How to Install CONKY on Backtrack 5

Today's I will show you how to install Conky on Backtrack 5 (with my first video release) and will share my configuration file so you can get started easily. This is a very cool tool that allows you to hook into Linux API and create your own custom system monitor - that looks super cool too! I will start from the beginning and walk you through basic steps and will use my preconfigured conf file to show what the final product can look like. I will leave it to you to investigate further and tweak it to fit your needs, it is fully customizable so you will have fun. If it gets to messy just remove the configuration file and start over.

Here is the video:

Steps to follow at home:
     apt-get install conky

NOTE: You may need "sudo" in front if you are not on Backtrack

Now you will need to go into "/etc/conky/conky.conf" to make the necessary edits to define what we want to monitor and how we want it all to look. Here are the steps:
     cd /etc/conky
     gedit conky.conf

Customize as you would like, but here is what mine looks like after lots of time on Google and reading through the conky docs. You should be fine with this setup and if you are at all familiar with linux you should be able to edit the conky.conf details (default or below) to your liking by simply changing interface names or colors, etc...Hope you have enjoyed, and stay tuned for more video series to come in the near future.

Laters, H.R

PS - Here is what the content of my conky.conf file looks like (just copy and paste the below over existing content and save):
##################################################################
# Conky, a system monitor, based on torsmo
#
# Any original torsmo code is licensed under the BSD license
#
# All code written since the fork of torsmo is licensed under the GPL
#
# Please see COPYING for details
#
# Copyright (c) 2004, Hannu Saransaari and Lauri Hakkarainen
# Copyright (c) 2005-2010 Brenden Matthews, Philip Kovacs, et. al. (see AUTHORS)
# All rights reserved.
#
# This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
# (at your option) any later version.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
#
alignment bottom_left
background no
border_width 1
cpu_avg_samples 2
default_color red
default_outline_color red
default_shade_color red
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
draw_outline no
draw_shades no
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans Mono:size=12
gap_x 5
gap_y 60
minimum_size 5 5
net_avg_samples 2
no_buffers yes
out_to_console no
out_to_stderr no
extra_newline no
own_window yes
own_window_class Conky
own_window_type desktop
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 1.0
uppercase no
use_spacer none
show_graph_scale no
show_graph_range no
wireless_essid wlan0
wireless_mode wlan0
wireless_bitrate wlan0
wireless_ap wlan0
wireless_link_qual wlan0
wireless_link_qual_max wlan0
wireless_link_qual_perc wlan0
wireless_essid mon0
wireless_mode mon0
wireless_bitrate mon0
wireless_ap mon0
wireless_link_qual mon0
wireless_link_qual_max mon0
wireless_link_qual_perc mon0
TEXT
${scroll 16 $nodename - $sysname $kernel on $machine | }
$hr
${color grey}Uptime:$color $uptime
${color grey}Frequency (in MHz):$color $freq
${color grey}Frequency (in GHz):$color $freq_g
${color grey}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc% ${membar 4}
${color grey}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc% ${swapbar 4}
${color grey}CPU Usage:$color $cpu% ${cpubar 4}
${color grey}Processes:$color $processes  ${color grey}Running:$color $running_processes
$hr
${color grey}File systems:
 / $color${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 6 /}
${color grey}Networking:
Up:$color ${upspeed eth0} ${color grey} - Down:$color ${downspeed eth0}
$hr
${color grey}Name              PID   CPU%   MEM%
${color lightgrey} ${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 lightgrey} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
${color grey}$hr
SYSTEM ${hr 2}
${color grey}Nodename:$color $nodename
${color grey}Current Time:$color $time
${color grey}Uptime:$color: $uptime_short
${color grey}Kernal Version:$color $kernel
${color grey}$hr
CPU ${hr 2}
${color grey}CPU:$color $freq_g Ghz
${color grey}CPU temp:$color $acpitemp C
${color grey}CPU use:$color $cpu % $alignc${cpubar 8}
${color grey}Processes:$color $running_processes/$processes
${color grey}$hr
MEMORY ${hr 2}
${color grey}Memorey usage: $mem/$memmax
$color $memperc % $alignc${membar 8}
${color grey}$hr
WIRELESS ${hr 2}
${color grey}IP:$color ${addr wlan0}
${color grey}Signal:$color ${wireless_link_qual_perc wlan0}
${color grey}Down:$color ${downspeed wlan0} Kb/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed wlan0} Kb/s
${downspeedgraph wlan0 15,50 ffffff ffffff} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph wlan0 15,50 ffffff ffffff}$color
Total: ${totaldown wlan0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup wlan0}
${color grey}$hr
MON0 ${hr 2}
${color grey}IP:$color ${addr mon0}
${color grey}Signal:$color ${wireless_link_qual_perc mon0}
${color grey}Down:$color ${downspeed mon0} Kb/s ${alignr}Up: ${upspeed mon0} Kb/s
${downspeedgraph mon0 15,50 ffffff ffffff} ${alignr}${upspeedgraph mon0 15,50 ffffff ffffff}$color
Total: ${totaldown mon0} ${alignr}Total: ${totalup mon0}