How to Customize Neofetch for Your Linux System

Introduction

Neofetch is a versatile command-line tool that displays a concise and customizable summary of your Linux system information. This tool is popular among Linux users for sharing screenshots of their desktop setups. In this lab, you will learn how to install Neofetch, run it with different options, customize its configuration, and resolve common issues you might encounter.

By the end of this lab, you will be able to customize Neofetch to display exactly the information you want in a visually appealing format that suits your preferences.

Installing Neofetch and Running it for the First Time

Neofetch is a command-line system information tool that displays information about your operating system, software, and hardware in an aesthetic way. In this step, we will install Neofetch and run it to see what information it provides by default.

Installing Neofetch

To install Neofetch on your Ubuntu 22.04 system, follow these steps:

Open a terminal window by clicking on the terminal icon in the application menu or pressing Ctrl+Alt+T.

Update your package lists to ensure you get the latest version of the software:

sudo apt update

You might see output similar to this:

Hit:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy InRelease
Get:2 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates InRelease [119 kB]
Get:3 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-backports InRelease [108 kB]
Get:4 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-security InRelease [110 kB]
Fetched 337 kB in 1s (337 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

Install Neofetch using the apt package manager:

sudo apt install neofetch -y

The output will show the installation progress:

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  neofetch
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 97.9 kB of archives.
After this operation, 394 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/universe amd64 neofetch all 7.1.0-3 [97.9 kB]
Fetched 97.9 kB in 0s (215 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package neofetch.
(Reading database ... 186774 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../neofetch_7.1.0-3_all.deb ...
Unpacking neofetch (7.1.0-3) ...
Setting up neofetch (7.1.0-3) ...

Running Neofetch

After installing Neofetch, you can run it by simply typing the command in the terminal:

neofetch

This will display a colorful output with information about your system, including:

Ubuntu logo in ASCII art
Operating system name and version
Kernel version
Uptime
Package count
Shell
Resolution
Desktop Environment
Window Manager
Terminal
CPU information
Memory usage
And more

The output should look similar to this:

            .-/+oossssoo+/-.               labex@ubuntu
        `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`           ------------
      -+ssssssssssssssssssyyssss+-         OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
    .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.       Host: KVM Virtual Machine
   /ssssssssssshdmmNNmmyNMMMMhssssss/      Kernel: 5.15.0-73-generic
  +ssssssssshmydMMMMMMMNddddyssssssss+     Uptime: 15 mins
 /sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhmNMMMNhssssssss/    Packages: 754 (dpkg)
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.   Shell: zsh 5.8.1
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+   Terminal: /dev/pts/0
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso   CPU: AMD EPYC-Milan (2) @ 2.394GHz
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso   Memory: 231MiB / 3921MiB
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.
 /sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhdNMMMNhssssssss/
  +sssssssssdmydMMMMMMMMddddyssssssss+
   /ssssssssssshdmNNNNmyNMMMMhssssss/
    .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.
      -+sssssssssssssssssyyyssss+-
        `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`
            .-/+oossssoo+/-.

Understanding the Basic Neofetch Output

The Neofetch display is divided into two main parts:

Logo: On the left side, Neofetch displays the logo of your Linux distribution (Ubuntu in this case) using ASCII art.
System Information: On the right side, Neofetch shows various details about your system, such as:
- OS name and version
- Host name
- Kernel version
- Uptime
- Package count
- Shell
- Terminal
- CPU information
- Memory usage

This default output provides a good overview of your system, but Neofetch can be customized extensively to show exactly the information you want, which we will explore in the next steps.

Understanding and Configuring Neofetch

Now that you have Neofetch installed and have seen what it displays by default, it is time to explore how to configure it to display different information according to your preferences.

Where is the Neofetch Configuration File

Neofetch stores its configuration in a file called config.conf in the .config/neofetch directory in your home folder. Let's check if this file exists and create it if necessary:

First, let's check if the configuration directory exists:

ls -la ~/.config/neofetch

If you have already run Neofetch, the directory and configuration file should exist, and you will see output similar to:

total 40
drwxrwxr-x 2 labex labex  4096 Jul 20 12:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 9 labex labex  4096 Jul 20 12:34 ..
-rw-rw-r-- 1 labex labex 31535 Jul 20 12:34 config.conf

If the directory doesn't exist, Neofetch will create it along with a default configuration file when you run the command for the first time. Let's make sure it's created:
```
neofetch
```
Now check again for the configuration file:
```
ls -la ~/.config/neofetch
```
Let's open the configuration file to examine it:
```
nano ~/.config/neofetch/config.conf
```
This will open the configuration file in the nano text editor, where you can see all the available options.

Understanding the Configuration File

The Neofetch configuration file is quite extensive and contains many options that you can customize. Some of the key sections include:

Print Info: This section defines what information is displayed and in what order.
Text Options: Controls how text is formatted and displayed.
Color Options: Defines the colors used in the output.
ASCII Options: Controls the logo/art displayed on the left side.
Image Options: If using image mode instead of ASCII art.
Config Options: Miscellaneous configurations like the backend used for gathering information.

Let's examine the print_info() function in the configuration file, which controls what information is displayed:

print_info() {
    info title
    info underline

    info "OS" distro
    info "Host" model
    info "Kernel" kernel
    info "Uptime" uptime
    info "Packages" packages
    info "Shell" shell
    info "Resolution" resolution
    info "DE" de
    info "WM" wm
    info "WM Theme" wm_theme
    info "Theme" theme
    info "Icons" icons
    info "Terminal" term
    info "Terminal Font" term_font
    info "CPU" cpu
    info "GPU" gpu
    info "Memory" memory

    ## info "GPU Driver" gpu_driver  ## Linux/macOS only
    ## info "CPU Usage" cpu_usage
    ## info "Disk" disk
    ## info "Battery" battery
    ## info "Font" font
    ## info "Song" song
    ## info "Local IP" local_ip
    ## info "Public IP" public_ip
    ## info "Users" users
    ## info "Locale" locale  ## This only works on glibc systems.

    info cols
}

In this function, each line that begins with info displays a piece of information in the Neofetch output. Lines that are commented out (those starting with #) do not display any information.

Running Neofetch with Different Options

Neofetch can also be run with various command-line options to temporarily override the configuration settings. Let's try a few of them:

Display Neofetch with only specific information:

neofetch --os --kernel --memory

This will display only the OS, kernel, and memory information. The output will be more concise:

         .-/+oossssoo+/-.
     `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`           OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
   -+ssssssssssssssssssyyssss+-         Kernel: 5.15.0-73-generic
 .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.       Memory: 231MiB / 3921MiB
/ssssssssssshdmmNNmmyNMMMMhssssss/
+ssssssssshmydMMMMMMMNddddyssssssss+
/sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhmNMMMNhssssssss/
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso
ossyNMMMNyMMhsssssssssssssshmmmhssssssso
+sssshhhyNMMNyssssssssssssyNMMMysssssss+
.ssssssssdMMMNhsssssssssshNMMMdssssssss.
/sssssssshNMMMyhhyyyyhdNMMMNhssssssss/
+sssssssssdmydMMMMMMMMddddyssssssss+
/ssssssssssshdmNNNNmyNMMMMhssssss/
 .ossssssssssssssssssdMMMNysssso.
   -+sssssssssssssssssyyyssss+-
     `:+ssssssssssssssssss+:`
         .-/+oossssoo+/-.

Display Neofetch with a different ASCII art:

neofetch --ascii_distro debian

This will display the Debian logo instead of the Ubuntu logo:

    _,met$$$$$gg.           labex@ubuntu
 ,g$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$P.        ------------
,g$$P"     """Y$$.".         OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
,$$P'              `$$$.      Host: KVM Virtual Machine
',$$P       ,ggs.     `$$b:    Kernel: 5.15.0-73-generic
`d$$'     ,$P"'   .    $$$     Uptime: 30 mins
$$P      d$'     ,    $$P     Packages: 754 (dpkg)
$$:      $$.   -    ,d$$'     Shell: zsh 5.8.1
$$;      Y$b._   _,d$P'       Terminal: /dev/pts/0
Y$$.    `.`"Y$$$$P"'          CPU: AMD EPYC-Milan (2) @ 2.394GHz
`$$b      "-.__               Memory: 231MiB / 3921MiB
`Y$$
`Y$$.
  `$$b.
    `Y$$b.
       `"Y$b._
           `"""

Display Neofetch without ASCII art:

neofetch --off

This will display only the system information without any ASCII art:

labex@ubuntu
------------
OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
Host: KVM Virtual Machine
Kernel: 5.15.0-73-generic
Uptime: 30 mins
Packages: 754 (dpkg)
Shell: zsh 5.8.1
Terminal: /dev/pts/0
CPU: AMD EPYC-Milan (2) @ 2.394GHz
Memory: 231MiB / 3921MiB

These examples show how you can quickly customize the Neofetch output using command-line options without modifying the configuration file. In the next step, we will make permanent changes to the configuration file to customize Neofetch according to your preferences.

Customizing Neofetch Output

Now that you understand the Neofetch configuration file, let's make some permanent changes to customize the output according to your preferences.

Editing the Configuration File

Let's make the following customizations to Neofetch:

Change which information is displayed
Modify the colors used in the output
Use a different ASCII art

Follow these steps to edit the configuration file:

Open the Neofetch configuration file in nano:
```
nano ~/.config/neofetch/config.conf
```
First, let's modify the information displayed by editing the print_info() function. Locate this function in the file (it should be near the top). We'll create a simplified version that shows only the most essential information and adds a custom field:

Find the print_info() function and change it to:
```
print_info() {
    info title
    info underline

    info "OS" distro
    info "Kernel" kernel
    info "Uptime" uptime
    info "Shell" shell
    info "CPU" cpu
    info "Memory" memory
    info "Disk" disk

    ## Add a custom line with your name
    info "User" users
    prin "Lab Completed" "Yes"

    info cols
}
```
This modified function will display fewer items and add a custom line indicating that you completed this lab.

Next, let's change the color scheme. Scroll down to find the Colors section. Look for the ## Text Colors subsection, and modify the colors to use green:

Find:

## Text Colors
#
## Default:  'distro'
## Values:   'distro', 'num' 'num' 'num' 'num' 'num' 'num'
## Flag:     --colors
#
## Each number represents a different part of the text in
## this order: 'title', '@', 'underline', 'subtitle', 'colon', 'info'
#
## Example:
## colors=(distro)      - Text is colored based on Distro colors.
## colors=(4 6 1 8 8 6) - Text is colored in the order above.
colors=(distro)

Change it to:

## Text Colors
colors=(2 2 2 2 2 7)

This sets most of the text to green (color code 2) with the info text in white (color code 7).

Finally, let's change the ASCII art by changing the ascii_distro option. Find:

## ASCII Distro
## Which distro's ascii art to display.
#
## Default: 'auto'
## Values:  'auto', 'distro_name'
## Flag:    --ascii_distro
## NOTE: AIX, Alpine, Anarchy, Android, Antergos, antiX, "AOSC OS",
##       "AOSC OS/Retro", Apricity, ArcoLinux, ArchBox, ARCHlabs,
##       ArchStrike, XFerience, ArchMerge, Arch, Artix, Arya, Bedrock,
##       Bitrig, BlackArch, BLAG, BlankOn, BlueLight, bonsai, BSD,
##       BunsenLabs, Calculate, Carbs, CentOS, Chakra, ChaletOS,
##       Chapeau, Chrom*, Cleanjaro, ClearOS, Clear_Linux, Clover,
##       Condres, Container_Linux, CRUX, Cucumber, Debian, Deepin,
##       DesaOS, Devuan, DracOS, DarkOs, DragonFly, Drauger, Elementary,
##       EndeavourOS, Endless, EuroLinux, Exherbo, Fedora, Feren, FreeBSD,
##       FreeMiNT, Frugalware, Funtoo, GalliumOS, Garuda, Gentoo, Pentoo,
##       gNewSense, GNOME, GNU, GoboLinux, Grombyang, Guix, Haiku, Huayra,
##       Hyperbola, janus, Kali, KaOS, KDE_neon, Kibojoe, Kogaion,
##       Korora, KSLinux, Kubuntu, LEDE, LFS, Linux_Lite,
##       LMDE, Lubuntu, Lunar, macos, Mageia, MagpieOS, Mandriva,
##       Manjaro, Maui, Mer, Minix, LinuxMint, MX_Linux, Namib,
##       Neptune, NetBSD, Netrunner, Nitrux, NixOS, Nurunner,
##       NuTyX, OBRevenge, OpenBSD, openEuler, OpenIndiana, openmamba,
##       OpenMandriva, OpenStage, OpenWrt, osmc, Oracle, OS Elbrus, PacBSD,
##       Parabola, Pardus, Parrot, Parsix, TrueOS, PCLinuxOS, Peppermint,
##       popos, Porteus, PostMarketOS, Proxmox, Puppy, PureOS, Qubes, Radix,
##       Raspbian, Reborn_OS, Redstar, Redcore, Redhat, Refracted_Devuan,
##       Regata, Rosa, sabotage, Sabayon, Sailfish, SalentOS, Scientific,
##       Septor, SereneLinux, SharkLinux, Siduction, Slackware, SliTaz,
##       SmartOS, Solus, Source_Mage, Sparky, Star, SteamOS, SunOS,
##       openSUSE_Leap, openSUSE_Tumbleweed, openSUSE, SwagArch, Tails,
##       Trisquel, Ubuntu-Budgie, Ubuntu-GNOME, Ubuntu-MATE, Ubuntu-Studio,
##       Ubuntu, Venom, Void, Obarun, windows10, Windows7, Xubuntu, Zorin,
##       and IRIX have ascii logos
## NOTE: Arch, Ubuntu, Redhat, and Dragonfly have 'old' logo variants.
##       Use '{distro name}_old' to use the old logos.
## NOTE: Ubuntu has flavor variants.
##       Change this to Lubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Ubuntu-GNOME,
##       Ubuntu-Studio, Ubuntu-Mate  or Ubuntu-Budgie to use the flavors.
## NOTE: Arcolinux, Dragonfly, Fedora, Alpine, Arch, Ubuntu,
##       CRUX, Debian, Gentoo, FreeBSD, Mac, NixOS, OpenBSD, android,
##       Antrix, CentOS, Cleanjaro, ElementaryOS, GUIX, Hyperbola,
##       Manjaro, MXLinux, NetBSD, Parabola, POP_OS, PureOS,
##       Slackware, SunOS, LinuxLite, OpenSUSE, Raspbian,
##       postmarketOS, and Void have a smaller logo variant.
##       Use '{distro name}_small' to use the small variants.
ascii_distro="auto"

Change it to:

ascii_distro="arch_small"

This will display the small Arch Linux logo instead of the default Ubuntu logo.

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.

Testing Your Customized Neofetch

Now let's run Neofetch to see our customized output:

neofetch

You should see output similar to this, with a small Arch Linux logo, green text, and only the information you selected to display:

       /\         labex@ubuntu
      /  \        ------------
     /\   \       OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
    /      \      Kernel: 5.15.0-73-generic
   /   ,,   \     Uptime: 45 mins
  /   |  |  -\    Shell: zsh 5.8.1
 /_-''    ''-_\   CPU: AMD EPYC-Milan (2) @ 2.394GHz
                  Memory: 250MiB / 3921MiB
                  Disk: 2.0G / 77G (3%)
                  User: labex
                  Lab Completed: Yes

Creating a Custom Neofetch Configuration

Let's create a simplified custom configuration file that we can easily switch to. This can be useful when you want different configurations for different purposes:

Create a new directory to store your custom configuration:
```
mkdir -p ~/custom_configs
```
Create a simplified Neofetch configuration file:
```
nano ~/custom_configs/simple_neofetch.conf
```

Add the following content to the file:

## Simple Neofetch configuration
print_info() {
    info title
    info underline

    info "OS" distro
    info "Uptime" uptime
    info "CPU" cpu
    info "Memory" memory

    info cols
}

## Colors
colors=(4 4 4 4 4 7)

## ASCII
ascii_distro="ubuntu_small"

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.

Run Neofetch with your custom configuration file:

neofetch --config ~/custom_configs/simple_neofetch.conf

The output should be a very simplified version with a blue color scheme and the small Ubuntu logo:

        _       labex@ubuntu
    ---(_)      ------------
_/  ---  \      OS: Ubuntu 22.04.2 LTS x86_64
(_) |   |        Uptime: 50 mins
 \  --- _/      CPU: AMD EPYC-Milan (2) @ 2.394GHz
  ---(_)        Memory: 250MiB / 3921MiB

You now have two different Neofetch configurations: your modified main configuration and a simplified custom configuration. You can switch between them as needed or create additional configurations for different purposes.

Creating Aliases and Troubleshooting Neofetch

In this step, we'll create aliases to make running Neofetch with different configurations easier and troubleshoot some common issues you might encounter.

Creating Aliases for Neofetch

Aliases are shortcuts for commands that allow you to execute complex commands with just a few keystrokes. Let's create aliases for our different Neofetch configurations:

Open your shell configuration file. Since you're using zsh, open the .zshrc file:
```
nano ~/.zshrc
```
Add the following aliases at the end of the file:
```
## Neofetch aliases
alias nf='neofetch'
alias nfs='neofetch --config ~/custom_configs/simple_neofetch.conf'
alias nfm='neofetch --memory --cpu --os'
```
These aliases create three shortcuts:
- nf: Runs Neofetch with your default configuration
- nfs: Runs Neofetch with your simple configuration
- nfm: Runs Neofetch showing only memory, CPU, and OS information
Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.
Apply the changes to your current session:
```
source ~/.zshrc
```
Test your aliases:
```
nf
```
This should run Neofetch with your default configuration.
```
nfs
```
This should run Neofetch with your simple configuration.
```
nfm
```
This should run Neofetch showing only memory, CPU, and OS information.

Troubleshooting Common Neofetch Issues

Let's explore some common issues that you might encounter when using Neofetch and how to resolve them:

Issue 1: Missing or Incorrect Information

Sometimes Neofetch might display incorrect or missing information. This could be due to various reasons, such as unsupported hardware or software configurations.

To fix this, you can try the following solutions:

Update Neofetch to the latest version:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade neofetch -y

Check if your system information can be detected manually:

For CPU information:
```
cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "model name"
```
For memory information:
```
free -h
```
Compare these outputs with what Neofetch displays.

Issue 2: Slow Neofetch Startup

If Neofetch is taking a long time to start, it might be because it's trying to gather information that's slow to retrieve. You can speed it up by disabling certain information gathering:

Create a performance-optimized configuration:
```
nano ~/custom_configs/fast_neofetch.conf
```

Add the following content to disable some of the slower information gathering:

## Fast Neofetch configuration
print_info() {
    info title
    info underline

    info "OS" distro
    info "Kernel" kernel
    info "CPU" cpu
    info "Memory" memory
}

## Disable slow info gathering
disk_show=()
music_player="off"
disable_gpu=true

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.
Create an alias for this fast configuration:
```
nano ~/.zshrc
```

Add the following alias:

alias nff='neofetch --config ~/custom_configs/fast_neofetch.conf'

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.
Apply the changes to your current session:
```
source ~/.zshrc
```
Test your new alias:
```
nff
```
This should run Neofetch much faster, as it's gathering less information.

Issue 3: ASCII Art Not Displaying Correctly

Sometimes the ASCII art might not display correctly in your terminal. This could be due to font issues or terminal settings. To fix this:

Try using a different ASCII art that might be more compatible with your terminal:
```
neofetch --ascii_distro ubuntu_small
```
If you're still having issues, try disabling ASCII art completely:
```
neofetch --off
```
You can also create a no-ASCII configuration file:
```
nano ~/custom_configs/no_ascii_neofetch.conf
```

Add the following content:

## No ASCII Neofetch configuration
print_info() {
    info title
    info underline

    info "OS" distro
    info "Kernel" kernel
    info "Uptime" uptime
    info "CPU" cpu
    info "Memory" memory
}

## Disable ASCII art
ascii="off"

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.
Create an alias for this configuration:
```
nano ~/.zshrc
```

Add the following alias:

alias nfna='neofetch --config ~/custom_configs/no_ascii_neofetch.conf'

Save the file by pressing Ctrl+O, then Enter, and exit nano by pressing Ctrl+X.
Apply the changes to your current session:
```
source ~/.zshrc
```
Test your new alias:
```
nfna
```
This should run Neofetch without any ASCII art.

By following these troubleshooting steps, you can resolve most common issues with Neofetch and optimize it for your specific needs.

Summary

In this lab, you have learned how to work with Neofetch, a versatile command-line system information tool for Linux. You have accomplished the following tasks:

Installed Neofetch and learned how to run it with default settings
Explored the Neofetch configuration file and understood its structure
Customized Neofetch to display specific information with your preferred colors and ASCII art
Created multiple custom configuration files for different purposes
Set up aliases to make running Neofetch with different configurations easier
Learned how to troubleshoot common Neofetch issues

These skills allow you to:

Quickly view detailed information about your Linux system
Customize the output to focus on the information that matters most to you
Create different configurations for different use cases
Optimize Neofetch performance when needed

As you continue your Linux journey, you can further enhance your Neofetch setup by:

Exploring more customization options in the configuration file
Creating more specialized configurations for specific purposes
Sharing your Neofetch screenshots with the Linux community
Incorporating Neofetch into your system monitoring workflow

Neofetch is not just a tool for displaying system information but also a way to personalize your Linux experience and make it more enjoyable.