Negative ram on conky

Question

I've installed conky on arch linux with xfce as desktop. Ram used is not working properly. I'm getting negative ram used.

screenshot

Below is my config

conky.config = {
    use_xft = true,
    xftalpha = 0.8,
    update_interval = 1.0,
    total_run_times = 0,
    own_window = true,
    own_window_transparent = no,
    own_window_argb_visual = true,
    own_window_argb_value = 180,
    own_window_colour = '2F343F',
    own_window_type = 'normal',
    own_window_class = 'conky-semi',
    own_window_hints = 'undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager',
    background = true,
    double_buffer = true,
    imlib_cache_size = 0,
    no_buffers = true,
    uppercase = false,
    cpu_avg_samples = 2,
    override_utf8_locale = true,

    -- placement
    alignment = 'top_right',
    gap_x = 25,
    gap_y = 45,

    -- default drawing
    draw_shades = false,
    draw_outline = false,
    draw_borders = false,
    draw_graph_borders = true,
    default_bar_width = 150, default_bar_height = 5,
    default_graph_width = 150, default_graph_height = 12,
    default_gauge_width = 20, default_gauge_height = 20,

    -- colors
    font = 'Noto Sans:size=9',
    default_color = 'E9FFE9',
    color1 = '77BCFF', 
    color2 = '90EE90',
    color3 = '4E6E4E',

    -- layouting
    template0 = [[${font Liberation Sans:bold:size=11}${color2}\1 ${color3}${hr 2}${font}]],
    template1 = [[${color1}\1]],
    template2 = [[${goto 70}${color}]],
    template3 = [[${goto 120}${color}${alignr}]],
};

conky.text = [[
${template0 Info}
${template1 Date}                                                           ${color3}${template3}${time %a,}${color}${time %e %B %G}
${template1 Time}                                                           ${template3}${time %T}

${template0 System}
${template1 Hostname}                                                       ${template3}${nodename}
${template1 ${sysname}}                                                     ${template3}${kernel}-${machine}
${template1 Uptime}                                                         ${template3}${uptime_short}
${template1 CPU}                                                            ${template3}${freq_g}GHz

${template0 Processors}
${template1 Load}               ${template2}${loadavg 1}                    ${template3}${loadgraph}
${template1 Core\ 1}            ${template2}${cpu cpu1}%                    ${template3}${cpubar cpu1}
${template1 Core\ 2}            ${template2}${cpu cpu2}%                    ${template3}${cpubar cpu2}
${template1 Core\ 3}            ${template2}${cpu cpu3}%                    ${template3}${cpubar cpu3}
${template1 Core\ 4}            ${template2}${cpu cpu4}%                    ${template3}${cpubar cpu4}
${template1 Top}                ${template2}${top name 1}                   ${template3}${top cpu 1}

${template0 Memory}
${template1 Memory}             ${template2}${memperc}% used                ${template3}${mem} / ${memmax}
                                                                            ${template3}${membar}
${template1 Top}                ${template2}${top_mem name 1}               ${template3}${top_mem mem_vsize 1}

${template0 Filesystem}
${template1 /}                  ${template2}${fs_free /} free               ${template3}${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /}
                                                                            ${template3}${fs_bar /}
${template1 IO\ Read}           ${template2}${diskio_read}                  ${template3}${diskiograph_read}
${template1 IO\ Write}          ${template2}$diskio_write                   ${template3}$diskiograph_write
${template1 Top}                ${template2}${top_io name 1}                ${template3}${top_io io_perc 1}

]];

Answer 1

This seems to be a very recent bug: github issue 877.

Recently updated to version v1.11.5. After this update, I've noticed that RAM usage will be negative when using the $mem variable and other memory-dependent functions such as the usage graph as seen below which did not occur in prior versions.

They suggest a fix by undoing a recent patch, but you may want to keep track of the problem as there is some uncertainty in the consequences.

conky calculates the memory by reading values from /proc/meminfo. If you like, temporarily, you could do this calculation with awk (in kiB):

awk </proc/meminfo -F': *' '
{ v[$1] = $2+0 }
END{ print v["MemTotal"]-v["MemFree"]-(v["Cached"]-v["Shmem"]+v["Buffers"]+v["SReclaimable"])
}'