Small Flicker Center Screen When Starting Conky
 

Hello,

I am having this similar issue with Conky in Openbox.

https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky/issues/1182

When I try to start Conky from the Openbox menu in the same manner, I also see this small white dot appear in the middle of the screen for a brief second.

Does anyone know a way in which I can start Conky from the Openbox menu and not have this issue?

The only way I have found so far is to change own_window_type = from normal or desktop to override. But I want to use normal...

THANKS

Can you try to click the dot with xprop? It could be that Openbox is placing the conky window in the wrong place briefly before the proper position from the config file kicks in.

I don't see how that is even possible, to start xprop, and then click on Conky from the Openbox menu...

As I nentioned I am starting Conky from the Openbox menu, and if you look over the GitHub link you will read/see it doesn't do this calling the command directly from the terminal, only from the Openbox menu is the issue.

THANKS

I thought Openbox menus were navigable by keyboard, sorry.

RE menu.xml from the GitHub issue: does disabling "startupnotify" do anything? I can't think of what else might make opening conky from the menu different from using a terminal.

In your ~/.conkyrc, try adding "double_buffer".

Disabling startupnotify didn't do anything, thanks anyways for the suggestion/help.

@jmccue I already have double_buffer in the config. I also removed it, didn't have any effect.


conky.config = {
override_utf8_locale = false,
background = true,
use_xft = true,
font = 'noto sans:size=11.5',
xftalpha = 0.8,
out_to_console = false,
out_to_stderr = false,
update_interval = 3.0,
total_run_times = 0,
draw_shades = false,

own_window = true,
own_window_class = 'Conky',
own_window_type = 'normal',
own_window_transparent = true,
own_window_hints = 'undecorated,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager,below',

own_window_argb_visual = true,

minimum_width = 2560,
maximum_width = 2560,

double_buffer = true,
default_color = 'cc44ff',
color1 = 'e0cdc3',

alignment = 'top_middle',
gap_y = 5,
no_buffers = true
}

conky.text = [[
${alignc}${color}CPU1: ${color1}${cpu cpu0}% \
${color}CPU2: ${color1}${cpu cpu1}% \
${color}CPU3: ${color1}${cpu cpu2}% \
${color}CPU4: ${color1}${cpu cpu3}% \
${color}CPU5: ${color1}${cpu cpu4}% \
${color}CPU6: ${color1}${cpu cpu5}% - ${freq cpu0}MHz - ${hwmon 0 temp 1} °C \
${color}GPU: ${color1}${nvidia gpuutil}% - ${nvidia temp} °C \
${color}RAM: ${color1}${mem} - $memperc% \
${color}SSD: ${color1}${fs_free /} free \
${color}LAN: ${color1}${addr eth0} - ${downspeed eth0} down - ${upspeed eth0} up \
${color}UP: ${color1}$uptime_short \
]]



When I look at the Arch Linux Wiki;

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/conky

It mentions; For the other Desktop environments/WM: Try editing conky.conf and adding/changing the following line:

own_window_type = 'override',

or

own_window_type = 'desktop',

So maybe 'override' is just fine in Openbox? I just assumed to use normal or desktop is all. hmm...

THANKS

I played with your conkyrc, I believe the "flickering" is due to formatting of the CPU % values. When the CPU % changes from 1 digit to 2 digits, you get a flicker.

Try playing with $tab (see man) to separate the % digits instead of spaces.

My guess would be openbox treats everything as a window to be placed in pre-defined position.
It sometimes happens on blackbox too. I don't use conky but FWIW when you run "orage" from xfce4 panel within a blackbox wm:
Same thing happens, it flashes orage window in the center, and then quickly positions it above the panel where it's supposed to be.
I believe the cause is the blackbox setting:
And since everything managed by blackbox is considered a window, it's working as intended. Some applications are designed to be a widget and not a window.
Workaround, I don't know, since I don't really use orage or conky I don't have a problem.

I don't understand anything you said, if you could please elaborate?

When the CPU % changes from 1 digit to 2 digits?
Try playing with $tab (see man) to separate the % digits instead of spaces?

man conky;
tab (width, (start))
Puts a tab of the specified width, starting from column `start'. The unit is pixels for both arguments.

Can't say I understand how to use 'tab', need to read some more.

THANKS

P.S. Maybe I'm just making a bigger deal out of this, and using own_window_type = 'override' is fine for Openbox?

$tab is a funny variable, you need to play around with it to get what you want. Maybe try something like this, but you need to keep adjusting your tab values to get it right.

Also as someone said, get rid of "alignment = 'top_middle'" and "alignc". I would use top_left.

For the tabs, something like this:

Note, on my hardware I have to use acpitemp instead of what you had.