Using the Xfce 4.10 Desktop that comes with Ubuntu Studio 14.04, if the “Save session for future logins” box was checked, this would not always load Conky on startup. And once Conky did not load, it then needed to be manually restarted. (Alt-F2 then type in the command Conky)

So a startup item was created ensure that Conky always started. (An entry for Conky was added to the “Application Autostart” list in “Session and Startup”.)

The problem is, this apparently then loaded an additional copy Conky each time the system was restarted – resulting in many running copies of the same Conky causing the system to seriously slow down. (High CPU usage at idle was a noticeable symptom of this.)

Even worse, it seem this behaviour may have continued to occur even with “Save session for future logins” unchecked! (Just killing all running Conky, then unchecking that did not solve the problem.)

• Alt-F2 to bring up the “Application Finder” Window
  • Into that type the command “killall conky”
• Next “Quit” or “Exit” from any other Desktop Applications that are auto started in “Sessions and Startup”

• From the Applications Menu select “Log Out”
  • Now ensure “Save session for future logins” is CHECKED before doing a system Restart

mkdir ~/.conky    # create a hidden directory for conky
nano ~/.conky/conkystart.sh    # copy/past the following text into this empty file

#!/bin/bash
# Pause to let the system start
# Then stop any old conky processes that are still running
sleep 5 && killall conky
# Pause a little longer to maker certain the desktop is fully loaded
# Then start the desired conky
sleep 10 && conky -c ~/.conky/conkyrc_sys

chmod +x ~/.conky/conkystart.sh    # needed file permission to run this script
mv ~/.conkyrc ~/.conky/conkyrc_sys    # move existing .conkyrc file into .conky directory

• “Applications Menu” » “Settings Manager” » “Session and Startup” » the “Application Autostart” tab
  • If there is an existing Startup item listed for Conky, then select and Remove that.
  • Add a Startup Item for Conky using the following information:
    • Name: Conky System Monitor
    • Command: /home/[user]/.conky/conkystart.sh ← Replace “[user]” with the login user name