1 Psensor Frequently Asked Questions
2 ==================================
4 The last version of this FAQ is available at http://wpitchoune.net/gitweb/?p=psensor.git;a=blob_plain;f=doc/faq.html;hb=HEAD.
7 No sensors or only cpu usage is displayed
8 -----------------------------------------
10 Psensor is relying on few libraries or softwares for retrieving the information about the computer:
12 - motherboard and CPUs sensors: the information is retrieved
13 from the lm-sensors library, it requires that
14 +sensors-detect+ has been run and the kernel module
15 correctly installed. +sensors+ can be used for checking.
17 - GPUs: it depends on which driver you are using:
19 * Opensource drivers (nouveau for Nvidia GPUs or
20 radeon/ati for ATI GPUs) is used and support sensor
21 monitoring for your GPU, the information is using
22 lm-sensors, same steps than above.
24 * proprietary driver Nvidia: run +nvidia-settings+ to
25 check that it supports sensors monitoring.
27 * proprietary driver Catalyst/fglx: use +aticonfig+ to
28 check that it supports sensors monitoring. Important
29 note: it requires that you are using a Psensor
30 binary compiled with the ATI support.
32 - HDDs: it uses the hddtemp daemon. Verify that it is
33 correctly reporting temperature by using the command: +sudo
34 hddtemp /dev/sda+. If hddtemp does not support your disk,
35 you may want to try using the libatasmart support instead
36 (option +--use-libatasmart+).
38 If the underlying software is reporting sensors which are not
39 displayed by Psensor, it is probably a bug in Psensor, so please
40 report it. Otherwise, the issue is on the underlying software itself
41 and you should contact the corresponding development team or refer to
45 How to monitor an ATI card using the Catalyst driver?
46 -----------------------------------------------------
48 For monitoring ATI card using the proprietary Catalyst driver, Psensor
49 must be compiled with a proprietary library which is not packaged in
50 any Linux distribution.
52 Unfortunely, due to the license of this library, I cannot provide a
53 compiled version of Psensor, even in a Ubuntu PPA or Ubuntu/Debian
54 standard repositories. You have to compile Psensor sensor. You can
55 find the instructions in the section +ATI/AMD GPU Support+ of the
56 README file available in the Psensor source archives.
58 If you are using the ATI OpenSource driver, it is not needed to
59 compile Psensor with this proprietary library.
61 [[S_WrongTemperature]]
62 The reported temperature is obviously wrong
63 -------------------------------------------
65 If the reported temperature is obviously wrong (never change, lower
66 than the ambiant temperature, negative, higher than the sun
69 - most of the time it is not a bug in Psensor nor in the
70 underlying monitoring libraries:
72 * if the temperature does not change, it might be due
73 to an existent sensor not wired by the hardware
76 * the goal of the sensor is to allow the system to
77 detect critical temperature and NOT to report an
78 exact temperature. Most sensors report a relative
79 temperature. The more it differs from the critical
80 temperature , the more it is wrong.
82 - It is only a bug in Psensor if the underlying libraries
83 report a different information than Psensor (use the
84 appropriate command or software: +sensors+, +aticonfig+ or
85 +hddtemp+ to check). In this case, please report a bug.
88 What is the sensors XXXX?
89 -------------------------
91 Since Psensor v0.7.0.4, open the preferences of the sensor (click on
92 its name in the main window and select the menu item Preferences), and
93 look at the Chip field.
95 For older Psensor releases, look at the Id field, if the string is
98 - +lmsensor coretemp+: Intel CPU.
99 - +lmsensor k10temp+, +lmsensor k8temp+, +lmsensor fam15h_power+: AMD CPU.
100 - +nvidia+ or +lmsensor nouveau+: NVIDIA GPU.
101 - +hdd+: hard disk drive.
103 - +lmsensor C B+: C is the name of the chip, B the name of the adapter.
105 For more information about lmsensor devices, see
106 http://lm-sensors.org/wiki/Devices.
112 Please use https://bugs.launchpad.net/psensor/+filebug to report bugs
113 even if it can only reproduced with a non-Ubuntu distribution or a
114 release not available in the standard Ubuntu repositories.
117 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/psensor/+filebug if the bug
118 can be reproduced with a package from the standard Ubuntu
121 If you don’t want to use the launchpad, you can send the report by
124 - psensor-users@googlegroups.com (require registration at:
125 https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups&hl=en#!forum/psensor-users)
126 - or jeanfi@gmail.com.
128 If the bug is concerning Debian or Ubuntu derivatives distribution,
129 please add in its description the output of the command: +apt-cache
132 If it is related to the Psensor source compilation, please add the
133 full output of the +configure+ command.
136 How to send ideas, questions or comments?
137 -----------------------------------------
139 Check the FAQ or the TODO pages.
141 If you don’t find the information, you can send an email to the public
142 mailing-list psensor-users@googlegroups.com (require registration at:
143 https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups&hl=en#!forum/psensor-users)
144 or send an email directly to me: jeanfi@gmail.com.
151 See http://wpitchoune.net/blog/psensor/how-to-contribute/.
154 How to install Psensor on Ubuntu?
155 ---------------------------------
157 Psensor is in the official repository, search +psensor+ in the
158 software center and install it. More information at:
159 http://wpitchoune.net/blog/psensor/ubuntu-integration/.
162 How to install Psensor on Debian?
163 ---------------------------------
165 Psensor is in the official repository since Debian 7.0. You can get
166 the last packaged version from the sid repository. More information
167 at: http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/psensor.html.
170 What is the difference between the 3 Ubuntu PPAs?
171 -------------------------------------------------
173 - +ppa:jfi/ppa+: last stable version.
175 - +ppa:jfi/psensor-unstable+: last development version, no
176 major bug is expected.
178 - +ppa:jfi/psensor-daily-trunk+: build each day directly from
179 the GIT source repository. It may contain major bugs or
180 incomplete features. Useful for contributors or testing
181 whether a bug is fixed.
183 [[S_ArchLinuxInstall]]
184 How to install Psensor on ArchLinux?
185 ------------------------------------
187 See http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=37807.
190 How to install Psensor on my Linux distribution?
191 ------------------------------------------------
193 Psensor packages are available in the standard repositories of Ubuntu
194 (since Oneiric) and Debian (since v7) distributions.
196 For other distributions, you will find the compilation and
197 installation instructions in the section +Installation from source
198 archive+ in the README file of the source archive. Psensor should
199 compile in any modern distribution.
202 How to log sensors temperatures?
203 --------------------------------
205 The best way is probably to use sensord or a custom script based on
206 the output of the different commands like +sensors+.
208 Anyway, as I received several requests about such feature, since the
209 0.7.0.4 release it is implemented in both psensor ( menu preferences >
210 sensors > enable log of measures) and psensor-server
211 (+--sensor-log-file+ option).
213 [[S_NO_GRAPH_DISPLAYED]]
215 No graphs are displayed, but the table of the main window is displaying sensors
216 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
218 In the sensors table of the main window, switch on the checkbox of the last
219 column (named +Enabled+ or +Graph+ depending on the Psensor version).
222 Launch Psensor automaticaly on session startup
223 ----------------------------------------------
225 Since the version 1.0.1, Psensor is no more started automaticaly by default.
227 Open the +Preferences+ window, select the +Startup+ tab and switch on
228 the option +Launch on session startup+.
230 This feature is requiring that the Desktop Environment supports the
231 http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html[XDG
235 How to monitor the temperature of a disk?
236 -----------------------------------------
238 By default, Psensor is using +hddtemp+ to retrieve the temperature of
241 If +hddtemp+ is installed but no disk temperature is reported, check
242 that the daemon is running by using for example the command +ps
244 It should output something like:
246 ---------------------
247 root 1433 1 0 May28 ? 00:00:21 /usr/sbin/hddtemp -d -l 127.0.0.1 -p 7634 -s | /dev/sdb
248 ---------------------
250 Depending on the Linux distribution, the installation of the +hddtemp+
251 package does not enable the hddtemp daemon automaticaly.
253 In this case, edit the file +/etc/default/hddtemp+ and set
254 +RUN_DAEMON+ to +"true"+ like in the following example:
257 # hddtemp network daemon switch. If set to true, hddtemp will listen
258 # for incoming connections.
262 For Debian/Ubuntu, you can use
264 dpkg-reconfigure hddtemp
267 and reply +yes+ when asked whether hddtemp daemon must be
268 run during the startup.
271 Is there any other similar softwares?
272 -------------------------------------
274 Here is a list of few well-known sensors monitoring softwares:
276 - for X11: http://freecode.com/projects/xsensors
278 - for GNOME2: http://sensors-applet.sourceforge.net/
280 - for Ubuntu Unity: https://launchpad.net/indicator-sensors
282 - more general, but can be configured to display sensors
283 information: http://conky.sourceforge.net/