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Converting Videos to iPod Format - March 27th, 2008 23:12:38

I'm going to start off by giving a warning that this may get a little complicated. What we are going to do in this tutorial is download a couple programs, and then make a script that uses the functionality of these programs to produce a video file that the iPod can read and play. I'm going to write this tutorial as if you were using Ubuntu, but I'm sure it will work with other distributions of Linux as well. First of all we are going to need a program called ffmpeg. Unfortunately for us, ffmpeg doen't come fully enabled due to legal reasons, so we're going to have to build it from source. Heres the tutorial I wrote on the subject: Installing a Fully Enabled ffmpeg.

Next we need to download the script we are going to use. Download pypodconv and save it where ever you want it. Please note that I did not create this script. If you would rather create this script yourself then copy the following into a blank file and name it pypodconv.

#!/usr/bin/python
#
# Python ffmpeg frontend for iPod-compatible video ripping
# By John Dong <jdong@ubuntu.com>
# Licensed under the GPL
#
import sys
import os
from optparse import OptionParser
import time

class VideoInfo:
   def __init__(self,w=640,h=480):
      self.w=w
      self.h=h
   def scale(self,max_width,max_height):
      if self.w > max_width:
         r=float(max_width)/self.w
         self.w=max_width
         self.h=int(self.h * r)
      if self.h > max_height:
         r=float(max_height)/self.h
         self.h=max_height
         self.w=int(self.w * r)
      if self.w % 2: self.w -= 1
      if self.h % 2: self.h -= 1
   def __repr__(self):
      return "<VideoInfo: %sx%s>"%(self.w, self.h)
class UnsupportedCodecError: pass
class AVEncoder:
   def __init__(self,input_file,output_file, maps=None):
      self.vcodec="h264"
      self.acodec="aac"
      self.twopass=True
      self.vbitrate=200
      self.abitrate=96
      self.resolution=parseVideoInfo(input_file,maps)
      self.threads=1
      self.input_file=input_file
      self.output_file=output_file
      self.maps=maps
   def doscale(self,to_low):
      if to_low:
         self.resolution.scale(320,240)
      else:
         self.resolution.scale(640,480)
   def getvParams(self):
      if self.vcodec == 'h264':
         return "-v 1 -vcodec h264 -b %s -bt 175 -refs 2 -loop 1 -deblockalpha 0 -deblockbeta 0 -parti4x4 1 -partp8x8 1 -partb8x8 1 -brdo 1 -me_range 21 -chroma 1 -max_b_frames 0 -level 30 -g 300 -keyint_min 30 -sc_threshold 40 -rc_eq 'blurCplx^(1-qComp)' -qcomp 0.7 -qmax 51 -max_qdiff 4 -i_quant_factor 0.71428572 -b_quant_factor 0.76923078 -rc_max_rate 1500 -rc_buffer_size 244 -cmp 1 -s %sx%s" % (self.vbitrate, self.resolution.w, self.resolution.h)
      elif self.vcodec == 'xvid':
         return "-vcodec xvid -maxrate 2500 -b %s -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 -g 300 -s %sx%s" % (self.vbitrate, self.resolution.w, self.resolution.h)
      elif self.vcodec == 'mpeg4':
         return "-vcodec mpeg4 -maxrate 2500 -b %s -qmin 3 -qmax 5 -bufsize 4096 -g 300 -s %sx%s" % (self.vbitrate, self.resolution.w, self.resolution.h)
      else:
         raise UnsupportedCodecError, "Unsupported video codec "+self.vcodec
   def getaParams(self):
      if self.acodec == "aac":
         return "-acodec aac -ab %s -ar 48000 -ac 2" % self.abitrate
      else:
         raise UnsupportedCodecError, "Unsupported audio codec "+self.acodec
   def getCommands(self):
      def getmaps(self,video_only=False):
         m=self.maps
         if not m:
            m=[0,1]
         if video_only:
            return " -map 0.%s " % m[0]
         else:
            return reduce(str.__add__,[" -map 0.%s " % i for i in m])
      cmds=[]
      if self.twopass:
         cmds= ['ffmpeg -y -i "%s" -f mp4 -pass 1 -subq 1 -threads %s -an %s %s /dev/null' % (self.input_file, self.threads, self.getvParams(), getmaps(self,True)),
               'ffmpeg -y -i "%s" -f mp4 -pass 2 -subq 6 -threads %s %s %s %s "%s"' % (self.input_file, self.threads, self.getvParams(), self.getaParams(), getmaps(self), ".tmp.mp4"),
               'rm -f ffmpeg2pass-0.log x264_2pass.log']
      else:
         cmds= ['ffmpeg -y -i "%s" -f mp4 -threads %s -subq 6 %s %s %s "%s"' % (self.input_file, self.threads, self.getvParams(), self.getaParams(), getmaps(self), ".tmp.mp4")]
      cmds+=['rm -f .tmp.new.mp4', 
            'MP4Box -add .tmp.mp4 .tmp.new.mp4',
            'mv .tmp.new.mp4 "%s"' % self.output_file,
            'rm -f .tmp.mp4', 'rm -f .tmp.new.mp4']
      return cmds
def parseVideoInfo(input_file, want_maps=None):
   def trunc_numeral(expr):
      if expr.isdigit(): return expr
      for index in range(len(expr)):
         if not expr[index].isdigit():
            if index == 0:
               break
            else:
               return expr[:index]
      raise ValueError, "Could not determine stream number from: %s" % expr
   output=os.popen('ffmpeg -i "%s" 2>&1' % input_file).readlines()
   vstreams={}
   astreams={}
   for line in output:
      if line.strip().startswith("Stream"):
         streamno=int(trunc_numeral(line.split()[1][:-1].split('.')[-1])) #Gets the stream number, i.e. Stream #0.X
         if line.split(':')[1].strip() == "Video": #Video stream --parse out VideoInfo
            try:
               (w,h)=[int(i) for i in line.split(',')[2].split("x")]
               vstreams[streamno]= VideoInfo(w,h)
            except ValueError: pass
            except IndexError: pass
         else:
            #Audio Stream, just split out string descriptor of audio
            astreams[streamno]= line.split(':')[2].strip()
   if not vstreams or not astreams:
      print "Could not find at least one video and one audio stream"
      print "Sorry, I do not support this kind of file."
      raise UnknownCodecError
   if want_maps:
      try:
         astreams[want_maps[1]] # Just try to access to see if it's a valid stream
         return vstreams[want_maps[0]]
      except KeyError:
         raise "Unable to find wanted video/audio stream. Sure your --maps arguments exist, and/or your video file is valid?"
   else:
      if len(vstreams) > 1 or len(astreams) > 1:
         print "====WARNING===="
         print "Video Streams:"
         for key in vstreams.keys():
            print "   %s:   %s" % (key, vstreams[key])
         print "Audio Streams:"
         for key in astreams.keys():
            print "   %s:   %s" % (key, astreams[key])
         print "There are multiple video or audio streams (LISTED ABOVE) in your source file."
         print "This could be because your source file has audio tracks in several languages,"
         print "Or your file is just plain weird."
         print
         print "Either way, by default this script will most likely choose the"
         print "FIRST video stream (0) and the FIRST audio stream (1)"
         print "If this is not the behavior you want, then use the -m (--map) option"
         print "to override. For example, if you want Video Stream 0 and Audio Stream 2,"
         print "you would use --map 0,2"
         print "==============="
         print "Press CTRL+C to abort... Will continue in 15 seconds..."
         time.sleep(15)
      return vstreams[0]

def numcpus():
   return int(os.popen('cat /proc/cpuinfo  | grep "^processor" | wc -l').read()[:-1])

parser=OptionParser()
parser.add_option("-i","--input", help="Source file to encode" , action="store",type="string",dest="input")
parser.add_option("--sd","--320","--standard-definition",help="Encode to Standard Definition (that is, 320xNNN, native iPod screen resolution) [DEFAULT]", action="store_true", dest="hd", default=False)
parser.add_option("--hd","--640","--high-definition",help="Encode to High Definition (that is, 640xNNN, maximum iPod-supported resolution", action="store_false", dest="hd", default=True)
parser.add_option("-c", "--codec", help="Video Codec: h264 [DEFAULT], xvid, or mpeg4.", action="store", dest="codec")
parser.add_option("-o","--output", help="Output file, with file extension.",  action="store",type="string", dest="output")
parser.add_option("-m","--map", help="Specify video and audio stream to encode. For example, --map 0,2 maps Video Stream 0 and Audio Stream 2 to the output file. This program will warn you when this is necessary to use", action="store", dest="maps")
parser.add_option("-b", "--vbitrate", help="Video Bitrate, in kbit/s. (default: 200)", action="store", dest="vbitrate", default=str("200"))
parser.add_option("-p", "--passes", help="Number of passes. (Default: 2)", action="store",dest="passes")
parser.add_option("-t", "--threads", help="Number of threads. (Default: CPUs*1.5)", action="store",dest="threads")
parser.add_option("-s","--simulate","--dry-run",help="Simulate (print out commands, but don't run)", action="store_true", dest="simulate", default=False)
parser.usage = "%prog -i input -o output [other_options]\n\
      With no other options will create 2-pass 320xNNN h.264 @ 200kbit/s"

(options, args) = parser.parse_args()
if not (options.input and options.output):
   parser.print_help()
   sys.exit(-1)
if options.maps:
   try:
      options.maps=[int(i) for i in options.maps.split(',')]
   except:
      print "Invalid -m/--maps. Should be a comma-separated list of two numbers. (i.e. --maps 0,1)"
      sys.exit(-5)
enc=AVEncoder(options.input,options.output,options.maps)
enc.doscale(options.hd)
if(options.threads):
   enc.threads=int(options.threads)
else:
   enc.threads=int(numcpus()*1.5)
enc.vbitrate=int(options.vbitrate)
if(options.passes):
   try:
      enc.twopass = (int(options.passes) == 2)
   except: pass
if options.codec:
   enc.vcodec=options.codec
for command in enc.getCommands():
   if options.simulate:
      print command
   elif os.system(command) != 0:
      print "Encode step FAILED: ",command
      sys.exit(-2)
if not options.simulate:
   print "Job finished successfully!"
   print "Output:",options.output

You also need to make sure this script has execution privileges. In Ubuntu (and possibly other distributions) you do this by right-clicking the file and going to properties. Go to the Permissions tab and check the box that says "Allow Executing file as program.

The last thing we need to do before that script will work is download gpac. You can download it through Synaptic, or simply type this in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install gpac

Alright, now that everything is set I just need to explain how the script works. I'll explain it by giving an example of my set up. Lets say I'm in my home folder, I saved pypodconv in a folder called Documents, and the file I want to convert is called movie.avi and is in a folder called Videos. To convert this video I would go to the terminal and type:

Documents/pypodconv -i Videos/movie.avi -o movie.mov --hd

As you can see, whatever is after the "-i" is the input and whatever is after the "-o" is the file we want to create. The "--hd" is optional, but what it does is create a higher resolution video for better quality. Now all you can do is sit back and wait for the video to be encoded. This takes a good bit of time, especially if you used the "--hd" option. One last thing I would like to add is that if you saved pypodconv to your home folder instead of to a folder called Documents you would replace the last command with this:

./pypodconv -i Videos/movie.avi -o movie.mov --hd

This tells the computer that the file pypodconv is in the same folder you are in. Well thats the end of the tutorial. Feel free to bookmark this page for future reference in case you ever forget how to use the script.

Comments (0)

Installing a Fully Enabled ffmpeg - March 27th, 2008 23:12:29

There are some useful programs and scripts out there that require ffmpeg to work correctly, so I've decided to write a tutorial on getting it installed. This tutorial is aimed at Ubuntu users, but it may work for other distributions as well. The problem with ffmpeg on Ubuntu is that it doesn't come fully enabled, due to legal reasons. To fix this problem we need to build it from source. Type each of these line into the terminal. (Note that there are 3 lines here, each beginning with "sudo", however the formatting of this page may cause them to wrap to the next line.):

sudo apt-get build-dep ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install ffmpeg
sudo apt-get install liblame-dev libfaad2-dev libfaac-dev libxvidcore4-dev liba52-0.7.4 liba52-0.7.4-dev libx264-dev

The following line is for 64-bit Ubuntu users only:

sudo cp /usr/lib/libx264_pic.a /usr/lib/libx264.a

Now we are going to download the source code and go to the directory it was downloaded to:

apt-get source ffmpeg
cd ffmpeg-*/

Time to configure. Assuming you are using Ubuntu 7.04 or 7.10 type this command into the terminal:

./configure --enable-gpl --enable-pp --enable-pthreads \
        --enable-libogg --enable-liba52 --enable-libdts \
        --enable-dc1394 --enable-libgsm --disable-debug --enable-libmp3lame \
        --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-xvid --enable-x264

All that is left to do is install, which can be done with these commands:

make
sudo make install

OK hopefully everything went as planned and we didn't get any serious errors. If you are using 64-bit Ubuntu you have one more command to finish installing ffmpeg:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall libx264-dev

When installing ffmpeg myself I got my information from help.ubuntu.com, so if you run into any problems check that site out. That site isn't specifically for installing ffmpeg, but all of the information you need is there.

Comments (0)

Conky - System Monitor - March 27th, 2008 03:48:49

Conky is an application that I love to have running whenever I'm using my computer. Its pretty much eyecandy that gives you that geeky/cool look for your desktop, but I guess it can be pretty useful too. Basically what it does is show system monitoring information on your desktop, such as the amount of memory you are using, how fast your CPU is running, etc. It also has a transparent background, making it seem like its part of your desktop wallpaper.

That picture shows conky running in the top right coner of the screen. For the most part it is very easy to install. If you are running Ubuntu you can simply go to the main menu -> System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager. Scroll down the list of programs until you find conky, check the box and install it. At the time of this writing conky is at version 1.4.7 in the package manager, but i believe there is a newer version available on the Conky Website if you want the upgrade. I use version 1.4.7 myself and it works like a charm.

Now that we have conky installed we need to customize it how we want. Conky's configuration file is just found in your home folder, but it is a hidden file. To find it you need to click the View menu at the top of the File Browser and select Show Hidden Files. The file is called ".conkyrc". If you don't have this file in your home folder you can simply create one yourself. Inside of this file is where you need to put your configuration. Here is one to get you started:

# set to yes if you want Conky to be forked in the background
background no

cpu_avg_samples 2
net_avg_samples 2

out_to_console no

# X font when Xft is disabled, you can pick one with program xfontsel
#font 7x12
#font 6x10
#font 7x13
#font 8x13
#font 7x12
#font *mintsmild.se*
#font -*-*-*-*-*-*-34-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
#font -artwiz-snap-normal-r-normal-*-*-100-*-*-p-*-iso8859-1

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes

# Xft font when Xft is enabled
xftfont Bitstream Vera Sans Mono:size=8

own_window_transparent no
own_window_colour hotpink
# Text alpha when using Xft
xftalpha 0.8

on_bottom yes

# mail spool
mail_spool $MAIL

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1
# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window no

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer no

# Minimum size of text area
#minimum_size 280 5
#maximum_width 150

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 10

# border margins
border_margin 4

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color white
default_shade_color white
default_outline_color white

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
#minimum_size 10 10
gap_x 13
gap_y 13
#alignment top_right
alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer no

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# boinc (seti) dir
# seti_dir /opt/seti

# Possible variables to be used:
#
#      Variable         Arguments                  Description                
#  acpiacadapter                     ACPI ac adapter state.                   
#  acpifan                           ACPI fan state                           
#  acpitemp                          ACPI temperature.                        
#  adt746xcpu                        CPU temperature from therm_adt746x       
#  adt746xfan                        Fan speed from therm_adt746x             
#  battery           (num)           Remaining capasity in ACPI or APM        
#                                    battery. ACPI battery number can be      
#                                    given as argument (default is BAT0).     
#  buffers                           Amount of memory buffered                
#  cached                            Amount of memory cached                  
#  color             (color)         Change drawing color to color            
#  cpu                               CPU usage in percents                    
#  cpubar            (height)        Bar that shows CPU usage, height is      
#                                    bar's height in pixels                   
#  downspeed         net             Download speed in kilobytes              
#  downspeedf        net             Download speed in kilobytes with one     
#                                    decimal                                  
#  exec              shell command   Executes a shell command and displays    
#                                    the output in torsmo. warning: this      
#                                    takes a lot more resources than other    
#                                    variables. I'd recommend coding wanted   
#                                    behaviour in C and posting a patch :-).  
#  execi             interval, shell Same as exec but with specific interval. 
#                    command         Interval can't be less than              
#                                    update_interval in configuration.        
#  fs_bar            (height), (fs)  Bar that shows how much space is used on 
#                                    a file system. height is the height in   
#                                    pixels. fs is any file on that file      
#                                    system.                                  
#  fs_free           (fs)            Free space on a file system available    
#                                    for users.                               
#  fs_free_perc      (fs)            Free percentage of space on a file       
#                                    system available for users.              
#  fs_size           (fs)            File system size                         
#  fs_used           (fs)            File system used space                   
#  hr                (height)        Horizontal line, height is the height in 
#                                    pixels                                   
#  i2c               (dev), type, n  I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev   
#                                    may be omitted if you have only one I2C  
#                                    device. type is either in (or vol)       
#                                    meaning voltage, fan meaning fan or temp 
#                                    meaning temperature. n is number of the  
#                                    sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on     
#                                    your local computer.                     
#  kernel                            Kernel version                           
#  loadavg           (1), (2), (3)   System load average, 1 is for past 1     
#                                    minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for   
#                                    past 15 minutes.                         
#  machine                           Machine, i686 for example                
#  mails                             Mail count in mail spool. You can use    
#                                    program like fetchmail to get mails from 
#                                    some server using your favourite         
#                                    protocol. See also new_mails.            
#  mem                               Amount of memory in use                  
#  membar            (height)        Bar that shows amount of memory in use   
#  memmax                            Total amount of memory                   
#  memperc                           Percentage of memory in use              
#  new_mails                         Unread mail count in mail spool.         
#  nodename                          Hostname                                 
#  outlinecolor      (color)         Change outline color                     
#  pre_exec          shell command   Executes a shell command one time before 
#                                    torsmo displays anything and puts output 
#                                    as text.                                 
#  processes                         Total processes (sleeping and running)   
#  running_processes                 Running processes (not sleeping),        
#                                    requires Linux 2.6                       
#  shadecolor        (color)         Change shading color                     
#  stippled_hr       (space),        Stippled (dashed) horizontal line        
#                    (height)        
#  swapbar           (height)        Bar that shows amount of swap in use     
#  swap                              Amount of swap in use                    
#  swapmax                           Total amount of swap                     
#  swapperc                          Percentage of swap in use                
#  sysname                           System name, Linux for example           
#  time              (format)        Local time, see man strftime to get more 
#                                    information about format                 
#  totaldown         net             Total download, overflows at 4 GB on     
#                                    Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't 
#                                    seem to be a way to know how many times  
#                                    it has already done that before torsmo   
#                                    has started.                             
#  totalup           net             Total upload, this one too, may overflow 
#  updates                           Number of updates (for debugging)        
#  upspeed           net             Upload speed in kilobytes                
#  upspeedf          net             Upload speed in kilobytes with one       
#                                    decimal                                  
#  uptime                            Uptime                                   
#  uptime_short                      Uptime in a shorter format               
#
#  seti_prog                         Seti@home current progress
#  seti_progbar      (height)        Seti@home current progress bar
#  seti_credit                       Seti@hoome total user credit

# variable is given either in format $variable or in ${variable}. Latter
# allows characters right after the variable and must be used in network
# stuff because of an argument
#${font Dungeon:style=Bold:pixelsize=10}I can change the font as well
#${font Verdana:size=10}as many times as I choose
#${font Perry:size=10}Including UTF-8,
#${font Luxi Mono:size=10}justo como este texto que o google traduz fÃªz o portuguÃªs
# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen
#${font Grunge:size=12}${time %a  %b  %d}${alignr -25}${time %k:%M}

TEXT
$nodename - $sysname $kernel on $machine
$stippled_hr
${color lightgrey}Uptime:$color $uptime ${color lightgrey}- Load:$color $loadavg
${color lightgrey}CPU Usage:${color #5000a0} ${cpu}% ${cpubar}
${color black}${cpugraph 000000 5000a0}
${color lightgrey}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc% $membar
${color lightgrey}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc% ${swapbar}
${color lightgrey}Processes:$color $processes  ${color grey}Running:$color $running_processes
$color$stippled_hr
${color lightgrey}Networking:
 Down:${color #8844ee} ${downspeed eth0} k/s${color lightgrey} ${offset 70}Up:${color #22ccff} ${upspeed eth0} k/s
${color black}${downspeedgraph eth0 32,150 ff0000 0000ff} $alignr${color black}${upspeedgraph eth0 32,150 0000ff ff0000}
${color lightgrey}File systems:
 / $color${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar /}
${color lightgrey}Temperatures:
 CPU:$color ${i2c temp 2}C${color grey} - MB:$color ${i2c temp 1}C
${font Dungeon:style=Bold:pixelsize=12}${color #88aadd}MPD: ${alignc}$mpd_artist - $mpd_title
${color #88aadd}$mpd_bar
${color #88aadd}${alignc}$mpd_status
${color}Name              PID     CPU%   MEM%
${color #ddaa00} ${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}Mem usage
${color #ddaa00} ${top_mem name 1} ${top_mem pid 1} ${top_mem cpu 1} ${top_mem mem 1}
${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 2} ${top_mem pid 2} ${top_mem cpu 2} ${top_mem mem 2}
${color lightgrey} ${top_mem name 3} ${top_mem pid 3} ${top_mem cpu 3} ${top_mem mem 3}

And here is the one I made and use:

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_type override
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# fiddle with window
use_spacer yes
use_xft yes

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 3.0

# Minimum size of text area
# minimum_size 250 5

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Text stuff
draw_outline no # amplifies text if yes
draw_borders no

font Zekton Bold:size=7
uppercase no # set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 0

# border margins
border_margin 9

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors, grey90 == #446688
default_color ffffff

own_window_colour brown
own_window_transparent yes

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
gap_x 10
gap_y 10

# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen

TEXT
${color #dddddd}Monitoring $nodename 
Uptime: $uptime
$color
CPU 1:  ${cpu cpu1}%  [${freq cpu1}MHz]
${cpubar cpu1}
CPU 2:  ${cpu cpu2}%  [${freq cpu2}MHz]
${cpubar cpu2}$color

RAM: $memperc%  [$mem/$memmax]
$membar$color
Swap: $swapperc%
$swapbar$color
Disk: ${fs_used_perc /} %
$fs_bar$color

Net Down: ${downspeed eth0}k/s
Total: ${totaldown eth0}
${downspeedgraph eth0 25,370 000000 89C1F4}

Net Up: ${upspeed eth0}k/s
Total:${totalup eth0}
${upspeedgraph eth0 25,370 000000 89C1F4}$color

Inbound: ${tcp_portmon 1 32767 count}
Outbound: ${tcp_portmon 32768 61000 count}
Total: ${tcp_portmon 1 65535 count}
IP: ${addr eth0}

I know it can look somewhat intimidating, but look over those scripts for a little while and I'm sure you can figure out how they work. Everything that has a "#" before it is just a comment to help you out. My script is a lot shorter than the first one, but the first one may do a better job of explaining what is going on. If you figure out how to work the scripts you can check out a full list of variables at the Conky Website.

Now we want to run conky and see how it looks. open up a terminal and simply type in "conky" without the quotes and it should pop up. When you close the terminal conky will dissappear, but this is a good way to continue editing the .conkyrc file and checking out what it looks like. When you get it how you like and want it to stay up for good hit Alt + F2 and type in "conky" without the quotes.

The next thing you probably want to do is getting conky to startup when you turn your computer on, however I'll probably save this for another tutorial. The reason being that sometimes people run into the problem of Conky loading before the wallpaper does, and therefore the wallpaper gets drawn on top of conky. If you really want to know the work around right now you can check out the Ubuntu forum.

Wells thats about it for now. Whats great about Conky is that you can actually set it up to read RSS feeds, check your email, display the weather, and all kinds of other things, but i'm going to save that for another tutorial. First things first, and that is getting conky to work.

Still having problems? Check out the Conky FAQs.
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