How to display distro/kernel as or on desktop background?

tnandy · 10-14-2015, 01:42 PM

What I want to do is display the linux distribution (eg. "Fedora 21") and kernel version (eg. "3.19.7-200.fc21.x86_64") on my desktop background. I know I used to be able to do this, although it may have been a feature on Fedora Core 3 when I last did it. I know this can be done on Windows because my desktop currently displays "Windows 7 / build xxxx" in the lower right hand corner, just above the systray.

In other words, I'd like to see the output of:
$ cat /etc/issue
and
$ uname -r
in the bottom right corner of my desktop background as part of the desktop background--not a separate window. It would be even better if I could omit the second output line of cat /etc/issue, but I won't quibble. Obviously, I could open a terminal and display this information, but I'm wondering if there is an easy and automated way to put this information on the desktop itself.

Thanks!

ondoho · 10-14-2015, 02:22 PM

there's various apps can do that. root-tail, maybe, or osdsh (both kinda outdated), but most of all

conky

.

enorbet · 10-15-2015, 07:24 AM

Would something like ScreenFetch be useful to you? You can control how verbose the output is, screenshot it and then superimpose it on your wallpaper or simply include the command in the startup scripts or whatever. Here's mine.... note that my terminal background is translucent but yours doesn't need to be if you prefer higher contrast.

ScreenFetch

Hasek39 · 10-21-2015, 03:55 PM

You can easily do this with conky. Read on Wikipedia about it. You can install conky from Fedora's repositories. I would share with you (and other users) my configuration file which was rather pretty for me when I used Fedora and GNOME. You may see the result on the attached screenshot.

Code:

alignment top_right
background no
border_width 1
cpu_avg_samples 2
double_buffer yes
default_color white
default_outline_color white
default_shade_color white
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
draw_outline no
draw_shades no
use_xft yes
xftfont DejaVu Sans Mono:size=11
gap_x 5
gap_y 30
minimum_size 15 15
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
own_window_colour blue
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 0
own_window_transparent yes
stippled_borders 0
update_interval 1.0
uppercase no
use_spacer none
show_graph_scale no
show_graph_range no

TEXT
${scroll 43 $nodename - $sysname $kernel on $machine | }
$hr
${color white}Uptime:$color $uptime
Frequency (in GHz)
${color white}CPU1:$color ${freq_g 1} ${color white}CPU2:$color ${freq_g 2} ${color white}CPU3:$color ${freq_g 3} ${color white}CPU4:$color ${freq_g 4}
${color white}CPU Usage
CPU1:$color ${cpu cpu1}% CPU2:$color ${cpu cpu2}% CPU3:$color ${cpu cpu3}% CPU4:$color ${cpu cpu4}%
${color white}Swap Usage:$color $swap/$swapmax - $swapperc% ${swapbar 4}
${color white}RAM Usage:$color $mem/$memmax - $memperc% ${membar 4}
${color white}Processes:$color $processes  ${color white}Running:$color $running_processes
$hr
${color white}File systems
/ $color${fs_used /}/${fs_size /} ${fs_bar 6 /}
/home $color${fs_used /home}/${fs_size /home} ${fs_bar 6 /home}
$hr
Battery: $battery_percent $battery_bar
$hr
${color white}Name              PID   CPU%   MEM%
${color white}${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
${color white}${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
${color white}${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
${color white}${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}