I've been running gkrellm for a while now and think it's great, but I have a question that does not seem to be addressed in the man pages; specifically, what is the correct way to interpret the indicator colors? For example, most of the measurements are displayed in either blue or orange, and I've been under the assumption that, for instance, on the eth0 gauge that blue represents incoming data and orange is outgoing, or that for the disk monitor blue means reading and orange means writing.

That's all fine and good but today I saw something that I haven't seen before, which was that CPU gauge showed things in both blue and bright green. The gkrellm home page makes reference to the "CPU nice time" being in green, and although I know that nice will modify the priority of a process, I'm not sure how to interpret it in gkrellm. Is there a definitive reference guide that describes these? -- J.W.

Has anyone got an answer for this? (thread came up in a google search)

In illustration, the docs that I have been able to locate state that the "in" color (cyan) represents CPU user time, while the "out" color (orange) represents CPU system time. Which is easy and intuitive. But, haven't found much beyond speculation identifying what the green background color means?

Example, while rendering an MP4 file this is the first time I've seen my system pegged out at 100 %, and the green background shows up for the first time that I've ever seen it.

https://i.imgur.com/J6kn9ZP.png

Considering that you are posting about a thread that started 17 years ago, I suggest you do more research. The colors are documented.

I found some additional reference here.

Just being 100% honest with you....first thanks for your taking the time to respond, and I mean that sincerely'

However, I did not just "develop a curiosity" and decide to come here looking to waste anyone's time, I spent a good hour+ searching for a published solution. Which btw included the exact page you link to, among my other "finds".

In reviewing that source, I found:

Lines 40-42
Lines 210-212

Provide information specific to the CPU monitor displays

If there is any more there on that page that directly addresses the CPU graphing, it eluded me.

Additional sources that I found speculated that the green background denotes "nice" time, but they were NOT authoritative sources, and you know what they say about speculation......

So, after exhausting a number of sources, one of my search finds was this thread...and yes I did notice that it was an old post, but was one with quite a few page views. So,I was hoping that by renewing the thread, it might catch the attention of a more learned source than myself, who might have actual first hand experience using this utility.

First hand experience is something I've found to be of value over the years. In addition to the published man pages. So I thought I'd take a shot.

Lastly, and I'm not trying to be terse, I'm just trying to be abundantly clear....
I'm not trying to get ANYONE to do my research for me. If you do not know the answer to my question, then do not waste another moment of your time...that is not my ambition. I was really hoping that I might find someone with direct user experience who already knew the answer, who might be willing to share.

I doubt that there's a single answer to this question. Numerous themes are available for GKrellM, and the display colors will vary with the theme that's in use.

My favorite theme is "Glass," which is a black framework, black and white graphs, white lettering, and a transparent background.

In the following image, a more typical CPU graph is depicted, with the two colors as described in lines 40-42 of your link, cyan for user time, and orange for the system time. With the default black background.

https://i.imgur.com/pgO7Td1.png


My curiosity as described in context with the graphic I provided earlier, pertains to the third color ...the green background...which I've never seen before.

For the record, I am not using any custom theme....I'm using box stock

Here is another screenshot that I just made expressly to illustrate the 3 colors...You'll note that I've just begun the rendering process (kdenlive) about 1/3 along the time line where the "user" time color (cyan) really picks up, Also if you look closely along the base, you'll see the second default color (orange) displaying "system" time. Both of those colors are the two colors mentioned in lines 40-42 of the earlier linked reference. (Identified in the text as the "in" and "out" colors)

What I'm wondering about is where the default background color of black, turns light green after the rendering process starts pegging out the CPUs

https://i.imgur.com/XhYcBmI.png

A labeled close up

https://i.imgur.com/tNAwMcu.png


What is the green color telling me that a plain black background would not?

I have clearly seen the green part of the graph and can say it really matches with the "nice" factor. I run my PC heavily and see that frequently.

In fact, while running boinc I have a lot of processes that are at the top of the top list, and when I use htop I can see both their priority and the nice value. Several are nice 19 and the majority of the cpu graph is green at ~85% nice load and 5% system load.

Gkrellm gives you 3 CPU graph items to select. Sys time, User time, & Nice time so it is easy to identify on the graph.