Conky: Own window background always black

[adamreichold]

After Arch Linux updated to version 1.10, I have the problem that the background of conky's window is always black. I usually use black text on a white background, so I get a completely black window. But if I switch to white text, everything appears as expected on the still black background.

I use the following own_window_* configuration settings

own_window = true,
own_window_type = 'desktop',
own_window_hints = 'undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager',
double_buffer = true,

own_window_colour = 'white',
default_color = 'black',

I am running Xfce 4.12 without compositing and during reinitialization conky logs

conky: desktop window (1800003) is subwindow of root window (aa)
conky: window type - desktop
conky: drawing to created window (0x2e00001)
conky: drawing to double buffer

I tried using a hexadecimal value for own_window_colour or using own_window_color to no avail. Thank you for your help in resolving this.

[oberon-manjaro]

I have the same issue and also weird formatting with the upgrade 1.9 => 1.10
Documented here: https://forum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=23951.msg208185#msg208185

[kamek-pf]

Exact same thing, downgraded to 1.9 and everything is fine.
Note that transparency works in 1.10 if you set double_buffer = false (at least in my case), so my guess is something is wrong with double buffering.

[oberon-manjaro]

Setting 'double-buffer = false' does not solve it for me. It creates a different problem here and does not restore transparency. Looks like this: http://www.zimagez.com/zimage/screenshot2015-06-3020-53-49.php

[kamek-pf]

@oberon2007 your conky background looks transparent though, we can see you wallpaper through it. How does if look with double_buffer = false ?

[adamreichold]

Arch Linux just updated its package (to 1.10-2) enabling XDBE during the build which seems to resolve the issue for me. Hence I'd say this was an downstream issue and could be marked invalid from my point of view. (Maybe this is therefore actually a duplicate of issue #55.)

[oberon-manjaro]

@kamek-pf no! the wallpaper you can only see around the conky. it's black.

[oberon-manjaro]

i take that back! :D

[oberon-manjaro]

but i cannot get it more transparent than that! ;)

[oberon-manjaro]

Confirm that transparency is fixed for me with the Arch 1.10.0-2 package. The old offset values however still have different effect than before - will open a new issue for that.

[oberon-manjaro]

My bad! In fact ${alignr 50} is working correctly now in 1.10 while it had been ignored in 1.9 and that's the reason why my conky looks different now ;)

[alexbel]

1.10.0-2 package didn't fix the problem for me.
Kde plasma 5

background yes
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
own_window_argb_visual yes

[oberon-manjaro]

@alexbel, do you have own_window_transparent yes somwhere, too?

[alexbel]

@oberon2007 I have it in 1.9 config. Transparency doesn't work without it.
In 1.10.0-2 it doesn't have any effect.

[ghost]

double_buffer = false makes it transparent for me

[chapagain]

own_window = false and double_buffer = false worked for me.

background = true,
own_window = false,
own_window_class = 'Conky',
own_window_type = 'desktop',
double_buffer = false,

[Magicloud]

As of today, on Plasma 5.11. Nothing can get me a transparent window. Set "own_window = false" crashes plasmashell (black desktop) and Conky.

[santient]

I can confirm this issue running Plasma 5 on the latest Arch Linux. If I set double_buffer to no, the black screen goes away but I get the overlapping rendering issue.

[alexbel]

double_buffer works for me.
Plasma 5.11.4
Arch Linux
Conky 1.10.6_pre
my config

[pawamoy]

Tried many combinations of double_buffer, no_buffers, own_window, own_window_argb_visual, own_window_transparent, own_window_type and xftalpha but nothing worked, stil have a black, not transparent background.

conky 1.10.6_pre compiled Tue Dec 19 21:03:36 CET 2017 for Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64

[JanSurft]

Hello, you might want to start a composite manager like compton for this to work:

From the conky sourceforge about own_window_argb_visual:

Boolean, use ARGB visual? ARGB can be used for real transparency, note that a composite manager is required for real transparency. This option will not work as desired (in most cases) in conjunction with 'own_window_type override'.

So what you need would be:

-- -- GENERAL:
 -- because no double_buffer is horrible
double_buffer = true,

 -- because conky_config recommends
own_window = true,

 -- or something else
own_window_class = conky,

 -- e.g. i choose override because then it will be in the background always on my setup
own_window_type = override,
own_window_hints = 'undecorated,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager,below',

-- -- NOW TRANSPARENCY:
 -- this will make transparency possible (if you have a composite manager)
own_window_argb_visual = true,

-- this is the transparency value for the window
own_window_argb_value = 0, 

-- this actually is the decission for transparency
own_window_transparent = true, 

Check the rest of the configuration details there. http://conky.sourceforge.net/config_settings.html

[pawamoy]

Thanks, I think it worked. I tried with a freshly compiled conky 1.10.8, with the following configuration:

conky.config={
  double_buffer=true,
  -- own_window_argb_visual=true,
  -- own_window_argb_value=0,
  own_window_class="conky",
  own_window_hints="undecorated,below,skip_taskbar,skip_pager,sticky",
  own_window_transparent=true,
  own_window=true,
  own_window_type="normal"
  -- and the rest...
}

I commented out own_window_arg options because it does not seem to change anything (though it is still working with).

My compton config has this line set in ~/.config/compton.conf:

shadow-exclude = [ "i:e:conky", "i:e:xfce4-screenshooter" ];

Note how "i:e:conky" matches own_window_class="conky".

EDIT: yes I can confirm that it works, it worked on my problematic laptop where I had the issue. Thanks again @JanSurft !!