A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

oneleaf · 2016-09-10 00:05:41

Hello,
I am currently using Mint Mate 18 with Openbox, and having a strange issue with Conky. Apologies that this is not directly related to Bunsenlabs, but this and the Crunchbang forum has always been the most helpful with Conky related issues, so I thought I would ask here if that is okay?

Basically, I have conky running with the option "own_window_argb_visual = true" with a value for semi-transparency. It works great with the default window manager (Marco). But I am getting a weird issue with Openbox with Compton.

If I load the conky while under Marco, and THEN change the window manager Openbox, everything works great, and the transparency looks great.

If Openbox starts first, and then I run the conky (which is how it would normally happen since I want Openbox to be the default window manager), it immediately crashes X and puts me back into the login screen.

Changing to "own_window_argb_visual = false" gives me no problem, but of course there is then no transparency.

Also, I can run Openbox without Compton and it runs the conky just fine (since I guess it just disregards the argb_visual parameter) and of course gives me no transparency.

Any clues as to the issues and what I can do to fix this? The biggest reason for using Openbox is for the rightclick menu which I can't seem to live without!
Thanks so much for any help you can offer!

Last edited by damo (2016-09-10 00:19:20)

Sector11 · 2016-09-10 12:40:13

@ oneleaf

Good morning .. of course you are welcome to ask conky questions here.

Try loading in this order:

OpenBox
compton
conky

Have you tried pusedo-transparency?

ie: No argb, with "own_windo_transparent = true,"

Also, can you post the conky please.

damo · 2016-09-10 14:29:39

Mint Mate + Openbox + Compton on my system gives:

Conky with "own_window_transparent = true" and no Compton runs fine;
Conky with "own_window_transparent = true" and Compton shows no transparency and garbled/overlaid text;

Conky with "own_window_argb_visual = true" shows a transparent window, but only if compton starts after the conky.

A toggler script would be better, but this one-liner example worked for me when I just tried it:

$ killall compton && conky -c ~/conky.conf && compton &

I bet there is a compton configuration setting which will cope with the conky transparency.....off we go.....

Sector11 · 2016-09-10 15:46:42

Oooooooooooooooo damo, you have Minty Mate. AWESOME!

Linux Mint 17.1 "Rebecca" MATE Edition
Out of the box support for Compiz
Linux Mint 17.1 MATE Edition comes with two window managers installed and configured by default:
Marco (MATE's very own window manager, simple, fast and very stable).
Compiz (an advanced compositing window manager which can do wonders if your hardware supports it).
Among the various window managers available for Linux, Compiz is certainly the most impressive when it comes to desktop effects.
There's nothing quite like a rotating cube to catch everybody's attention.

Mint Mate uses compiz ... and that a different beast. I do not like it.

@ oneleaf are you running Mint without mate/compiz when you run OpenBox and compton or are you running OpenBox ontop of Mate?

damo · 2016-09-10 15:52:36

FYI I am running Openbox + Compton, not Compiz (a horrible beast!).

oneleaf · 2016-09-10 17:34:34

Thanks guys! Looks like I am on the right track now.

So to answer your question, Mint Mate 18 has a Desktop Settings that allows you to choose windows manager, so I chose Openbox and Compton instead of Marco and Compositing.

My experiences were similar to damo's except that he stated:

damo wrote:

Conky with "own_window_transparent = true" and Compton shows no transparency and garbled/overlaid text;

I actually was able to get it to be transparent with Compton with no problem, but I had to set own_window_argb_visual = false to get it to work. This was the solution I settled with until I saw the replies this morning. Basically I settled with full transparency instead of semi-transparency.

So NOW, I did this:

In Desktop Settings, set it to Openbox (without Compton).
Use own_window_transparent = false and own_window_argb_visual = true
Modified my Conky startup script to load Compton AFTER the conky loads

Now everything works great! The weird thing is that if I kill conky and reload it, it still works, which is weird.

So with argb_visual = true, this is the behavior.
Start compton, then conky crashes X
Start conky, then compton, then kill conky and restart conky is fine

Kind of weird, huh?

Really appreciate the replies. I am happy to finally get this working since the semi-transparency allowable with the argb_visual beats the pseudotransparency mode for me.

Last edited by oneleaf (2016-09-10 17:35:17)

damo · 2016-09-10 18:53:43

Given that our hardware is probably different, here is what I have done:

The window manager (openbox) was set at the login screen, so it appears in the dconf settings as "mint-window-manager";

I start compton, using the BL script ('bl-compositor --start'), in autostart ;

To eliminate conky flickering I have set "paint-on-overlay = true;" in compton.conf;

oneleaf · 2016-09-11 05:44:43

damo,
Thanks for the info. Just trying to better understand how Mate and Openbox go together... I used to use an autostart file in ~/.config/openbox/ directory to run commands back when I used plain Openbox. Is this how you are running your startup scripts?

Or, are you, like me, using the ~/.config/autostart/ directory and loading .desktop files in there?

I am just trying to better understand what the best practice is for mixing Openbox with Mate.

At this point, how modular is this Mint-Mate system? Like if I wanted to replace MATE Panel with tint2? Or eliminate the login manager and wallpaper manager (and replace with feh), to further simplify things, is this going to introduce problems. I always liked Crunchbang and Bunsenlabs because I like how easy it is to understand how all the pieces work together. But unfortunately, I wanted an Ubuntu-derivative system and doing Mate plus Openbox was the easiest way for me to get to a Bunsen-like environment. Wondering if I should try rolling my own DE starting with a minimal Ubuntu install...

damo · 2016-09-11 11:12:18

I'm using an autostart for compton, nitrogen, tint2 (which is sooo much nicer and more efficient than the mate-panel!). I've never had much to do with .desktop files so I use the #! approach I am used to :8

vasa1 · 2016-09-11 17:05:37

oneleaf wrote:

..., I wanted an Ubuntu-derivative system and doing Mate plus Openbox was the easiest way for me to get to a Bunsen-like environment. Wondering if I should try rolling my own DE starting with a minimal Ubuntu install...

If you want Openbox and an Ubuntu-derivative, there's Lubuntu. Ubuntu Mate brings in a lot of software that I don't really need.

#1 2016-09-10 00:05:41

A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#2 2016-09-10 12:40:13

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#3 2016-09-10 14:29:39

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#4 2016-09-10 15:46:42

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#5 2016-09-10 15:52:36

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#6 2016-09-10 17:34:34

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#7 2016-09-10 18:53:43

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#8 2016-09-11 05:44:43

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#9 2016-09-11 11:12:18

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

#10 2016-09-11 17:05:37

Re: A strange issue with Conky and Openbox/Compton (Mint Mate)

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