lm_sensors (Linux-monitoring sensors) is a
free open-source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
software-tool for
Linux
Linux ( ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an kernel (operating system), operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically package manager, pac ...
that provides tools and drivers for monitoring
temperature
Temperature is a physical quantity that quantitatively expresses the attribute of hotness or coldness. Temperature is measurement, measured with a thermometer. It reflects the average kinetic energy of the vibrating and colliding atoms making ...
s,
voltage
Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...
, humidity, and
fans. It can also detect chassis intrusions.
Issues
During 2001/2004, the lm_sensors package was not recommended for use on IBM
ThinkPad
ThinkPad is a line of business-oriented laptop and Tablet computer, tablet computers produced since 1992. It was originally designed, created and manufactured by the American IBM, International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. IBM Acquisit ...
s due to potential
EEPROM
EEPROM or E2PROM (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) is a type of non-volatile memory. It is used in computers, usually integrated in microcontrollers such as smart cards and remote keyless systems, or as a separate chip d ...
corruption issues on some models when aggressively probing for
I2C devices.
[ This has since been dealt with, and the separate ]README
In software distribution and software development, a README file (computing), file contains information about the other files in a directory (file systems), directory or archive (computing), archive of computer software. A form of Software doc ...
file dedicated to ThinkPads was removed in 2007.[
In 2013, the command of lm-sensors began disrupting the ]gamma correction
Gamma correction or gamma is a Nonlinearity, nonlinear operation used to encode and decode Relative luminance, luminance or CIE 1931 color space#Tristimulus values, tristimulus values in video or still image systems. Gamma correction is, in the s ...
settings of some laptop display screens. This occurs while it is probing the I2C/ SMBus adapters for connected hardware monitoring devices. Probing of these devices was disabled by default.
See also
* Computer fan control
* envsys on NetBSD
* hw.sensors on OpenBSD / DragonFly BSD
* I2C
* Intelligent Platform Management Interface
The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI) is a set of Interface (computing), computer interface specifications for an autonomous computer subsystem that provides management and monitoring capabilities independently of the host system's C ...
(IPMI)
* Super I/O
* Embedded Controller
* Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is an open standard that operating systems can use to discover and configure computer hardware components, to perform power management (e.g. putting unused hardware components to sleep), auto con ...
(ACPI)
* System Management Bus (SMBus)
References
External links
*
* https://web.archive.org/web/20120429233433/http://www.lm-sensors.org/
HWMon
the new parent project of lm_sensors
Articles with underscores in the title
Free software programmed in C
Free system software
Software related to embedded Linux
System monitors
{{Linux-stub