Conky System Monitor

Auto-generated Conky configuration that adapts to any Ubuntu desktop. Detects hardware on each boot and produces a tailored system monitor panel.

Features

• Auto-detection — CPU (model, cores, threads, CCD topology), disks, NICs, GPU (NVIDIA), display resolution, temperatures, proxy
• Dynamic hwmon — scans /sys/class/hwmon/ every run so sensor indices never go stale
• Display scaling — all fonts, bars, graphs, and positions scale to the screen resolution (4K = 1.0x baseline)
• Color schemes — 7 built-in themes (orange, cyan, green, purple, blue, red, teal); one is picked at random on each restart, or you can pin one
• Device blacklist — skip specific disks or NICs via a simple config file
• CCD grouping — AMD Ryzen CCDs detected automatically via L3 cache topology; Intel CPUs fall back to a flat core list
• SMT-aware — dual-bar layout for Hyper-Threading / SMT; single-bar for non-SMT CPUs

Quick Start

# Clone the repo
git clone <repo-url> ~/conkyrc
cd ~/conkyrc

# Run once (random color scheme)
./start_conky.sh

# Run with a specific color scheme
./start_conky.sh --scheme cyan

The script generates ~/.config/conky/conky.conf and starts conky in the background.

Autostart on Boot

GNOME autostart

Run the installation script to automatically set up autostart with the correct path for your system:

./install_autostart.sh

The script will:

1. Detect your current installation directory
2. Create ~/.config/autostart if it doesn't exist
3. Install the properly configured desktop file

Conky will start automatically on your next boot.

Crontab

Crontab (cron table) is a built-in Linux scheduler. Each user has their own crontab file listing commands to run automatically — on a schedule or at system startup. No extra software needed; it comes with every Ubuntu install.

crontab -e

# Add this line at the end of the file, then save and quit (:wq)
@reboot sleep 5 && /path/to/conkyrc/start_conky.sh

# Verify it was saved
crontab -l

The 5-second delay ensures the desktop environment is fully loaded before conky starts.

Blacklist

Edit blacklist.conf to hide devices you don't want displayed:

# Format: type:name
disk:nvme0n1       # skip Windows drive
nic:docker0        # skip docker bridge
nic:br-abcdef      # skip bridge interfaces
nic:veth1234       # skip container veth

Supported types: disk, nic.

Per-Host Blacklist

When sharing the repo across multiple PCs via git, use per-host override files to avoid conflicts. The generator automatically loads blacklist-<hostname>.conf and merges it with the base blacklist.conf:

• blacklist.conf — common entries shared across all PCs (tracked in git)
• blacklist-<hostname>.conf — per-PC overrides (gitignored)

# Find your hostname
hostname

# Create a per-host override
cp blacklist.conf blacklist-$(hostname).conf
# Edit it with PC-specific entries (e.g. Windows drives, extra NICs)

The per-host files are gitignored (blacklist-*.conf in .gitignore), so each PC keeps its own blacklist without interfering with git sync.

Color Schemes

Name	Accent
orange	#ff8c00
cyan	#00bcd4
green	#4caf50
purple	#bb86fc
blue	#42a5f5
red	#ef5350
teal	#26a69a

Pass --scheme NAME to pin a scheme, or omit for random selection on each restart.

Dependencies

• conky (1.19+, built with Xft and optionally nvidia support)
• Python 3 (for generate_conky.py and lunar.py, no pip packages needed)
• nvidia-smi (optional, for GPU section)
• curl (for public IP lookup)
• CJK font such as Noto Sans CJK SC (optional, for Chinese lunar calendar)

Scaling Reference

The layout is designed at 3840x2160 (scale 1.0). Font sizes at reference:

Role	Size
Body	12
Header	15
Subtitle	10
Clock	31

On other resolutions, everything scales proportionally by screen_height / 2160.