Xfce Forum

iceTwy

Member

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 3

Conky and transparency issues on XFCE 4.8

Hey there!

I've started using Conky a few days ago and I'm having a lot of hassle over the transparency issues many people have had to face.

After searching for solutions, I end up on two cases:

-The first where I'll have Conky running within a black box; no transparency at all. It doesn't interact with the icons.

.conkyrc:

background no
use_xft yes
xftfont 123:size=8
xftalpha 0.1
update_interval 1
total_run_times 0
own_window yes
own_window_class Conky
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent no
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 100
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 250 5
maximum_width 560
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color white
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment top_left
gap_x 60
gap_y 300
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 1
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer true


TEXT
${voffset 10}${color EAEAEA}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=120}${time %H:%M}${font}${voffset -84}${offset 10}${color FFA300}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=42}${time %d} ${voffset -15}${color EAEAEA}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=22}${time  %B} ${time %Y}${font}${voffset 24}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=58}${offset -148}${time %A}${font}
${voffset 1}${offset 12}${font Ubuntu:pixelsize=10}${color FFA300}HD ${offset 9}$color${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /}${offset 30}${color FFA300}RAM ${offset 9}$color$mem / $memmax${offset 30}${color FFA300}CPU ${offset 9}$color${cpu cpu0}%

-The second where Conky will run with the transparency enabled but where it will interact with other icons. It hides them and when you click on them, they appear then disappear.

.conkyrc:

background no
use_xft yes
xftfont 123:size=8
xftalpha 0.1
update_interval 1
total_run_times 0
own_window no
own_window_class Conky
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 100
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 250 5
maximum_width 560
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color white
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment top_left
gap_x 60
gap_y 300
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 1
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer true


TEXT
${voffset 10}${color EAEAEA}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=120}${time %H:%M}${font}${voffset -84}${offset 10}${color FFA300}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=42}${time %d} ${voffset -15}${color EAEAEA}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=22}${time  %B} ${time %Y}${font}${voffset 24}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=58}${offset -148}${time %A}${font}
${voffset 1}${offset 12}${font Ubuntu:pixelsize=10}${color FFA300}HD ${offset 9}$color${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /}${offset 30}${color FFA300}RAM ${offset 9}$color$mem / $memmax${offset 30}${color FFA300}CPU ${offset 9}$color${cpu cpu0}%

Hope I can get some help!

ozjd

Member

From: Hawkesbury NSW Australia

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 560

Website

Re: Conky and transparency issues on XFCE 4.8

I noticed a couple of things with your second configuration.
First you changed own_window to no, doing so invalidates some of the following settings e.g. own_window_hints. Try it as yes.
Your own_windows_argb_value line is not working because you set own_window_transparent to yes. That sets the value to zero. But that shouldn't affect your problem with icons.

Of course you could move conky to the right so it wouldn't interfere with the icons. It may be easier to read there too as it own't be obstructed by the background.

iceTwy

Member

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 3

Re: Conky and transparency issues on XFCE 4.8

Well I'm quite new to Conky, that's why I didn't remove the useless parameters once they were off. I've already tried to set own_window to yes and it ends up with the first case (black box, no transparency, although no problems with the icons). Now, this is my normal desktop (with Conky off):

And when I run Conky, after messing with gap_x and gap_y to move it on the right side and removing the inactive parameters, the icons are still hidden even though there's no direct contact:

.conkyrc:

background yes
use_xft yes
xftfont 123:size=8
xftalpha 0.1
update_interval 1
total_run_times 0
own_window no
own_window_class Conky
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent yes
#own_window_argb_visual yes
#own_window_argb_value 100
#own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 250 5
maximum_width 560
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders no
default_color white
default_shade_color red
default_outline_color green
alignment top_left
gap_x 700
gap_y 500
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 1
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer true


TEXT
${voffset 10}${color EAEAEA}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=120}${time %H:%M}${font}${voffset -84}${offset 10}${color FFA300}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=42}${time %d} ${voffset -15}${color EAEAEA}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=22}${time  %B} ${time %Y}${font}${voffset 24}${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=58}${offset -148}${time %A}${font}
${voffset 1}${offset 12}${font Ubuntu:pixelsize=10}${color FFA300}HD ${offset 9}$color${fs_free /} / ${fs_size /}${offset 30}${color FFA300}RAM ${offset 9}$color$mem / $memmax${offset 30}${color FFA300}CPU ${offset 9}$color${cpu cpu0}%

Last edited by iceTwy (2012-02-05 10:08:02)

ozjd

Member

From: Hawkesbury NSW Australia

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 560

Website

Re: Conky and transparency issues on XFCE 4.8

Experimenting and looking at other people's config files are the best way of learning. It's not as hard as it looks. The man page is good too.

Try this combination -
set own_window to yes, remove the comments from own_window_argb_visual (leave value commented out) and own_window_hints

I use 'own_window_type normal' although this means you can click and drag the conky window. That doesn't bother me but I know some people don't like it. 'own_window_type desktop' is recommended for Xfce.

An easier way of moving to different regions of the screen is changing the alignment option. I think middle_right is what you were after. You can fine tune it with gap_x and gap_y.