Conky Starts But Then Quits

Sharp · February 24, 2024, 11:04pm

I have conky-manager installed and for a while conky was starting and stayed running. Lately conky is starting but then quitting within about 5 seconds or so of it starting. If I restart it manually, it does the same thing by starting and then quitting. This is the conky-startup.sh:

sleep 0s
killall conky
cd "/home/gus/.conky/Green Apple Desktop"
conky -c "/home/gus/.conky/Green Apple Desktop/Gotham" &

And this is my conky file:

use_xft yes
xftfont 123:size=8
xftalpha 0.1
update_interval 1
total_run_times 0

own_window yes
own_window_type desktop
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_colour 000000
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 0

double_buffer yes
#minimum_size 250 5
#maximum_width 500
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_right
gap_x 15
gap_y -30
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 1
override_utf8_locale yes
use_spacer yes


minimum_size 0 0
TEXT
${color white}
${font GE Inspira:pixelsize=25}
${alignc}EndeavourOS
$hr
${alignc}${time %l:%M%p}
${alignc}${time %m/%d/%g}
${alignc}${time %A}
$hr
${alignc}MEM: $legacymem
${alignc}CPU: $cpu%

Any clue on how to fix this? Thanks!

ajgringo619 · February 24, 2024, 11:14pm

I get that every once in a while, but only after making an edit with conky running. Curious why you’re not starting conky in background daemon mode: conky -dc /path/to/config

Sharp · February 24, 2024, 11:26pm

I didnt setup the start script, that is what conly-manager outputted I guess. How would I change (what changes should I make) the script to make it work? I am not very experienced in this area.

Edit: I forgot to add that I am using community openbox wm.

thefrog · February 24, 2024, 11:41pm

running this at the command line does the same thing as the script? Displays for 5 seconds and then gone? or are you manually running the startup script?

Sharp · February 24, 2024, 11:51pm

I just ran it in terminal and it did the same thing. This is the output the terminal gave:

[gus@endeavouros ~]$ conky -c "/home/gus/.conky/Green Apple Desktop/Gotham" &
[1] 62020
[gus@endeavouros ~]$ conky: Syntax error (/home/gus/.conky/Green Apple Desktop/Gotham:1: syntax error near 'yes') while reading config file. 
conky: Assuming it's in old syntax and attempting conversion.
conky: desktop window (25a) is root window
conky: window type - desktop
conky: drawing to created window (0x2000002)
conky: drawing to double buffer
conky: Invalid value 'yes' for setting 'use_spacer'. Valid values are: 'none', 'left', 'right'.
*** buffer overflow detected ***: terminated

Here is a screenshot of it:

The script is set to autostart when I log in but the same thing happens then as well.

Stagger_Lee · February 24, 2024, 11:53pm

This might be a big ol’ clue right here.

thefrog · February 24, 2024, 11:59pm

change the yes answers to true

to
own_window true

Sharp · February 25, 2024, 12:01am

Trying it right now but still doing the same thing. I tried "none, right, and left with same results.

Sharp · February 25, 2024, 12:07am

I did and I am still getting the same behavior. I think I am going to uninstall it and then reinstall it to see if that changes anything.

Stagger_Lee · February 25, 2024, 12:10am

I doubt that you got the same error message when launching from terminal.

Sharp · February 25, 2024, 12:14am

Changed it to none and this is terminal output:

[gus@endeavouros ~]$ conky -c "/home/gus/.conky/Green Apple Desktop/Gotham" &
[1] 64576
[gus@endeavouros ~]$ conky: Syntax error (/home/gus/.conky/Green Apple Desktop/Gotham:1: syntax error near 'true') while reading config file. 
conky: Assuming it's in old syntax and attempting conversion.
conky: desktop window (25a) is root window
conky: window type - desktop
conky: drawing to created window (0x2000001)
conky: drawing to double buffer
*** buffer overflow detected ***: terminated

Stagger_Lee · February 25, 2024, 12:29am

I’m not familiar with conky (I do not, and never have, used conky), but there are some recent bug reports that may apply to you:

github.com/brndnmtthws/conky

[Bug]: conky conky 1.19.7_pre compiled causes buffer overflow

opened 03:37PM - 24 Feb 24 UTC

closed 09:37PM - 24 Feb 24 UTC

siliconsniffer

bug

### What happened? Running `conky` results in a crash reporting `*** buffer… overflow detected ***: terminated [1] 2234 IOT instruction (core dumped) conky` ### Version conky 1.19.7_pre compiled 2024-02-23 ### Which OS/distro are you seeing the problem on? Arch Linux ### Conky config ```Lua -- Conky, a system monitor https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky -- -- This configuration file is Lua code. You can write code in here, and it will -- execute when Conky loads. You can use it to generate your own advanced -- configurations. -- -- Try this (remove the `--`): -- -- print("Loading Conky config") -- -- For more on Lua, see: -- https://www.lua.org/pil/contents.html conky.config = { alignment = 'top_right', background = false, border_width = 1, cpu_avg_samples = 2, default_color = 'white', default_outline_color = 'white', default_shade_color = 'white', double_buffer = true, draw_borders = false, draw_graph_borders = true, draw_outline = false, draw_shades = false, extra_newline = false, font = 'DejaVu Sans Mono:size=12', gap_x = 5, gap_y = 34, minimum_height = 5, minimum_width = 5, net_avg_samples = 2, no_buffers = true, out_to_console = false, out_to_ncurses = false, out_to_stderr = false, out_to_x = true, own_window = true, own_window_transparent = true, own_window_argb_visual = true, own_window_class = 'Conky', own_window_type = 'override', show_graph_range = false, show_graph_scale = false, stippled_borders = 0, update_interval = 2.5, uppercase = false, use_spacer = 'none', use_xft = true, } conky.text = [[ # ${color grey}Info:$color ${scroll 32 Conky $conky_version - $sysname $nodename $kernel $machine} # $hr ${color grey}Uptime:$color $uptime ${color grey}Frequency (in MHz):$color $freq ${color grey}Frequency (in GHz):$color $freq_g ${color grey}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc% ${membar 4} ${color grey}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc% ${swapbar 4} ${color grey}CPU Usage:$color $cpu% ${cpubar 4} ${color grey}Processes:$color $processes ${color grey}Running:$color $running_processes $hr ${color grey}File systems: / $color${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 6 /} # ${color grey}Networking: # Up:$color ${upspeed} ${color grey} - Down:$color ${downspeed} $hr ${color grey}Name PID CPU% MEM% ${color lightgrey} ${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1} ${color lightgrey} ${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2} ${color lightgrey} ${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3} ${color lightgrey} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4} ]] ``` ### Stack trace _No response_ ### Relevant log output ```Shell conky: desktop window (439) is root window conky: window type - override conky: drawing to created window (0x1400002) conky: drawing to double buffer *** buffer overflow detected ***: terminated [1] 2172 IOT instruction (core dumped) conky -c .config/conky/config.lua ```

Which is seemimgly related to this one:

github.com/brndnmtthws/conky

[Bug]: conky 1.19.7 crashing when mouse moves on opensuse Tumbleweed

opened 02:01PM - 23 Feb 24 UTC

stephanebill

bug

### What happened? compiling my own RPM for Opensuse Leap 15.5 & recent Tumblew…eed. On Tumbleweed, conky starts normally and runs until I move the mouse, printing '*** buffer overflow detected ***; terminated'. strace shows 'killed by SIGABRT', even with a minimal .conkyrc. 1.19.6 runs fine with any config 1.19.7 compiled for Leap 15.5 also runs fine. The tumbleweed computer is locked down with no gdb, I will try to setup another system and reproduce ### Version 1.19.7 ### Which OS/distro are you seeing the problem on? Linux (other) ### Conky config ```Lua conky.config = { alignment='top_right', background=true, border_width=1, cpu_avg_samples=3, default_color='green', default_outline_color='black', default_shade_color='black', double_buffer=true, draw_borders=false, draw_graph_borders=false, draw_outline=false, draw_shades=true, font='fixed', gap_x=12, gap_y=12, maximum_width=260, minimum_width=260, net_avg_samples=3, no_buffers=true, out_to_console=false, override_utf8_locale=false, own_window=true, own_window_hints='undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager', own_window_transparent=true, own_window_type='desktop', pad_percents=2, short_units=true, stippled_borders=8, total_run_times=0, update_interval=4.0, update_interval_on_battery=8.0, uppercase=false, use_spacer='none', } conky.text = [[ $nodename ]] ``` ### Stack trace _No response_ ### Relevant log output _No response_

And this one:

Sharp · February 25, 2024, 12:49am

Thanks for that info! I will give them a read and see what is up. I uninstalled it and cleared things up with pacman -R $(pacman -Qdtq) several times until it came back “clean”. I then rebooted and reinstalled and got all the same results as before. Even running just conky without the conky-manger gave the same behavior. I uninstalled it again and cleaned it up again. Conky is nice but I can live with out it. If I get it going correctly, I will update here. Thanks!

thefrog · February 25, 2024, 8:51am

this worked for me

conky.config = {
use_xft = true,
xftalpha = 1,
update_interval = 1,
own_window = true,
own_window_class = "Conky",
own_window_type = 'desktop',
own_window_transparent = false,
own_window_argb_visual = true,
own_window_argb_value = 0,
double_buffer=true,
draw_shades=false,
draw_outline=false,
draw_borders=false,
draw_graph_borders=false,
default_color = white,
default_shade_color = red,
default_outline_color = green,
alignment = top_right,
gap_x = 15,
gap_y = 30,
no_buffers = true,
uppercase =  false,
cpu_avg_samples = 2,
net_avg_samples = 1,
override_utf8_locale = true,
use_spacer =  none,

}

conky.text = [[
${color white}
${font GE Inspira :size=25}
${alignc}EndeavourOS
$hr
${alignc}${time %l:%M%p}
${alignc}${time %m/%d/%g}
${alignc}${time %A}
$hr
${alignc}MEM: $legacymem
${alignc}CPU: $cpu%
]]

bkaplan · February 25, 2024, 1:51pm

I’m getting the same issue with my conky setup of many years. There was a conky package update in the last day or so. I’m guessing it is related to that update.

thefrog · February 25, 2024, 2:33pm

Doing an update.

So the above does work however as soon as i do something else I get a
*** buffer overflow detected ***: terminated
must be a change in conky that is causing it to use more buffer than it should now. Neither of my conky’s are staying at the moment even without a mouse move.

shows a fix from an Hour ago but I cannot verify it works

MarkMcCoskey · February 25, 2024, 3:08pm

I’m a conky user. I go to /usr/share/applications and copy conky and paste it in /home/username/.config/autostart.
Screenshot from 2024-02-25 10-07-32

thefrog · February 25, 2024, 3:33pm

its not a problem of it starting its a problem of it continuing to run. A recent update has caused a buffer overflow. It shows that they fixed it on the github however I don’t think its updated in the repos.

ExDebianuser · February 25, 2024, 3:56pm

I was having the buffer overflow problem & used downgrade to 19-6. Locked the upgrade until it gets sorted out. Working without a problem after the downgrade.

thefrog · February 25, 2024, 7:27pm

Yeah I downgraded it as well. I didn’t ignore it right yet though. I will run another update next weekend so hopefully they will have a fixed version out by then. If not then i will downgrade and ignore. I normally do it this way as I understand every now and then one update will have issues the next usually fixes them.