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.
1. No sensors or only cpu usage is displayed
-Psensor is relying on few libraries or softwares for retrieving the -information about the computer:
-
-
-
-
-motherboard and CPUs sensors: the information is retrieved - from the lm-sensors library, it requires that -
-sensors-detect
has been run and the kernel module - correctly installed.sensors
can be used for checking. -
- -
-
-GPUs: it depends on which driver you are using: -
---
-
-
-
-Opensource drivers (nouveau for Nvidia GPUs or - radeon/ati for ATI GPUs) is used and support sensor - monitoring for your GPU, the information is using - lm-sensors, same steps than above. -
-
- -
-
-proprietary driver Nvidia: run
-nvidia-settings
to - check that it supports sensors monitoring. -
- -
-
-proprietary driver Catalyst/fglx: use
-aticonfig
to - check that it supports sensors monitoring. Important - note: it requires that you are using a Psensor - binary compiled with the ATI support. -
-
- -
-
For hard disk drives, psensor can use:
-
-
-
-
-udisks2: added since 1.1.2 release. It is the default and - recommended provider. -
-
- -
-
-hddtemp: verify that it is correctly reporting temperature by - using the command:
-sudo hddtemp /dev/sda
. It is the default - provider until 1.1.2 release. -
- -
-
-atasmart library: before the 1.1.2 release it can be enabled - by using the command line option
---use-libatasmart
. -
-
If the underlying software is reporting sensors which are not -displayed by Psensor, it is probably a bug in Psensor, so please -report it. Otherwise, the issue is on the underlying software itself -and you should contact the corresponding development team or refer to -its documentation.
Since the release 1.1.2, the providers can be enabled or disabled directly
-from the user interface (Preferences>Provider
).
2. How to monitor an ATI card using the Catalyst driver?
-For monitoring ATI card using the proprietary Catalyst driver, Psensor -must be compiled with a proprietary library which is not packaged in -any Linux distribution.
Unfortunely, due to the license of this library, I cannot provide a
-compiled version of Psensor, even in a Ubuntu PPA or Ubuntu/Debian
-standard repositories. You have to compile Psensor sensor. You can
-find the instructions in the section ATI/AMD GPU Support
of the
-README file available in the Psensor source archives.
If you are using the ATI OpenSource driver, it is not needed to -compile Psensor with this proprietary library.
3. The reported temperature is obviously wrong
-If the reported temperature is obviously wrong (never change, lower -than the ambiant temperature, negative, higher than the sun -temperature, etc):
-
-
-
-
-most of the time it is not a bug in Psensor nor in the - underlying monitoring libraries: -
---
-
-
-
-if the temperature does not change, it might be due - to an existent sensor not wired by the hardware - manufacturer. -
-
- -
-
-the goal of the sensor is to allow the system to - detect critical temperature and NOT to report an - exact temperature. Most sensors report a relative - temperature. The more it differs from the critical - temperature , the more it is wrong. -
-
-
- -
-
-
-
-It is only a bug in Psensor if the underlying libraries - report a different information than Psensor (use the - appropriate command or software:
-sensors
,aticonfig
or -hddtemp
to check). In this case, please report a bug. -
-
4. What is the sensors XXXX?
-Since Psensor v0.7.0.4, open the preferences of the sensor (click on -its name in the main window and select the menu item Preferences), and -look at the Chip field.
For older Psensor releases, look at the Id field, if the string is -starting with:
-
-
-
-
-
-lmsensor coretemp
: Intel CPU. -
- -
-
-
-lmsensor k10temp
,lmsensor k8temp
,lmsensor fam15h_power
: AMD CPU. -
- -
-
-
-nvidia
orlmsensor nouveau
: NVIDIA GPU. -
- -
-
-
-hdd
: hard disk drive. -
- -
-
-
-amd
: AMD GPU. -
- -
-
-
-lmsensor C B
: C is the name of the chip, B the name of the adapter. -
-
For more information about lmsensor devices, see -http://lm-sensors.org/wiki/Devices.
5. How to report a bug?
-Please use https://bugs.launchpad.net/psensor/+filebug to report bugs -even if it can only reproduced with a non-Ubuntu distribution or a -release not available in the standard Ubuntu repositories.
You can also use -https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/psensor/+filebug if the bug -can be reproduced with a package from the standard Ubuntu -repositories.
If you donât want to use the launchpad, you can send the report by -email to:
-
-
- - - -
-
-
-or jeanfi@gmail.com. -
-
-
If the bug is concerning Debian or Ubuntu derivatives distribution,
-please add in its description the output of the command: apt-cache
-policy psensor
.
If it is related to the Psensor source compilation, please add the
-full output of the configure
command.
6. How to send ideas, questions or comments?
-Check the FAQ or the TODO pages.
If you donât find the information, you can send an email to the public -mailing-list psensor-users@googlegroups.com or directly to me: -jeanfi@gmail.com.
7. How to contribute?
- -8. How to install Psensor on Ubuntu?
-Psensor is in the official repository, search psensor
in the
-software center and install it. More information at:
-http://wpitchoune.net/blog/psensor/ubuntu-integration/.
9. How to install Psensor on Debian?
-Psensor is in the official repository since Debian 7.0. You can get -the last packaged version from the sid repository. More information -at: http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/psensor.html.
10. What is the difference between the 3 Ubuntu PPAs?
--
-
-
-
-
-ppa:jfi/ppa
: last stable version. -
- -
-
-
-ppa:jfi/psensor-unstable
: last development version, no - major bug is expected. -
- -
-
-
-ppa:jfi/psensor-daily-trunk
: build each day directly from - the GIT source repository. It may contain major bugs or - incomplete features. Useful for contributors or testing - whether a bug is fixed. -
-
11. How to install Psensor on ArchLinux?
- -12. How to install Psensor on my Linux distribution?
-Psensor packages are available in the standard repositories of Ubuntu -(since Oneiric) and Debian (since v7) distributions.
For other distributions, you will find the compilation and
-installation instructions in the section Installation from source
-archive
in the README file of the source archive. Psensor should
-compile in any modern distribution.
13. How to log sensors temperatures?
-The best way is probably to use sensord or a custom script based on
-the output of the different commands like sensors
.
Anyway, as I received several requests about such feature, since the
-0.7.0.4 release it is implemented in both psensor ( menu preferences >
-sensors > enable log of measures) and psensor-server
-(--sensor-log-file
option). For psensor the log file is
-$HOME/.psensor/sensors.log
.
14. No graphs are displayed, but the table of the main window is displaying sensors
-In the sensors table of the main window, switch on the checkbox of the last
-column (named Enabled
or Graph
depending on the Psensor version).
15. Launch Psensor automaticaly on session startup
-Since the version 1.0.1, Psensor is no more started automaticaly by default.
Open the Preferences
window, select the Startup
tab and switch on
-the option Launch on session startup
.
This feature is requiring that the Desktop Environment supports the -XDG -specification.
16. How to monitor the temperature of a disk with hddtemp
?
-Until the release 1.1.2, Psensor is using hddtemp
by default to
-retrieve the temperature of the disks.
If hddtemp
is installed but no disk temperature is reported, check
-that the daemon is running by using for example the command ps
--eaf|grep hddtemp
.
-It should output something like:
root 1433 1 0 May28 ? 00:00:21 /usr/sbin/hddtemp -d -l 127.0.0.1 -p 7634 -s | /dev/sdb
-Depending on the Linux distribution, the installation of the hddtemp
-package does not enable the hddtemp daemon automaticaly.
In this case, edit the file /etc/default/hddtemp
and set
-RUN_DAEMON
to "true"
. After edition, it should contain the
-following line:
RUN_DAEMON="true"
-For Debian/Ubuntu, you can use at root:
dpkg-reconfigure hddtemp
-and reply yes
when asked whether hddtemp daemon must be
-run during the startup.
17. Is there any other similar softwares?
-Here is a list of few well-known sensors monitoring softwares:
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-
-
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-for X11: http://freecode.com/projects/xsensors -
-
- -
-
-for GNOME2: http://sensors-applet.sourceforge.net/ -
-
- -
-
-for Ubuntu Unity: https://launchpad.net/indicator-sensors -
-
- -
-
-more general, but can be configured to display sensors - information: http://conky.sourceforge.net/ -
-
-
18. Is it possible to hide sensors in the main window?
-Before v1.1.1, the sensors retrieved from the lm-sensor library can be -ignored directly in the lm-sensor configuration. See the manpage -of sensors.conf(5).
Since v1.1.1, it is possible to hide a sensor, uncheck the setting -Display sensor in the list of sensors in the sensor preferences.