Ubuntu – psensor not showing sensor data in label in Xubuntu 18.04

18.04xfcexubuntu

I have three machines running Xubuntu: two on 16.04 and one on 18.04.

psensor is installed on all machines, and the sensor preferences for CPU core temp (or whatever) on all machines has the setting Display sensor info in the label (experimental) enabled.

The sensor info is properly displayed in the label for both 16.04 machines, but not for 18.04. All required dependencies have been installed for psensor (lm-sensors hddtemp etc).

Xubuntu 16.04 has been installed on the currently 18.04 machine previously, and psensor properly worked.

According to the Xubuntu 18.04 release notes, there have been some changes or updates to panel plugins, including the "Status Notifier Plugin" and a new "Notification Plugin". Since psensor displays in the "Notification area" plugin (systray-4), I'm guessing that some of these changes has affected the way psensor and likely other applications are displayed?

I've included a screencap of psensor in label, that shows how psensor label displays in the panel, as well as the psensor settings. As you can see, it shows the temperature icon in the panel, but no actual sensor information. Furthermore, when you click on the temp icon, it no longer displays the summary/preview of temperatures and info, but instead opens the "Psensor – Temperature Monitor" graph.

This is the only issue I've had with Xubuntu 18.04 so far that bothers me (some other weird issues like file text persisting after you eject a drive), and really the only reason I have not updated my other machines to 18.04 already.

I haven't seen anyone else talk about this issue with psensor on 18.04, so either this is an isolated problem, or more likely, just a Xubuntu/XFCE issue rather than a Ubuntu 18.04 issue.

Any ideas?

Best Answer

Consider trying the xfce4-sensors-plugin. It can be installed via xfce4-goodies package. That may better suit your needs. From Terminal Emulator:

sudo apt install xfce4-goodies

Note It may be necessary to logout/login for Xfce Desktop to be updated.

After installation complete. Right click on Panel. From the menu select: Panel > + Add New Items. In Add New Items dialog: search or scroll to "Sensor plugin".

Click to highlight "Sensor Plugin". Left click "+Add" to add to Panel.

Right click newly added "Sensors" plugin, select "Properties" to configure to your needs.

Potential Security issue

Upon adding the plugin to the Panel a popup "Hddtemp Information" appears.

It explains and offers a "dirty" suggestion to use the hddtemp executable file.

from Terminal Emulator:

sudo chmod u+s /usr/sbin/hddtemp

What that does is enable the setuid bit on the file. Giving any user that uses that file the same privileges as the "Owner" of that file (in this case root). Basically like using the sudo command. Potentially allowing users access to other "Owner" files through use of the executable.

For a typical user this may be a non-issue. For others it might be a serious concern.

If this is a well designed program this will not be an issue. I am not the developer of this application so I do not claim to know any of the details of this. This an Xfce plugin, so feel free to contact the Xfce developers or have a look through the code your self if you have any concerns.

docs.xfce.org

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