1 |
To Emacs: This is a -*-text-*- file. |
2 |
|
3 |
1. How do I start the applet from the command line? |
4 |
|
5 |
Change to the bubblemon directory and do the following: |
6 |
|
7 |
$ ./configure |
8 |
$ make |
9 |
$ src/bubblemon-gnome1 |
10 |
|
11 |
|
12 |
2. Can you add this feature to the applet? |
13 |
|
14 |
Perhaps. If you want to improve your odds, here are my suggestions |
15 |
though: |
16 |
* Your best bet is to do it yourself and send me a patch. If you run |
17 |
into problems I'll gladly answer your questions. Also, the TODO file |
18 |
may very well contain some information to help you get started. |
19 |
* If you can't do it yourself (or get someone else to do it for you |
20 |
:-), see if it is in the TODO file. If it is, I will probably |
21 |
implement it sooner or later anyway. |
22 |
* If you can't do it yourself and it's not in the TODO file, send a |
23 |
mail to the mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org) and I'll add it. |
24 |
|
25 |
|
26 |
3. I'm running a background process on my system that should be using |
27 |
all of my CPU, but the Bubblemon shows very few or no bubbles at |
28 |
all. Why is that? |
29 |
|
30 |
Because the applet ignores nice (do 'man nice') processes. The |
31 |
reasoning behind this is that I use the applet for keeping track of |
32 |
how much processing power I have at my disposal. As 'nice' processes |
33 |
will yield as soon as another process starts, I have all of my CPU |
34 |
power at my disposal, even with a 'nice' background job running. |
35 |
Therefore: 'nice' processes don't bubble. |
36 |
|
37 |
|
38 |
4. The program doesn't do anything; it doesn't even crash! |
39 |
|
40 |
Try running it from the command line, and see if you get an error |
41 |
message. Do the follwing from the bubblemon directory: |
42 |
|
43 |
$ ./configure |
44 |
$ make |
45 |
$ src/bubblemon-gnome1 |
46 |
|
47 |
|
48 |
5. The program crashes. What should I do? |
49 |
|
50 |
Either fix it yourself and send a patch to the mailing list |
51 |
(bubblemon-list@nongnu.org), or send a bug report to the list. The |
52 |
bug report should contain the result of changing directory into the |
53 |
bubblemon src directory and doing the following: |
54 |
|
55 |
$ ./configure |
56 |
$ make |
57 |
$ cd src |
58 |
$ gdb ./bubblemon-gnome1 |
59 |
(gdb) run |
60 |
<SEGFAULT> |
61 |
(gdb) info stack |
62 |
(gdb) info locals |
63 |
|
64 |
Note that the build stage is essential, because it puts debug metadata |
65 |
in the binary. |
66 |
|
67 |
|
68 |
6. The amount of memory used reported by the applet is different from |
69 |
what [other program] says. How come? |
70 |
|
71 |
Free memory measuring on Linux (at least) is somewhat complicated. |
72 |
What my applet shows is what most people would think of as free |
73 |
memory. Therefore, what my applet reports may not correspond to what |
74 |
other programs say, but the numbers you get from my applet is what you |
75 |
really want. |
76 |
|
77 |
A more precise explanation follows. If it's wrong in some way, or if |
78 |
you know somewhere else where this is documented in some |
79 |
comprehensible way, I'd appreciate it if you send a mail to the |
80 |
mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org). |
81 |
|
82 |
Anyway, if we forget about swap for a while, here are the different |
83 |
kinds of memory, and whether I treat them as "air" or "water": |
84 |
|
85 |
* Free memory. Just what you'd expect. This adds to the "air". |
86 |
* Used memory. Just what you'd expect. This adds to the "water". |
87 |
* Shared memory. Memory shared between two or more processes. This |
88 |
adds to the "water". |
89 |
* Buffers and cache. Free memory that Linux uses for disk cache. |
90 |
When someone allocates more memory, buffers and cache are nuked, so |
91 |
this adds to the "air". |
92 |
|
93 |
If we add swap space into the picture, what I show as the water level |
94 |
is how much memory is "air" (as defined above) relative to the total |
95 |
amount of electronic memory. What I show as color changes is how much |
96 |
"air" memory above the amount of electronic memory is being used. |
97 |
Thus, when Linux starts swapping stuff out even though there's |
98 |
electronic memory left, people watching my meter won't be confused by |
99 |
this (I know I was before I changed it :-). |
100 |
|
101 |
If you want to know more than this, have a look at the |
102 |
get_censored_memory_and_swap() function in bubblemon.c. |
103 |
|
104 |
|
105 |
7. Performance sucks. What should I do? |
106 |
|
107 |
To give you some frame of reference of what kind of performance to |
108 |
expect; on my 400MHz PII system I have never seen the bubblemon go |
109 |
over 1.5% CPU utilization (according to 'top'). |
110 |
|
111 |
See the file PROFILING for instructions on finding out where your |
112 |
cycles go. |
113 |
|
114 |
|
115 |
8. The configure script reports no problems, but I still get errors |
116 |
(or warnings) when doing 'make'. What's up? |
117 |
|
118 |
The build process is broken. It shouldn't be. Send a mail to the |
119 |
mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org) with the output from both |
120 |
'configure' and 'make', and also tell me what kind of Unix you are |
121 |
using and I'll try to fix it. To capture the output from those |
122 |
commands, do: |
123 |
|
124 |
./configure &> log-configure |
125 |
make &> log-make |
126 |
|
127 |
Then send a copy of both log files to (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org). |
128 |
|
129 |
|
130 |
9. How do I translate everything into my favourite language? |
131 |
|
132 |
Instructions for doing this is in the TRANSLATIONS file. |
133 |
|
134 |
|
135 |
10. I'm running Mandrake Linux and the configure script fails. What's |
136 |
up? |
137 |
|
138 |
You haven't installed the `devel' RPMs from the second Mandrake CD. |
139 |
Install them and then run configure again. |
140 |
|
141 |
|
142 |
11. I'm running SuSE Linux and the configure script fails. What's up? |
143 |
|
144 |
You haven't installed the GNOME development RPMs. Make sure you have |
145 |
installed all RPMs that have names ending in 'd' (for 'development') |
146 |
from the GNOME category. Then try running configure again. |
147 |
|
148 |
|
149 |
12. I have another question/problem or there's an error in this FAQ. |
150 |
What should I do? |
151 |
|
152 |
Send a mail to the mailing list (bubblemon-list@nongnu.org) and ask |
153 |
ahead. |