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FAQ
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To Emacs: This is a -*-text-*- file.
1. How do I start the applet from the command line?
Change to the bubblemon directory and do the following:
$ ./configure
$ make
$ src/bubblemon-gnome1
2. Can you add this feature to the applet?
Perhaps. If you want to improve your odds, here are my suggestions
though:
* Your best bet is to do it yourself and send me a patch. If you run
into problems I'll gladly answer your questions. Also, the TODO file
may very well contain some information to help you get started.
* If you can't do it yourself (or get someone else to do it for you
:-), see if it is in the TODO file. If it is, I will probably
implement it sooner or later anyway.
* If you can't do it yourself and it's not in the TODO file, send a
mail to the mailing list ([email protected]) and I'll add it.
3. I'm running a background process on my system that should be using
all of my CPU, but the Bubblemon shows very few or no bubbles at
all. Why is that?
Because the applet ignores nice (do 'man nice') processes. The
reasoning behind this is that I use the applet for keeping track of
how much processing power I have at my disposal. As 'nice' processes
will yield as soon as another process starts, I have all of my CPU
power at my disposal, even with a 'nice' background job running.
Therefore: 'nice' processes don't bubble.
4. The program doesn't do anything; it doesn't even crash!
Try running it from the command line, and see if you get an error
message. Do the follwing from the bubblemon directory:
$ ./configure
$ make
$ src/bubblemon-gnome1
5. The program crashes. What should I do?
Either fix it yourself and send a patch to the mailing list
([email protected]), or send a bug report to the list. The
bug report should contain the result of changing directory into the
bubblemon src directory and doing the following:
$ ./configure
$ make
$ cd src
$ gdb ./bubblemon-gnome1
(gdb) run
<SEGFAULT>
(gdb) info stack
(gdb) info locals
Note that the build stage is essential, because it puts debug metadata
in the binary.
6. The amount of memory used reported by the applet is different from
what [other program] says. How come?
Free memory measuring on Linux (at least) is somewhat complicated.
What my applet shows is what most people would think of as free
memory. Therefore, what my applet reports may not correspond to what
other programs say, but the numbers you get from my applet is what you
really want.
A more precise explanation follows. If it's wrong in some way, or if
you know somewhere else where this is documented in some
comprehensible way, I'd appreciate it if you send a mail to the
mailing list ([email protected]).
Anyway, if we forget about swap for a while, here are the different
kinds of memory, and whether I treat them as "air" or "water":
* Free memory. Just what you'd expect. This adds to the "air".
* Used memory. Just what you'd expect. This adds to the "water".
* Shared memory. Memory shared between two or more processes. This
adds to the "water".
* Buffers and cache. Free memory that Linux uses for disk cache.
When someone allocates more memory, buffers and cache are nuked, so
this adds to the "air".
If we add swap space into the picture, what I show as the water level
is how much memory is "air" (as defined above) relative to the total
amount of electronic memory. What I show as color changes is how much
"air" memory above the amount of electronic memory is being used.
Thus, when Linux starts swapping stuff out even though there's
electronic memory left, people watching my meter won't be confused by
this (I know I was before I changed it :-).
If you want to know more than this, have a look at the
get_censored_memory_and_swap() function in bubblemon.c.
7. Performance sucks. What should I do?
To give you some frame of reference of what kind of performance to
expect; on my 400MHz PII system I have never seen the bubblemon go
over 1.5% CPU utilization (according to 'top').
See the file PROFILING for instructions on finding out where your
cycles go.
8. The configure script reports no problems, but I still get errors
(or warnings) when doing 'make'. What's up?
The build process is broken. It shouldn't be. Send a mail to the
mailing list ([email protected]) with the output from both
'configure' and 'make', and also tell me what kind of Unix you are
using and I'll try to fix it. To capture the output from those
commands, do:
./configure &> log-configure
make &> log-make
Then send a copy of both log files to ([email protected]).
9. How do I translate everything into my favourite language?
Instructions for doing this is in the TRANSLATIONS file.
10. I'm running Mandrake Linux and the configure script fails. What's
up?
You haven't installed the `devel' RPMs from the second Mandrake CD.
Install them and then run configure again.
11. I'm running SuSE Linux and the configure script fails. What's up?
You haven't installed the GNOME development RPMs. Make sure you have
installed all RPMs that have names ending in 'd' (for 'development')
from the GNOME category. Then try running configure again.
12. I have another question/problem or there's an error in this FAQ.
What should I do?
Send a mail to the mailing list ([email protected]) and ask
ahead.