Is there an applet that shows hard disk activity by simulating a led ?

What a coincidence! I am looking for exactly the same kind of applet. If I find anything promising, I'll post the details here.

Thread here <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=547495> mentions the gkhdplop plugin <http://members.dslextreme.com/users/billw/gkrellm/Plugins.html> for gkrellm, which is here <http://hules.free.fr/wmhdplop/>.

There's a System Monitor applet for GNOME Panel. It sits on a panel and shows disk usage graph (and other system wide statistics such as memory usage, CPU load, network bandwidth usage, etc.). It is configurable to show what statistics you want in what color, etc.

I don't remember which package to install, so try to find it yourself. When you get an appropriate one installed, you should reboot GNOME or XServer (or the whole system, if it's easier to you). After that to add this applet to GNOME panel you should hit right mouse button on a panel, then hit '+Add to panel...' in a drop-down menu and select 'System Monitor' in a list. Then follow common sense. :)

Hope, this helps.

you do not need any package installed

just right click on an empty space on the top or bottom panel --> select Add to panel and choose System Monitor applet from the list then just customize/enable the activities that you'd like displayed.

peter b

@Bulat, peter: as I mentioned I know about the System Monitor, perhaps you missed that part of my question ? :) System Monitor won't show real time activity, just a graph of measured activity at set intervals. No, not even setting its refresh rate at 50 ms. :)

gkhdplop seems to be it indeed:
http://hules.free.fr/wmhdplop/wmhdplop_TheMovie.gif

Sabrewolfy, I tried gkrell but it sits on my desktop and its LED activity simulation is just too small.

I am still hoping to find something that would sit on the panel, so leaving this question open.

ok, did you try

conky

package ?

peter b

mind you, this does not sit on the panel it will be on the desktop and can be configured any way you'd like; it'll give lots of info in real time; give it try.

peter b