This project sets up a Conky-based overlay to display GPU status information directly on the desktop. It leverages conky, a lightweight, scriptable system monitor, to fetch and display GPU metrics such as temperature, power usage, memory usage, and utilization.
The Conky configuration file specifies the GPU metrics to monitor, along with Conky's appearance and behavior. Key settings include:
update_interval: How often Conky updates the data.
own_window_type: Defines how Conky's window is treated by the window manager. We explored using override to make it an overlay but settled on alternatives like dock for compatibility.
own_window_hints: Additional window properties like undecorated, above, and sticky to control the decoration and placement.
own_window_argb_visual and own_window_argb_value: Enable transparent backgrounds for the overlay.
This file also uses nvidia-smi commands within template blocks to fetch real-time GPU statistics.
The systemd service file allows us to manage the Conky overlay as a service, offering commands to start, stop, and restart the overlay, and ensuring it runs automatically on system startup.
Key Components:
[Unit]: Describes the service, dependencies, and when it should start.
[Service]: Specifies how the service is run, including the user context, environment variables (like DISPLAY for GUI applications), and the command to start Conky with our configuration file.
[Install]: Determines when the service should be automatically started. WantedBy=graphical.target ensures it starts with the graphical desktop.
The service file explicitly sets DISPLAY=:0 to address issues where Conky cannot find the display when started by systemd, a common scenario for services trying to run graphical applications.
Modify this by accordingly to your display id, (echo $DISPLAY)
Make sure you also replace USERNAME with your actual username
Install Conky: Ensure Conky is installed on your system.
Configure Conky: Create the gpu_status_conky.conf file with the desired GPU metrics and appearance settings.
Set Up the Service: Create the gpu_status_conky.service file in /etc/systemd/system/, specifying the user and pointing to your Conky configuration.
Enable and Start the Service: Use systemctl commands to enable the service to start at boot and to start it immediately.
Reload: sudo systemctl daemon-reload Start: sudo systemctl start gpu_status_conky.service Stop: sudo systemctl stop gpu_status_conky.service Status: sudo systemctl status gpu_status_conky.service Enable on Boot: sudo systemctl enable gpu_status_conky.service
The xhost +SI:localuser:YOUR_USERNAME command grants the specified user permission to access your X session. Use this command judiciously, especially on multi-user systems.
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