sometimes it will stay up for a few seconds. But when I try to take a screenshot, it doesn't show up in it. How can I get rid of this flashing/flickering?

I have tried double_buffer yes, but the only thing it does is make my computer unusable as in it flashes every application window. what other conky variables should I set in order to get rid of the flashing of the conky text?

Here are my 2 conky rcs

out_to_console yes
update_interval 1.0
total_run_times 0
 
TEXT
^fg(skyblue)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/cpu.xbm):^fg(orange)${cpu cpu0}% (${cpu cpu 1}%, ${cpu cpu2}%) ^fg(skyblue)| \
^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/mem.xbm):^fg(orange) $mem ($memperc%) ^fg()| \
^fg(skyblue)/:^fg(orange) $fs_used | ^fg(skyblue)/home: ^fg(orange)${fs_used /home} ^fg(skyblue)| \
^fg(skyblue)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/net-wired.xbm): ^fg(orange)${execi 18000 ~/.config/conky/getip} ^fg(skyblue)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/net_up_01.xbm):^fg(red)${upspeed eth0} ^fg(skyblue)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/net_down_01.xbm):^fg(green)${downspeed eth0} ^fg()|

out_to_console yes
update_interval 1.0
total_run_times 0

TEXT
^fg(skyblue)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/arch_10x10.xbm)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/pacman.xbm): ^fg(yellow)${execi 7200 perl ~/scripts/pacman/arch_update.pl} ^fg(skyblue)| \
^fg(skyblue)^i(/home/inxs/.icons/xbm/vol-hi.xbm):^fg(orange)${mixer Master}% ^fg(skyblue)| \
^fg(skyblue) ${time %a %d %b %Y %R:%S} ^fg(skyblue)| \
^fg(brown)${texeci 1800 ~/scripts/weather/weather.sh}

Coacher · 2011-06-12 11:03:01

Add "double_buffer yes", or start conky with -b parameter

Inxsible · 2011-06-12 15:58:11

As noted in my first post, using the double_buffer option makes the computer pretty useless

Coacher · 2011-06-12 19:03:33

Does conky flicker without dzen?

Last edited by Coacher (2011-06-12 19:03:48)

davidbe · 2011-06-12 19:09:44

I had a similar issue when using ati-proprietary driver. When switching to open-source radeon driver, I had no flashing problems.
Might this help you?

dodo3773 · 2011-06-12 19:51:49

I do not know much about dzen but have you tried experimenting with "own_window_type" parameters? Like "normal" "override" etc... Also, have you tried changing your update settings? Like changing "update_interval 1.0" to 5 or 10?

Inxsible · 2011-06-12 23:58:08

Coacher wrote:

Does conky flicker without dzen?

Not at all.

davidbe wrote:

I had a similar issue when using ati-proprietary driver. When switching to open-source radeon driver, I had no flashing problems.
Might this help you?

I have been using xf86-video-ati since a very long time.

dodo3773, I will try those out and let you know.

blueblob · 2011-06-13 02:11:41

stolen from the faq http://conky.sourceforge.net/faq.html #8
Q: Double buffer isn't working!

A: More than likely you aren't loading the double buffer extension when Xorg starts. Luckily, its easy to fix. Open up the Xorg configuration file (usually /etc/X11/xorg.conf) with your favourite text editor, and find the line that says:

Section "Module"

Then, after that line, add:

Load "dbe"

Restart Xorg (my preferred method is the good-ole control+alt+backspace) and enjoy.

Inxsible · 2011-06-13 14:12:41

Thanks blueblob, I will try it out tonight.

However, I don't use a xorg.conf file -- but I can always make one, I guess. Secondly, why was it not required when I didn't use dzen and just had straight conky with window_type as dock? I didn't have this flashing/flickering problem then.

VCoolio · 2011-06-13 22:08:40

Does the output fit within the sizes you specified? I had flickering with conky output being larger than the window size I'd set for it. But I never used dzen so it's just an option you might want to check out, with the -h and especially the -w flags, or setting minimum_size in conky.

Inxsible · 2011-06-14 04:08:26

I played around with the size. my two conky and dzen instances were overlapping a little, so I changed their sizes (basically changed -w and -x values so that they are no longer overlapping). Now they have no overlap, but I still see the damned text flash every now and then. Then I also tried just starting one instance of conky instead of both. Still the same. Loading dbe in xorg.conf didnt change anything either.

I am almost to the point where I will let go of dzen and use conky with its dock option. I really wanted to have my workspace bar in i3 and conky on the same line, but this flickering is more irritating than losing another 18 pixels of screen space.

Also changing update_interval to 3 or 10 doesn't change anything either.

So at this point, I am pretty much out of options to try.

Ashren · 2011-06-14 04:49:37

Inxsible: Why not just downgrade conky to an older version using abs? And have you tried conky-cli version from AUR?

Inxsible · 2011-06-14 06:00:00

I don't believe its a problem with the version of conky itself since I have no issues when I run conky as dock without dzen. But thanks for the tip about conky-cli. I will try that out and see if it makes any difference.

Inxsible · 2011-06-14 06:10:23

so far so good. Haven't seen the artifacts on screen yet since using conky-cli.

Will mark this solved after a few hours of visual testing.

I can't believe how much difference conky and conky-cli does. I just assumed out_to_x = no and/or out_to_console=yes would pretty much make conky into conky-cli, but I was obviously wrong.

Inxsible · 2011-06-15 03:46:49

Been testing for the last few hours and it seems that using conky-cli has actually gotten rid of the artifacts flashing/flickering on the screen. A much more pleasant experience IMO.

so thank you Ashren for the tip.

gabx · 2012-06-25 12:12:18

I have same issue with conky window flashing a litle, and all usual variables set correctly.

I want to give a try to conky-cli. Is unstalling/installing conky-cli enough? Shall I modify something else, like my ~/conkyrc ?

EDIT
I installed conky-cli, and variables in .conkyrc are not at all the sames. I have now my answer.

Last edited by gabx (2012-06-25 13:58:39)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-06-12 04:33:54

[SOLVED]conky text flashing

#2 2011-06-12 11:03:01

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#3 2011-06-12 15:58:11

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#4 2011-06-12 19:03:33

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#5 2011-06-12 19:09:44

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#6 2011-06-12 19:51:49

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#7 2011-06-12 23:58:08

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#8 2011-06-13 02:11:41

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#9 2011-06-13 14:12:41

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#10 2011-06-13 22:08:40

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#11 2011-06-14 04:08:26

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#12 2011-06-14 04:49:37

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#13 2011-06-14 06:00:00

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#14 2011-06-14 06:10:23

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#15 2011-06-15 03:46:49

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

#16 2012-06-25 12:12:18

Re: [SOLVED]conky text flashing

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