A good system monitor

[vsreeser]

Looking for a good system monitor that doesn't end up eating too many resources. Home system. Phenom x6, 16Gb ram, 4 hard drives. Two 1 Tb in an lvm. One 3 Tb housing /home partition, 1 esata drive for backups. Would like something I can configure easily to show just the info I want to see. Looked at superkaramba monitors. They either had too much or too little info. I have no idea how to write my own.

[oshunluvr]

One of the easiest ways to have a decent monitor is to search for conky configs and copy someone else's. You'll have to edit it for your specific setup, but the configs are in basic text and rather easy to figure out. You can make it as a complicated or simple as you like. Here's a basic but full config:

use_xft yesxftfont Terminus:size=8
xftalpha 0.8
update_interval 1.0
total_run_times 0
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_class conky-semi
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
background no
double_buffer yes
minimum_size 300 200
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
draw_graph_borders yes
default_shade_color black
default_outline_color white
default_bar_size 150 5
default_gauge_size 20 20
imlib_cache_size 0
draw_shades no
alignment top_right
gap_x 5
gap_y 35
no_buffers yes
uppercase no
cpu_avg_samples 2
override_utf8_locale no
default_color ECEAE4
color1 9f907d
color2 01C400




TEXT
${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}Info ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${color1}Date               ${alignr}${color slate grey}${time %a,}${color}${time %e %B %G}
${color1}Time               ${alignr}${color}${time %T}


${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}System ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${color1}Hostname           ${alignr}${color}${nodename}
${color1}${sysname}         ${alignr}${color}${kernel}-${machine}
${color1}CPU                ${alignr}${color}${freq_g}GHz
${color1}Loadaverage        ${alignr}${color}${loadavg 1} ${loadavg 2} ${loadavg 3}
${color1}Uptime             ${alignr}${color}${uptime}
${color1}Battery Status     ${alignr}${color}${battery_short BAT1}
${color1}Cpu Temperature    ${alignr}${color}${acpitemp}C
${color1}Hdd Temperature    ${alignr}${color}${hddtemp /dev/sda}C


${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}Processors ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${color1}Core 1             ${alignr}${color}${cpu cpu1}%  ${cpubar cpu1}
${color1}Core 2             ${alignr}${color}${cpu cpu2}%  ${cpubar cpu2}


${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}Memory ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${color1}Memory             ${color}${alignr}${memeasyfree} / ${memmax}
${color1}Currently          ${color}${alignr}${memperc}%   ${membar}


${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}Filesystem ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${color1}/                  ${color}${alignc}${fs_used /} / ${fs_size /} ${color}${alignr}${fs_free_perc /} %
${color}${fs_bar 5,300 /}


${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}Networking ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${if_existing /proc/net/route wlan0}${color1}Ip     ${color}${alignr}${addr wlan0}
${color1}AP                 ${color}${alignr}${wireless_essid wlan0}
${color1}Signal             ${color}${alignr}${wireless_link_qual_perc wlan0}${wireless_link_bar 10,100 wlan0}
${color1}Download           ${alignr}${color}${downspeed wlan0}${downspeedgraph wlan0 10,100}
${color1}Upload             ${alignr}${color}${upspeed wlan0}${upspeedgraph wlan0 10,100}
${color1}Total Down/Up      ${alignr}${color}${totaldown wlan0}${color1}/${color}${totalup wlan0}
${else}${if_existing /proc/net/route eth0}${color1}Ip       ${color}${alignr}${addr eth0}
${color1}Download           ${alignr}${color}${downspeed eth0}${downspeedgraph eth0 10,100}
${color1}Upload             ${alignr}${color}${upspeed eth0}${upspeedgraph eth0 10,100}
${color1}Total Down/Up      ${alignr}${color}${totaldown eth0}${color1}/${color}${totalup eth0}${endif}${endif}


${font AvantGardeLTMedium:bold:size=10}${color Tan1}Top Processes ${color slate grey}${hr 2}${font}
${color1}${top name 1}  ${alignr}${color}${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
${color1}${top name 2}  ${alignr}${color}${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
${color1}${top name 3}  ${alignr}${color}${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
${color1}${top name 4}  ${alignr}${color}${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
${color1}${top name 5}  ${alignr}${color}${top cpu 5} ${top mem 5}

[oshunluvr]

One cool thing is you can edit and save and watch the change happen right away, then edit it again and again until you're satisfied

[vsreeser]

One cool thing is you can edit and save and watch the change happen right away, then edit it again and again until you're satisfied

Spent a while modifying conky. Took the most time figuring out how to get it to the right of monitor one. Finally got the right gap_x number. Thanks for the tip

[oshunluvr]

Wow, that was quick. Watch out for Conky - it can be addicting!

[Rod J]

I like GKrellM myself (GNU Krell Monitors). It's very configurable and works well in Kubuntu. It seems to use very little system resources also.

[Teunis]

Although I have Conky running I do like the simple version op KSysGuard that comes up with the key combination Esc+Ctrl.

Like with the (my?) recent Akonadi problems it'll give a nice selection of actions when right-clicking a misbehaving process.

Or in case I want to see a graph it'll be KSysGuard proper.
Oh yes, then there is Kinfocenter.

I don't think either of these would be a burden on your system.