xref: /linux/Documentation/hwmon/userspace-tools.rst (revision c532de5a67a70f8533d495f8f2aaa9a0491c3ad0)
1Userspace tools
2===============
3
4Introduction
5------------
6
7Most mainboards have sensor chips to monitor system health (like temperatures,
8voltages, fans speed). They are often connected through an I2C bus, but some
9are also connected directly through the ISA bus.
10
11The kernel drivers make the data from the sensor chips available in the /sys
12virtual filesystem. Userspace tools are then used to display the measured
13values or configure the chips in a more friendly manner.
14
15Lm-sensors
16----------
17
18Core set of utilities that will allow you to obtain health information,
19setup monitoring limits etc. You can get them on their homepage
20http://www.lm-sensors.org/ or as a package from your Linux distribution.
21
22If from website:
23Get lm-sensors from project web site. Please note, you need only userspace
24part, so compile with "make user" and install with "make user_install".
25
26General hints to get things working:
27
280) get lm-sensors userspace utils
291) compile all drivers in I2C and Hardware Monitoring sections as modules
30   in your kernel
312) run sensors-detect script, it will tell you what modules you need to load.
323) load them and run "sensors" command, you should see some results.
334) fix sensors.conf, labels, limits, fan divisors
345) if any more problems consult FAQ, or documentation
35
36Other utilities
37---------------
38
39If you want some graphical indicators of system health look for applications
40like: gkrellm, ksensors, xsensors, wmtemp, wmsensors, wmgtemp, ksysguardd,
41hardware-monitor
42
43If you are server administrator you can try snmpd or mrtgutils.
44