FreeBSD Desktop – Part 18 – Configuration – Global Dashboard

Many times I have found myself watching the various ‘debug’ commands like top/ps/mount/df or various log files like /var/log/messages or /var/log/automount.log when I thought something went wrong … or just takes little too long. I needed to open several terminal xterm(1) sessions (which is quite fast as I open them with [WIN]+[SPACE] and then [ENTER] but still …) and check what went wrong.

These actions tired my so I created a thing called Global Dashboard with all information I would ever need for such debugging.

You may want to check other articles in the FreeBSD Desktop series on the FreeBSD Desktop – Global Page where you will find links to all episodes of the series along with table of contents for each episode’s contents.

From all the commands that FreeBSD contains I have chosen these 12 ones:

• mount -p
• /var/log/automount.log
• /var/log/messages
• vmstat -i
• usbconfig
• ps axwww -o %cpu,rss,command
• sockstat -l -4
• top -m io -o total
• gstat -p
• df -g
• pciconf -l
• ifconfig

Make sure you have doas(1) installed and configured. The most basic way to do it is below. You will have to be in wheel group to make it work properly.

# pkg install doas
# echo 'permit nopass :wheel as root' > /usr/local/etc/doas.conf
# chmod 400 /usr/local/etc/doas.conf

Let me show you how it looks.

Here is the typical empty desktop with Global Dashboard disabled.

… and here is the Global Dashboard enabled.

For the sake of comfort I will use [Scroll Lock] key with xbindkeys to toggle between this ‘debug’ session on and off as I already use [Pause Break] key to Pause Any Application described in the Part 16 – Configuration – Pause Any Application episode of FreeBSD Desktop series.

Conky

We will have to use older (1.9) version of Conky as the current one (1.10/1.11) are broken for anything serious.

We will use portdowngrade tool for that job.

First, lets install needed packages.

# pkg install portdowngrade conky xbindkeys

Assuming that you have up to date FreeBSD Ports tree in the /usr/ports directory – we see that current Conky version in the Ports is 1.11.

% cd /usr/ports/sysutils/conky
% cat distinfo 
TIMESTAMP = 1550919299
SHA256 (brndnmtthws-conky-v1.11.3_GH0.tar.gz) = 0140e749537d4d05bf33fbac436e54756faa26021e16f2bca418e9eeea724eb4
SIZE (brndnmtthws-conky-v1.11.3_GH0.tar.gz) = 2390099

We will now downgrade the Conky port to usable 1.9 version with portdowngrade utility. I already tried various Conky Port versions and the one that you are looking for is r419144 revision.

# cd /usr/ports/sysutils
# mv conky conky-1.11
# portdowngrade sysutils/conky | grep -C 17 r419144
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r422880 | madpilot | 2016-09-28 18:55:38 +0200 (Wed, 28 Sep 2016) | 13 lines

- Update conky and conky-awesome to 1.10.4
- Take maintainership [1]
- Options adapted to new version
- Removed LUA option since it's a mandatoory requirement now
- Use project own install target
- Fix installation of lua helper libraries
- Project moved to github
- in conky-awesome, properly use OPTIONS_EXCLUDE

PR:           212629
Submitted by: me
Approved by:  ntarmos@ceid.upatras.gr (former maintainer) [1]

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r419144 | pawel | 2016-07-26 20:57:23 +0200 (Tue, 26 Jul 2016) | 2 lines

Fix typo

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r419142 | pawel | 2016-07-26 20:40:20 +0200 (Tue, 26 Jul 2016) | 8 lines

- Add explicit IMPLIES between dependencies and simplify option handling [1]
- Convert to USES=localbase
- Switch some options helpers from LIB_DEPENDS to USE=xorg and USE=gnome

PR:           210414 [1] (based on)
Submitted by: elferdo@gmail.com
Approved by:  maintainer timeout

------------------------------------------------------------------------
r418767 | mat | 2016-07-19 13:04:13 +0200 (Tue, 19 Jul 2016) | 11 lines

We will now fetch the Conky port from r419144 revision – working 1.9 version.

# portdowngrade sysutils/conky r419144
A    conky/files
A    conky/Makefile
A    conky/files/patch-configure
A    conky/files/patch-lua-cairo.pkg
A    conky/files/patch-src-conky.c
A    conky/files/patch-src-freebsd.c
A    conky/files/patch-src-freebsd.h
A    conky/files/patch-src-fs.c
A    conky/pkg-descr
A    conky/distinfo
Checked out revision 419144.
You should be done-- now cd into conky and you can run
# make deinstall install clean

Please note that portdowngrade no longer modifies the ports tree; the
checked out port is at
/usr/ports/sysutils/conky

Done. Let’s verify that its the version we need.

% pwd
/usr/ports/sysutils
% cat conky-1.11/distinfo 
TIMESTAMP = 1550919299
SHA256 (brndnmtthws-conky-v1.11.3_GH0.tar.gz) = 0140e749537d4d05bf33fbac436e54756faa26021e16f2bca418e9eeea724eb4
SIZE (brndnmtthws-conky-v1.11.3_GH0.tar.gz) = 2390099

% cat conky/distinfo 
SHA256 (conky-1.9.0.tar.bz2) = baf1b550f135fbfb53e5e286a33aadc03a667d63bf6c4d52ba7637366295bb6f
SIZE (conky-1.9.0.tar.bz2) = 626555

Yup. We will now build a Conky 1.9 package (may be handy later).

# pwd
/usr/ports/sysutils
# cd conky
# pwd
/usr/ports/sysutils/conky
# make package
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on file: /usr/local/sbin/pkg - found
=> conky-1.9.0.tar.bz2 doesn't seem to exist in /usr/ports/distfiles/.
=> Attempting to fetch https://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/conky/conky/1.9.0/conky-1.9.0.tar.bz2
conky-1.9.0.tar.bz2                           100% of  611 kB  216 kBps 00m03s
===> Fetching all distfiles required by conky-1.9.0_6 for building
===>  Extracting for conky-1.9.0_6
=> SHA256 Checksum OK for conky-1.9.0.tar.bz2.
===>  Patching for conky-1.9.0_6
===>  Applying FreeBSD patches for conky-1.9.0_6
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on executable: gmake - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on package: libiconv>=1.14_11 - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on package: pkgconf>=1.3.0_1 - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on file: /usr/local/libdata/pkgconfig/x11.pc - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on file: /usr/local/libdata/pkgconfig/xext.pc - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on file: /usr/local/libdata/pkgconfig/xdamage.pc - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on file: /usr/local/libdata/pkgconfig/xfixes.pc - found
===>   conky-1.9.0_6 depends on file: /usr/local/libdata/pkgconfig/xft.pc - found
===>  Configuring for conky-1.9.0_6
===>   FreeBSD 10 autotools fix applied to /usr/ports/obj/usr/ports/sysutils/conky/work/conky-1.9.0/config.rpath
(...)
====> Compressing man pages (compress-man)
===>  Building package for conky-1.9.0_6
===>  Cleaning for conky-1.9.0_6

… but where is our package, its not in the /usr/ports/sysutils/conky directory. Its not in the /usr/ports/distfiles dir either.

As I use WRKDIRPREFIX=${PORTSDIR}/obj option in the /etc/make.conf file it should be somewhere in the /usr/ports/obj then.

% grep WRKDIRPREFIX /etc/make.conf 
WRKDIRPREFIX=${PORTSDIR}/obj

Let’s find(1) it.

% find /usr/ports/obj -name conky\*txz
/usr/ports/obj/usr/ports/sysutils/conky/work/pkg/conky-1.9.0_6.txz

There. I will move it to /root directory to keep it.

# mv /usr/ports/obj/usr/ports/sysutils/conky/work/pkg/conky-1.9.0_6.txz /root

We will not clean up after the port/package building.

# make -C /usr/ports/sysutils/conky clean distclean
===>  Cleaning for conky-1.9.0_6
# 

We will now delete installed Conky 1.11 version and install our working 1.9 version.

# pkg delete conky
Checking integrity... done (0 conflicting)
Deinstallation has been requested for the following 1 packages (of 0 packages in the universe):

Installed packages to be REMOVED:
        conky-1.11.3

Number of packages to be removed: 1

Proceed with deinstalling packages? [y/N]: y
[1/1] Deinstalling conky-1.11.3...
[1/1] Deleting files for conky-1.11.3: 100%

# pkg add /root/conky-1.9.0_6.txz
Installing conky-1.9.0_6...
Extracting conky-1.9.0_6: 100%

Last check for the Conky version.

% conky --version
Conky 1.9.0 compiled Tue Mar 19 12:55:55 CET 2019 for FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p9 (amd64)

Compiled in features:

System config file: /usr/local/etc/conky/conky.conf
Package library path: /usr/local/lib/conky

 X11:
  * Xdamage extension
  * XDBE (double buffer extension)
  * Xft
  * ARGB visual

 Music detection:

 General:
  * math
  * config-output

Great. We have needed Conky version.

By the way – did you thought how much work will it take to make the same on Debian or CentOS without the FreeBSD Ports infrastructure? 🙂

Xbindkeys

The only needed configuration in the ~/.xbindkeysrc is this one below – it may be different for your keyboard so make sure to ‘catch’ needed key event.

% cat ~/.xbindkeysrc
# SCROLL LOCK | Scroll Lock
"~/scripts/desktop-debug.sh"
  m:0x0 + c:78

If you need more information about how Xbindkeys work then read the FreeBSD Desktop – Part 9 – Key Components – Keyboard/Mouse Shortcuts episode.

Scripts and Configs

This is the ~/scripts/desktop-debug.sh script.

#! /bin/sh

pgrep -q conky

case ${?} in
  (0) killall -9 conky ;;
  (1) ~/scripts/__openbox_restart_conky.sh ;;
esac

… and the ~/scripts/__openbox_restart_conky.sh script.

#! /bin/sh

VERSION=1.9
PROFILE=T420s

killall -9 conky

nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.1 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.2 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.3 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.4 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.5 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.6 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.7 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.8 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.9 &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.a &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.b &
nice -n 20 conky -c ~/.conkyrc.${VERSION}.${PROFILE}.LOG.c &

I use have several laptops so I need to distinguish which config files are used on which laptop, that is why I use PROFILE field – which is set to ThinkPad T420s in that example.

Here are the commands defined in these ~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.* files.

% grep exec ~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.*
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.1:${color #eeeeee}${exec mount -p | awk '{print $1, $2, $3}' | column -t}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.2:${color #eeeeee}${exec tail -n 16 /var/log/automount.log}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.3:${color #eeeeee}${exec grep -v -E 'pulseaudio|message repeated|null_update_chw|route failed:|send_packet: |gen6_gt_|feeder_|cdce0: (Su|Re)' /var/log/messages | tail -16}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.4:${color #eeeeee}${exec vmstat -i}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.5:${color #eeeeee}${exec doas usbconfig}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.6:${color #eeeeee}${exec ps axwww -o %cpu,rss,command | head -1; ps axwww -o %cpu,rss,command | grep -v conky | grep -v '%CPU' | sort -n -r | head -15 }
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.7:${color #eeeeee}${exec sockstat -l -4 | cut -c 1-50}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.8:${color #eeeeee}${exec top -m io -o total -b -s 1 -d 2 | grep -A 15 'PID USERNAME' | tail -n 16}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.9:${color #eeeeee}${exec gstat -p -I 345678}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.a:${color #eeeeee}${exec df -g | awk '{print $5,$6}' | column -t}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.b:${color #eeeeee}${exec pciconf -l}
.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.c:${color #eeeeee}${exec for I in $( ifconfig -l -u | sed s/lo0//g ); do ifconfig ${I}; done}

… and here is the diagram showing where these commands are placed.

I will use twelve (12) Conky configuration files for this purpose, each with one of the commands from above list.

 a df(1)       | b pciconf(8)             | c ifconfig(8)
---------------+--------------------------+---------------------
 7 sockstat(1) | 8 top(1)                 | 9 gstat(8)
---------------+--------------------------+---------------------
 4 vmstat(8)   | 5 usbconfig(8)           | 6 ps(1)
---------------+--------------------------+---------------------
 1 mount(8)    | 2 /var/log/automount.log | 3 /var/log/messages

Next are the full Conky configuration files.

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.1

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    3
gap_y                    3
minimum_size             279 193
maximum_width            280
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.1
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /sbin/mount -p
${color #eeeeee}${exec mount -p | awk '{print $1, $2, $3}' | column -t}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.2

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    288
gap_y                    3
minimum_size             513 193
maximum_width            514
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.2
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /var/log/automount.log
${color #eeeeee}${exec tail -n 16 /var/log/automount.log}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.3

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    807
gap_y                    3
minimum_size             789 193
maximum_width            790
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.3
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /var/log/messages
${color #eeeeee}${exec grep -v -E 'pulseaudio|message repeated|null_update_chw|route failed:|send_packet: |gen6_gt_|feeder_|cdce0: (Su|Re)' /var/log/messages | tail -16}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.4

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    3
gap_y                    201
minimum_size             279 193
maximum_width            280
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.4
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /usr/bin/vmstat -i
${color #eeeeee}${exec vmstat -i}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.5

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    288
gap_y                    201
minimum_size             513 193
maximum_width            514
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.5
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /usr/sbin/usbconfig
${color #eeeeee}${exec doas usbconfig}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.6

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    807
gap_y                    201
minimum_size             789 193
maximum_width            790
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.6
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /bin/ps axwww -o %cpu,rss,command
${color #eeeeee}${exec ps axwww -o %cpu,rss,command | head -1; ps axwww -o %cpu,rss,command | grep -v conky | grep -v '%CPU' | sort -n -r | head -15 }

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.7

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    3
gap_y                    399
minimum_size             279 193
maximum_width            280
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.7
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /usr/bin/sockstat -l -4
${color #eeeeee}${exec sockstat -l -4 | cut -c 1-50}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.8

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    288
gap_y                    399
minimum_size             513 193
maximum_width            514
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.8
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /usr/bin/top -m io -o total
${color #eeeeee}${exec top -m io -o total -b -s 1 -d 2 | grep -A 15 'PID USERNAME' | tail -n 16}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.9

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    807
gap_y                    399
minimum_size             789 193
maximum_width            790
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.9
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /usr/sbin/gstat -p -I 300000
${color #eeeeee}${exec gstat -p -I 345678}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.a

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    3
gap_y                    597
minimum_size             279 272
maximum_width            280
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.7
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /bin/df -g
${color #eeeeee}${exec df -g | awk '{print $5,$6}' | column -t}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.b

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    288
gap_y                    597
minimum_size             513 272
maximum_width            514
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.8
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /usr/sbin/pciconf -l
${color #eeeeee}${exec pciconf -l}

~/.conkyrc.1.9.T420s.LOG.c

alignment                bottom_left
background               yes
gap_x                    807
gap_y                    597
minimum_size             789 272
maximum_width            790
double_buffer            yes
draw_outline             no
draw_shades              no
default_outline_color    444444
default_shade_color      444444
own_window               yes
own_window_class         conky
own_window_colour        222222
own_window_type          override
own_window_transparent   no
update_interval          2.9
use_xft                  yes
xftfont                  ubuntu mono-10
border_inner_margin      0
border_outer_margin      0
border_width             2

TEXT
${color #ee0000}% /sbin/ifconfig wlan0/em0/tun0
${color #eeeeee}${exec for I in $( ifconfig -l -u | sed s/lo0//g ); do ifconfig ${I}; done}

Thats a quite a lot configuration files but I think that this configuration done once will serve many many times in the future 🙂

These Conky configuration files are suited for the 1600×900 resolution, you will have to modify values of the gap_x/gap_y/minimum_size/maximum_width parameters to make it fit into other resolution.

Initially I wanted to write a script/generator for that, but lets face it – I will not be able to properly cover each possible resolution 🙂

UPDATE 2 – Latest Conky 1.11 Also Works

When I wrote this article I wrote that older Conky 1.9 version is needed (The conky-1.9.0_6 exactly which could be retrieved using portdowngrade sysutils/conky r419144 command).

Conky 1.10 introduced many bugs along with entirely new configuration format.

Latest Conky 1.11 (its conky-1.11.4_1 package on my box to be exact) works like a charm with Conky 1.9 configuration. It still has bug of NOT passing the mouse clicks to the desktop so of you want to make a left/middle/right click on the desktop aim on the place other then the Conky Dashboard space.

You can of course still follow the original article and fetch/build Conky with 1.9 version and have working left/middle/right mouse clicks on the desktop.

EOF