Newbie trying to setup gkrellm.

[Brian Durant]

On Wed, 16 Feb 2005 23:27:20 -0500, slackerj <ulist at gs1.ubuntuforums.org> wrote:
> 
> Hey there :)
> 
> To install gkrellm just do a
> 
> sudo apt-get install gkrellm
> 
> This will install gkrellm and then gkrellm-common.
> 
> After you have installed the above you will need to install lmsensors.
> lmsensors will enable you to monitor your temptures, fan speeds, and
> voltages from gkrellm. There is a really well crafted HOWTO for
> installing and configuring lmsensors avaible at:
> 
> http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2780
> 
> Once lmsensors have been setup. Open up a terminal and type in:
> 
> nautilus applications:///System
> 
> A window will pop up. Right click in the new window and select 'Create
> Launcher'.
> Enter in the following information:
> 
> Name: Gkrellm
> Command: gkrellm
> Icon: /usr/share/pixmaps/gkrellm.xpm
> 
> This will create a Launcher in Applications--System Tools
> 
> Go into Applications--System Tools and select gkrellm. Once it has
> loaded right click on gkrellm (on your desktop) and select
> 'Configuration'. A new window will pop up. Select 'Bultins' and click
> on the little arrow to the left of 'Bultins'.
> 
> This will display the following new options:
> 
> Sensors
> Clock
> CPU
> Proc
> Disk
> Internet
> Net
> Memory
> File System
> Mail
> Battery
> Uptime
> 
> Now the first thing you wanted to monitor was your cable connection. If
> you want to show the amount of information (bytes) going in and out do
> the following.
> 
> Click on 'Net'. Take the ticks out of the following boxes (under the
> Timer Button tab):
> 
> Enable Timer
> Show Seconds
> 
> Also select the option 'none' for 'Interface to link to the timer
> button'.
> 
> Next select the tab (still under Net) eth0 (that is if your NIC is
> known as eth0) and tick the following boxes:
> 
> Enable eth0
> Force chart to be showneven if interface is not routed
> 
> Now where it says 'et0 command' under 'Launch Commands' enter the
> following into the text box:
> 
> \r,t,\
> 
> After you have entered in the above click on the 'Ok' button to save
> the changes.
> 
> This will display in real time (via a line graph) the flow of bytes in
> and out of your machine. To set this up so that it is easier to read.
> Right click above the word 'eth0' on gkrellm. A new window will pop up
> called 'GKrellM Chart Config'. Select the boxe that says 'Inverted'.
> This will now split the 2 lines. The Orange one (or top line) is data
> going OUT. The blue line on the bottom is of data coming in.
> 
> Also if you move the mouse into the bottom right hand corner  of the
> eth0 chart a little grey box will appear. Click this to see exact
> figures (in Kb) of data in out and total. For daily, weekly and monthly
> periods. And if you click in the top left hand corner of the chart; it
> will show you what speed you are recieving data in, in Kb.
> 
> Now for your temps. If you have installed lmsensors this will be easy.
> If not just follow the HOWTO above. We need lmsensors for the next
> part.
> 
> Anyway. Open up the gkrellm configuration window and select 'Sensors'
> from the 'Bultins' menu. Once you have done that click on the arrow
> next to 'Temperatures'. This is what mine look like:
> 
> Temperatures                         Enable     Label
> asb100-1-002d/temp1       Yes        CPU
> asb100-1-002d/temp2       Yes        Mobo
> asb100-1-002d/temp3       Yes        PSU
> asb100-1-002d/temp4       Yes        HDD
> 
> I changed the labels for the temp monitors to what the are on my
> system. You should be able to figure out which ones are which. If not
> just run (from a terminal) 'sensors' and check to see what temps are
> what. And then confer with gkrellm. Example. If sensors told me that my
> CPU temp was 41. Then I would check each temp box (enable) and try to
> match up the temp from sensors with the one displayed in gkrellm. Once
> I had found the same temp, I would change the label to match that.
> 
> After that. Just press 'Ok' to save the changes.
> 
> The following is so that you can see how much space you have left on
> your / partition. Select from the 'Bultins' menu 'File System'. Now
> where it says 'Label' enter in a name in which you can use to identify
> the partition. Under 'Mount Point' select the down arrow and click on
> the partition that you want to display. Once you have done that, click
> on the 'Add' button and the partition should put itself under
> 'Primary'.
> 
> Select the tab 'Setup'. Tick the box that says 'Use binary units (MiB,
> GiG) for reporting disk capacities'. Now from the drop down box
> labelled 'Format String for FS data display' select the following
> option:
> 
> $t - $u used
> 
> This will display the total size of the disk followed by how much is in
> current use. Click 'Ok' to save your changes.
> 
> You will now see on gkrellm that a new addition has been made. It will
> have the name that you gave it in Label. Click on the name to display
> the total and then how much is being used.
> 
> The CPU usuage is automatically setup. So there is no need to configure
> that. YOu might find that there are some charts that you do not need
> (like the /proc chart for example). By going into gkrellm's
> configuration window and selecting the appropriate option from under
> 'Bultins' (Proc) you can deselct the "Enable **** Chart" to make it no
> longer display itself. Clicking on 'Ok' will save your changes.
> 
> Last but not least, making it so that when you start Ubuntu; it starts
> as well.
> 
> If you are using GNOME; make sure that gkrellm is in the Workspace that
> you want it to be in and click on 'Computer' -- 'Log Out'. And select
> the option 'Save current Setup'. Proceed to log out as normal. When you
> log back in; gkrellm will automatically start and place itself in the
> postion you last had it.
> 
> Hopefully the above helps you out. And if you have any questions or
> need clarification just let me know.

Wow, great HowTo and great explanation. I do have a couple of issues though:

1) None of the three temp possibilities work.
2) I don't seem to have any Internet monitoring.

I have two nics, eth0 and eth1. eth1 is connected to my router. eth0
isn't being used at this time. The eth1 sensor is working fine, but
either it isn't doing what I hoped it would or there should be a
seperate Internet sensor. My problem is that  I have to deal with both
a cable provider and an ISP. complaints about poor connection
performance have to be addressed to the ISP and then my ISP forwards
the complaint to the cable provider (monopoly) who "maintains" the
individual ISP servers for their cable system and may or may not do
anything about eventual problems. Changing ISP won't help as there is
only one cable provider. While the connection is maintained, I am
experiencing time-outs, lost packets and freezes. All indicator lights
on the router and cable modem are performing OK, but there may be
nothing coming through the cable. At this point, the only solution is
to unplug the cable modem and plug it back in each time this happens,
but unless you are downloading a file or trying to access a web site
at that very moment, you can't be sure whether the connection is slow,
packets being lost, time outs or what.

Any ideas?

Cheers,

Brian