Load Average Applet


Table of Contents
The load average applet

The load average applet

The loadavg_applet is a small monitor applet which sits in your panel and tells you the current load average.

The load average of a machine is a rather arbitrary number which represents how "busy" your machine is. It is calculated as an average of (very roughly) how many processes there are which are either running or are waiting for a wake-up call from the kernel. It is very useful for comparing over time with different load averages on your machine, but it is not very useful to compare it with other machines. Normally, it is represented as a fraction.

Right-Click Pop-Up Menu Items

In addition to the standard menu items, the right-click pop-up menu has the following items:

Default Properties...

This opens the multiload_applet dialogue box described below which allows you to alter the default properties of this and related monitor applets.

Properties...

This opens the multiload_applet dialogue box described below which affects only the loadavg_applet properties.

Run gtop...

This option will run the gtop which starts up the GNOME System Monitor. gtop gives a much more detailed look at your system and what's happening on it.

Properties

Like several of the monitor applets, loadavg_applet has two ways of setting preferences. You can make changes that affect any of this group of applets, (cpuload_applet, memload_applet, swapload_applet, netload_applet and loadavg_applet) in one large dialogue box. This is useful if you run one or more of them. These are the settings used by default. They are reached from the Default Properties... menu item.

Or you can change just the properties for loadavg_applet. This is useful for when you only use loadavg_applet or want to try new combinations out. It is reached from the Properties menu item.

Note

If you use the Properties... menu item and edit the preferences for just this applet, you must uncheck the Use default properties checkbox before you can alter any settings.

The changes you can make to the properties are four:

Authors

This applet was writen by Martin Baulig (). Please send all comments, suggestions, and bug reports to the GNOME bug tracking database. (Instructions for submitting bug reports can be found on-line. If you are using GNOME 1.1 or later, you can also use Bug Report Tool (bug-buddy), available in the Utilities submenu of Main Menu, for submitting bug reports.

This manual was written by Telsa Gwynne () and Eric Baudais (). Please send all comments and suggestions regarding this manual to the GNOME Documentation Project by sending an email to . You can also submit comments online by using the GNOME Documentation Status Table.