= Psensor Frequently Asked Questions
:docinfo2:
:toc:

The last version of this FAQ is available at https://gitlab.com/jeanfi/psensor/blob/master/doc/faq.txt

[[S_NoSensors]]
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+).

[[S_ATIMonitoring]]
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.

[[S_WrongTemperature]]
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.

[[S_WhatIsTheSensor]]
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+ or +lmsensor 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.

[[S_BugReport]]
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 don’t want to use the launchpad, you can send the report by
email to:

      - psensor-users@googlegroups.com
      - 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.

[[S_SubmitIdea]]
How to send ideas, questions or comments?
-----------------------------------------

Check the FAQ or the TODO pages.

If you don’t find the information, you can send an email to the public
mailing-list psensor-users@googlegroups.com or directly to me:
jeanfi@gmail.com.


[[S_Contribute]]
How to contribute?
------------------

See http://wpitchoune.net/blog/psensor/how-to-contribute/.

[[S_UbuntuInstall]]
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/.

[[S_DebianInstall]]
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.

[[S_ArchLinuxInstall]]
How to install Psensor on ArchLinux?
------------------------------------

See http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=37807.

[[S_OtherInstall]]
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.

[[S_LOG]]
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+.

[[S_NO_GRAPH_DISPLAYED]]

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).

[[S_autostart]]
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
http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html[XDG
specification].

[[S_disk]]
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.

[[S_SimilarSoft]]
Is there any other similar softwares?
-------------------------------------

Here is a list of few well-known sensors monitoring softwares:

	- 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/

[[S_HideSensor]]
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.