Alice in Userland

Conky + Hddtemp

Plugs: Ubuntu Forums post

Make sure both conky and hddtemp are installed.

First, find out what the model number of your hard drive is. Run the command hdparm -i /dev/hda in the terminal, replacing hda accordingly with the correct device path. The model number should be easily spottable in the output.

Open up the textfile hddtemp.db which is located for me at /etc/hddtemp/hddtemp.db. Look for the section with your hard drive manufacturer, and find the model that is most similar to the one you own. Add a line underneath it, using the above line as a reference, and replacing your own model information. For example, this is what I added:

“HTS726060M9AT00″        194  C    ”Hitachi Travelstar 60GB”
“HTS421212H9AT00″        194  C  “Hitachi Travelstar 4K120 120GB (4200RPM)”

I’m pretty sure last bit in quotes isn’t really important, it’s just a user-readable label for the rest of the entry, so just put whatever model information you know in there, and don’t worry about it. Remember to save the file.

Edit or create a new textfile at /etc/default/hddtemp, and fill it with this text and save it:

# Defaults for hddtemp initscript (/etc/init.d/hddtemp)
# This is a POSIX shell fragment

# Master system-wide hddtemp switch. The initscript will not run if it is not
# set to true. STOP THE SERVICE BEFORE DISABLING IT!

# [automatically edited by postinst, do not change line format or set it to
# anything but false or true ]
RUN_DAEMON="true"

# List of devices you want to use with hddtemp. If none specified,
# hddtemp will probe standard devices.
DISKS="/dev/hda"  # your hard drive here hda or hdb etc.

# List of devices you want to use with hddtemp, but that would not be
# probed for a working sensor.
DISKS_NOPROBE=""

# IP address of the interface on which you want hddtemp to be bound
# on. If none specified, goes to 127.0.0.1. Use 0.0.0.0 to bind hddtemp
# on all interfaces.
INTERFACE="127.0.0.1"

# Port number on which you want hddtemp to listen on. If none specified,
# the port 7634 is used.
PORT="7634"

# Database file to use. If none specified, /etc/hddtemp.db is used.
#DATABASE="/etc/hddtemp.db"

# Separator to use between fields. The default separator is '|'.
#SEPARATOR="|"

# Logging period (in seconds) for the temperatures.
SYSLOG="300"  # 300 = every 5 minutes; default is 0, thus no logging occurs.

# Other options to pass to hddtemp
OPTIONS=""

Run the command hddtemp /dev/hda -d as root, once again replacing hda accordingly. This will start the program hddtemp in daemon mode.

Run the command nc localhost 7634, and count each character until you know the numbers of the temperature in the line. For example, I get “|/dev/hda|HTS421212H9AT00|43|C|b” as my output, and the temperature, which is 43, lies in the character numbers 27 and 28 from the beginning of the line.

Open up your ~/.conkyrc textfile. After the line that says TEXT, add a line whereever you would like to place it that says HD Temp: ${execi 300 nc localhost 7634 | cut -b27-28 ;}C, replacing 27-28 with the numbers you counted earlier. This will cut up the output so instead of seeing the whole mess in conky, you will only see the temperature numbers.

Tada! Next time you open conky, you will see a line with your hard drive temperature being monitored. The hddtemp daemon will need to be running in order for this to work, so you might want to have the command hddtemp /dev/hda -d run at bootup with your computer. The method by which to do this varies with the distribution, so you’ll need to figure out how to do it yourself.