Conky is a lightweight system monitor that can display system statistics on the desktop. While it was originally built for X11, recent versions have added experimental Wayland support. Since I use GNU Guix and run a Wayland-based environment (Sway), I wanted to get Conky building with Wayland support. This post explains how I achieved that.
Guix is a functional package manager that allows you to define software packages declaratively. Since Conky is not in the official Guix repository with Wayland support enabled, I created a custom package definition for it.
Enabled Wayland Build Option: The -DBUILD_WAYLAND=ON flag ensures Wayland support is compiled in.
Added Required Dependencies: Added gperf , cairo, pango wayland and wayland-protocols to inputs.
Since Conky was originally designed for X11, some adjustments are needed for Wayland:
No own_window: In X11, Conky runs in its own window. On Wayland, it needs to be embedded into a compositor-specific layer.
Use xwayland If Needed: Some features might require running Conky through XWayland.
Wayland-Specific Patches: Some users have patched Conky to integrate better with Wayland. If needed, applying community patches might help.
With a bit of tweaking, I got Conky running with Wayland on GNU Guix. While it’s still experimental, it works well enough for basic system monitoring. If you’re on a similar setup and want a lightweight system monitor, give this a try!
Below a screenshot of how it runs in Sway, on Guix (SSS - Supreme Sexp System):
Below is the Guile Scheme code I used:
(define-module (sss packages conky) #:use-module (guix packages) #:use-module (guix utils) #:use-module (guix download) #:use-module (guix git-download) #:use-module (guix build-system cmake) #:use-module ((guix licenses) #:prefix license:) #:use-module (gnu packages curl) #:use-module (gnu packages fontutils) #:use-module (gnu packages image) #:use-module (gnu packages linux) #:use-module (gnu packages freedesktop) #:use-module (gnu packages gtk) #:use-module (gnu packages lua) #:use-module (gnu packages ncurses) #:use-module (gnu packages pkg-config) #:use-module (gnu packages gperf) #:use-module (gnu packages pulseaudio) #:use-module (gnu packages xorg)) (define-public sss-conky (package (name "conky") (home-page "https://github.com/brndnmtthws/conky") (version "1.22.0") (source (origin (method git-fetch) (uri (git-reference (url home-page) (commit (string-append "v" version)))) (file-name (git-file-name name version)) (sha256 (base32 "08ggr2nks3g1lk5k9hlv9mzyzbxms6yamhw4ndhayhn6n9dzqsnx")))) (build-system cmake-build-system) (arguments `(#:configure-flags (list "-DRELEASE=true" "-DBUILD_PULSEAUDIO=ON" "-DBUILD_WLAN=ON" "-DBUILD_TESTS=ON" "-DBUILD_WAYLAND=ON") #:phases (modify-phases %standard-phases (add-after 'unpack 'add-freetype-to-search-path (lambda* (#:key inputs #:allow-other-keys) (substitute* "cmake/ConkyPlatformChecks.cmake" (("set\\(INCLUDE_SEARCH_PATH") (string-append "set(INCLUDE_SEARCH_PATH " (assoc-ref inputs "freetype") "/include/freetype2 "))) #t)) (replace 'install (lambda* (#:key outputs #:allow-other-keys) (let* ((out (assoc-ref outputs "out")) (bin (string-append out "/bin"))) (install-file "src/conky" bin)) #t))))) (inputs (list freetype imlib2 libx11 libxdamage libxext cairo libxft libxi libxinerama pango pulseaudio lua gperf ncurses wayland wayland-protocols curl wireless-tools)) (native-inputs (list pkg-config)) (synopsis "Lightweight system monitor for X") (description "Conky is a lightweight system monitor for X that displays operating system statistics (CPU, disk, and memory usage, etc.) and more on the desktop.") (license license:gpl3+)))