Lm-Sensors:

lm-sensors (Linux-monitoring sensors) is a free open-source powerful and versatile software tool, used for monitoring the temperature, voltage, humidity, chassis intrusions, and fan speeds of various hardware components in Linux systems. It interacts with sensor chips built into motherboards and provides real-time data about system health, which can be crucial for diagnosing hardware issues and ensuring optimal performance.

lm-sensors was originally created by Rudolf Marek and has been maintained and developed by various contributors over time. The project is now managed by the lm-sensors development team, which includes volunteers and contributors from the open-source community. The tool is part of the Hardware Monitoring (hwmon) subsystem in the Linux kernel, and its development has involved contributions from numerous individuals who have worked on sensor chip support, kernel modules, and user-space utilities.

This has since been dealt with, and the separate README file dedicated to ThinkPads was removed in 2007. In 2013, the sensors-detect command of lm-sensors began disrupting the gamma correction 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.

Key Features:

• Hardware Monitoring - lm-sensors provides real-time monitoring of hardware sensors, including temperature, voltage, and fan speeds.
• Compatibility - Supports a wide range of hardware, making it versatile for different systems.
• Alerting - Allows users to set thresholds for sensors and receive alerts when these are breached.
• Logging - Capable of logging sensor data for long-term monitoring and analysis.
• Integration - Can be integrated with other monitoring tools like Grafana and Prometheus for enhanced visualization and analysis.

Best Practice:

• Regularly Update lm-sensors - Keep lm-sensors and its database updated to ensure compatibility with new hardware, unless compiled from source
• Initial Configuration - Run the initial configuration script to detect all available sensors. ■ Command: sudo sensors-detect
• Check Sensor Readings - Regularly check sensor readings to monitor hardware health. ■ Command: sensors
• Set Alerts - Configure alert thresholds for critical sensors to receive notifications of potential issues.
• Automate Monitoring - Integrate lm-sensors with other monitoring tools to automate the tracking of hardware metrics.
• Document Configuration - Keep a record of sensor configurations and any customizations for easy replication and troubleshooting.

During 2001/2004, the lm_sensors package was not recommended for use on IBM ThinkPads due to potential (EEPROM) corruption issues on some models when aggressively probing for (I2C) devices.