On Ubuntu, install Conky with the following commands:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install conky-all
Then, backup the default conky.conf file:
sudo cp /etc/conky/conky.conf /etc/conky/conky.conf.bak
Then, replace the contents of /etc/conky/conky.conf with the contents of the file from this repository.
sudo gedit /etc/conky/conky.conf
Conky only becomes useful when it is set to start up at boot. Here's how in Ubuntu and the various respins.
Click the gear icon in the upper right hand corner of the top panel. Select Startup Applications. Click Add. In the resulting dialog box give the name as "Conky" and the command as conky. Click add and close.
Press Alt+F2 to bring up the Run dialog. Type gnome-session-properties. Click the "Add" button. In the resulting dialog box give the name as "Conky" and the command as conky. Click add and close.