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I²C, SMBus and hardware monitoring references

This document contains all kinds of useful references to I²C and SMBus documents and implementations, and to hardware sensors documentation and implementations. Please report any other references you have found!

I²C and SMBus implementations

  •  ALi (M1533, M1535, M1535D, M1543C)
    ALi chipsets include SMBus adapters, integrated with many other functions.
    Datasheets available on request.
  •  Intel (PIIX4,  82443MX, i801,  i810,  i810E,  i815)
    Intel SMBus adapter, integrated with many other functions.
    Datasheets available for  download.
  •  Silicon Integrated Systems (SiS5595, SiS630, SiS645, SiS961)
    No datasheet found.
  •  VIA (VT85C586B, VT82C596, VT82C596B, VT82C686A, VT82C686B, VT8231, VT8233, VT8233A)
    VIA I²C adapters, integrated with many other functions (south bridge). Each south bridge may be used in many chipsets. To know which south bridge is used in your VIA chipset, use this  table.
    Datasheets available on  request.

Hardware monitoring chips

Other protocol information

  •  IPMI documentation
    IPMI (intelligent platform management interface), a standard for hardware monitor chip reading.

Installation guides

Motherboard configuration files

Poject is rather incomplete, help is wanted to develop it further (or start a new one altogether)!

As far we know only one motherboard manufacturer provides sensors.conf files:

  • TYAN motherboads sensors.conf files database ( archive link)
  • TYAN motherboads sensors.conf files database ( ftp link)

Personal collections:

Hardware monitoring applications using the lm_sensors package

  •  LM Sensors
    First see the  prog directory in the lm_sensors package for sample applications.
  •  Freshmeat
    A  search for "lm_sensors" brings up a good starter list.
  •  GNOME Sensors Applet
    An applet for the GNOME panel to monitor lm_sensors outputs.
  • ASFATM (Afterstep fan and temperature monitor)
    A wharf/dock app that is capable of displaying system/CPU temperatures and up to three fan rotation speeds depending on the hardware being used. The development has stopped, but you still can download the sources from  Planet Mirror or  LIP6.
  •  ASFTAVM (Afterstep fan, temperature and voltage monitor)
    An enhancement of ASFATM.
  •  CheapI2C
    A real-time linux I2C bus protocol capture tool using the parallel port.
  •  GKrellM
    GKrellM is a single process stack of system monitors which supports applying themes to match its appearance to your window manager, Gtk, or any other theme. Very popular.
  •  KSim
    KSim is a GKrellM equivalent for KDE. Supports GKrellM skins.
  •  GPDial Applet
    A Gnome applet that displays a specific number from a file on the Gnome panel. By configuring it for a specific sensor file in /proc, you get a sensor reading. Requires fam and fam++.
  •  GSensor
    GTK+ application.
  •  LCD4Linux
    Displays kernel information on an external LCD.
  •  phpSysInfo
    Generates a web page with system information, optionally including sensors output. Recommended.
  •  ProcMeter 3
    A comprehensive system monitoring package. Nice desktop application. Recommended.
  •  Sens2web
    A Perl script to generate a web page of sensor readings.
  •  Sensor Sweep Applet
    A configurable Gnome panel applet.
  •  Sensors Server
    Nice client/server application with a html-embedded Java applet.
  •  Sentinelle
    A daemon which warns you when your sensor readings reach critical values.
  •  WMSensors
    A Windowmaker dockapp. By Adrian Baugh, maintained by the Debian team.
  •  WMSens Dockapp
    A Windowmaker dockapp that works only with the Winbond 83697HF chipset. By Jonathan D. Meadows.
  •  WMgtemp
    A Windowmaker dockapp that displays the CPU and system temperatures. By Roger Dunce.
  •  WMtemp
    Another Windowmaker dockapp that displays the CPU and system temperatures. By Peter Gnodde. Inspired from WMgtemp.
  •  xsensors
    A X11 version of sensors. Requires GTK+ 2.0. Nice, although many chips are not supported yet.
  • Floyd Davidson has nice  monitoring data graphics generated using  modified tellerstats scripts.
  •  E-Sensors
    An Enlightenment frontend (epplet) to lm_sensors, by Øystein Haare.
  •  sensormon
    A bash script to monitor linux sensors data, record to a file, trigger actions (email, shutdown, syslog), by Michelle Dupuis.

Other hardware monitoring implementations (not using LM Sensors)

  •  Motherboard Monitor
    A very comprehensive package for Windows, unfortunately discontinued. Supports many many devices. Also has a great database of motherboards. We wish to thank the author, Alex van Kaam, for the great cooperation we had.
  •  Alexander Larsson's LM78 module
    The original module LM Sensors is based upon.
  •  smartmontools
    The smartmontools package contains two utility programs (smartctl and smartd) to control and monitor storage systems using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (SMART) built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks.
  •  hddtemp
    Get the hard drive temperatures using the Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology System (SMART) built into most modern ATA and SCSI hard disks. Much simpler than smartmontools.
  •  TXWD
    Another LM78/LM75 module, by Chris Benndorf.

Other useful tools

  •  CPUBurn
    CPU-heating program to stress-test marginally-cooled systems and test LM Sensors. Highly recommended.
  •  RRDTool (Round Robin Database)
    A database for readings taken over time, such as sensor data. The LM Sensors package contains scripts to create and update an RRD database and graphically display the data on webpages.

White papers, documents, articles and other things