Psensor GUI tool: Monitor CPU temperature on Linux system

The Psensor is simple CPU temperature monitoring that uses the systems inbuilt sensors to pull the values and displays them on a graphical user interface. This graphical hardware temperature monitor for Linux various systems such as Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, CentOS, RHEL, and more…

Whether you are troubleshooting your system, experimenting with overclocking or freshly assembled a new system with some selected components, you should keep an eye on the CPU temperature at least in the test phase.

Lm_sensors packages are available for almost all Linux distributions, reads the values ​​of the temperature sensors via the System Management Bus (SmBUS); An included command-line tool queries the current temperatures.

However, lm_sensors only provide snapshots on the command line where for system monitoring, a GUI tool that logs the temperatures is more practical. And above that reporting in the graph would be the icing on the cake. Well, this can be done using an open-source tool called psensor, which serves as a front end and polls lm_sensors at definable intervals. The tool uses the values ​​to draw a meaningful curve of the CPU temperature.

Psensor installation on various Linux distros

psensor is a lightweight tool that can perform all key tasks smoothly without much configuration effort. Also, it works perfectly with all desktop environments. On the one hand, where many tools are available for Windows platforms to measure and show the hardware components’ temperature, Linux systems feel somewhat secluded. However, Psensor fills a gap, especially on desktops that lack a reliable temperature display in the form of an applet or a shell extension.

What is psensor-server?

Furthermore, those who want to monitor the remote server can install a sensor-server to fetch Remote Server Temperature and Fan Speed information or values directly on their local system.

Installation: 

sudo apt install psensor-server

yum install psensor-server

Psensor Features:

1. Graphs representation for Temperature.
2. Show temp for all CPU cores.
3. Motherboard, GPU (NVidia GPUs using XNVCtrl), and Hard drive sensors are supported as well.
4. Psensor can show the speed of the system fan.
5. Display Current Usage of Processor.
6. Easy to install and handle.
7. Logs generation
8. It can trigger notifications for the user when system hardware crosses the acceptable threshold temperature or has any fan-related issues.
9. Colorful representation for each CPU core.

What does it require to work?

Psensor graphical hardware temperature monitor for Linux uses two packages, lm-sensor and hddtemp, to check the hardware temperature of a PC or laptop. These packages also help generate fan speed values.

 

Installation on Ubuntu 20.04 LTs or 18.04/16.04, Debian, Linux Mint

Since version 11.10, Ubuntu has included sensor in the standard package repository and doesn’t need any third-party repository. This is also true for Ubuntu 16.04, Debian, Linux Mint, Elementary OS, MX Linux, Zorin, etc.

We can install the lm-sensors package with apt-get or via the software center without any extra effort. This can also install hddtemp, which queries the hard disk temperature. Setting up the hddtemp daemon is optional: If you only want to keep an eye on the CPU, you can leave the configuration of hddtemp.

Here is the command to install Psensor on all Debian or Ubuntu-based Linux distros:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors hddtemp psensor

 

On CentOS or RHEL 6/7/8

This application is available through the EPEL repository on Redhat or its downstream CentOS. Thus, if you haven’t already, enable it and install this Linux temperature monitoring tool.

This application is available through the EPEL repository on Redhat or its downstream CentOS. Thus, if you haven’t already, enable it and install this Linux temperature monitoring tool.

yum install epel-release lm_sensors lm_sensors-devel hddtemp

 

Suitable packages are available via the Build Service for other distributions, such as OpenSuse. Go to this tool’s official package on OpenSuse; here is the link. Now, select the version of your system and select the “Click Install”  button or Download it for manual installation.

For Fedora 16/17, the unofficial repository “rpm-sphere” provides packages for 32- and 64-bit systems, which can also be downloaded and installed individually via pkgs.org.

The source code of the stable and developer versions is available on the project website; the dependencies for compiling on Debian-like systems are documented in the README file available when you extract and compile it. The required tool lm_sensors is also included in the standard Linux distribution package sources and can be installed quickly via the package manager.

If you want to compile Psensor on RPM-based Linux OS or RedHat-based, then you can use the below commands:

yum install gcc gtk3-devel GConf2-devel cppcheck libatasmart-devel libcurl-devel json-c-devel libmicrohttpd-devel help2man libnotify-devel libgtop2-devel make

• Go to the official website files page: http://wpitchoune.net/psensor/files
• Download the latest Psensor package available in the tarball archive.
• Switch to Downloads Directory
• Extract the file with the command:

tar zxvf psensor-*.tar.gz

cd psensor-*/ 
./configure 
sudo apt install make
make 
make install

• Start the sensor detection script: +sensors-detect+ and follow the instructions.
• Reboot or activate the kernel modules which have been found.
• Run: psensor

 

Set up sensors

Psensor relies on lm_sensors to determine the temperature. In some current distributions, the standard configuration of lm_sensors is sufficient to display the temperature of the CPU and chipset. If, on the other hand, Psensor does not output anything or important values ​​are missing, lm_sensors must first be configured.

For that, we run a command:

sudo sensors-detect

This is the configuration script sensors-detect will configure the lm_sensors. It will create a new configuration file “/etc/sensors3.conf” and also checks the chipset, CPU, memory controller, I/O ports, and graphics adapter one after the other for known sensor chips for which it supports by asking you some questions about your system hardware during setup.

Well, you should confirm each question by typing “yes“.  The installation then writes the configuration file and loads the associated kernel module i2c-dev. The source code of lm_sensors provides a list of supported chipsets in the SUMMARY file in the /doc/chips directory.

Example:

Your Hardware Enablement Stack (HWE) is supported until April 2025.

The programs included with the Ubuntu system are free software;
the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.

Ubuntu comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by
applicable law.

/usr/bin/xauth: file /home/h2s/.Xauthority does not exist
h2s@h2s-media:~$ sudo sensors-detect
[sudo] password for h2s:
# sensors-detect version 3.6.0
# System: HP HP Notebook [Type1ProductConfigId] (laptop)
# Board: HP 81FA
# Kernel: 5.4.0-26-generic x86_64
# Processor: AMD A10-9600P RADEON R5, 10 COMPUTE CORES 4C+6G (21/101/1)

This program will help you determine which kernel modules you need
to load to use lm_sensors most effectively. It is generally safe
and recommended to accept the default answers to all questions,
unless you know what you're doing.

Some south bridges, CPUs or memory controllers contain embedded sensors.
Do you want to scan for them? This is totally safe. (YES/no): YES
Module cpuid loaded successfully.

To check everything is working fine, run:

sensors

This will show you the various temperature values on your command terminal interface. The command sensors in the terminal provide comparative values ​​that can be used to determine whether the temperature reading is working correctly. Ideally, the command outputs all detected sensors, including processor and chipset temperature, CPU voltage, and fan speed. The section that begins with “coretemp-” is relevant for the CPU temperature. The temperatures of the individual CPU cores are listed here. Many multi-core CPUs, such as Intel Core i3 / 5/7/9 models, reflect the temperature of the entire processor with the value “Physical id 0”.

 

Run the Psensor GUI Linux APP to Show the temperature.

The running of the Psensor after the installation is effortless; either go to Applications of your respective Linux OS, find the icon, and start it, or just on the command terminal type: psensor

The psensor program also starts an indicator in the panel on the Unity desktop, whereas, under Cinnamon, GNOME, and other desktops, it shows up with a panel icon after the start.

When you click on this indicator, it will show all the current CPU and Hard Disk temperature values, including Fan speed and the “Sensor Preferences” option.

 

Psensor Interface

The graph’s position on the interface can be adjusted according to your preference, such as to the right, left, top, and bottom. To Hide Windows Psensor window decorations, the minimize, maximize, and close buttons can be hidden from here, as can the Menu and Ubuntu launcher counter.

 

Startup

To automatically launch the PSensor with session start, the “Launch on session startup” settings can be marked.

 

Providers

This section provides control over enabling and disabling support for different sensors, such as the Mother, CPU, and GPU; Nvidia, CPU, and Memory Usage via gtop2 and hard disk with the help of the hddtemp daemon, libatasmart, and udisk2.

 

Measurement interval setting

In the standard settings, however, the measurement interval is too short, so the graph jumps suddenly on the temperature scale.
A measurement interval of four seconds or more ensures a more meaningful graph. To adjust that, click on the Psensor ⇒Preferences ⇒ Sensors Tab and set the interval around four seconds, ensuring a quieter and more meaningful graph.

Moreover, during installation, the sensor is already set up as an autostart program in session management. You can undo this if necessary with gnome-session-properties.

Sensor Preferences

Using this Linux temperature monitoring application, we can change the default name assigned to sensors to something easily recognized. This facility is available under the menu Psensor->sensor preferences ->Details.

 

The Graph tab will offer custom Psensor graph colors and the ability to hide or show the Display sensors list and curve drawing.

An alarm will send a notification when the specified threshold for the fan, temperature, CPU usage, memory, and more is reached.

 

Uninstall Psensor

In case you want to remove it but the lm-sensors package then run:

sudo apt remove psensor

sudo yum remove psensor

 

So, this was a glimpse of Psensor using the lm_sernsors package, which generally delivers reliable values for typical PC or laptop hardware. It really helps to easily measure the different temperatures of the system components to determine whether our system is overheating during overclocking, gaming, or strenuous tasks.