Yet Another Network Speed Ubuntu Appindicator

  • October 29, 2016
  • Posted by: Sadman Sakib
  • Category: Linux Guide
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A screenshot of the ubuntu file manager.

Indicator Netspeed Unity is an Ubuntu AppIndicator which displays the current network upload / download speed on the panel. Despite its name, it should work with any panel that supports AppIndicators.
Indicator Netspeed Unity is a heavily modified Indicator Netspeed, which adds the following extra features:

  • four panel display modes: download, upload or total (either merged or separated) network speed;
  • configurable bit rate prefix;
  • shows total downloaded and uploaded data for the current session in the indicator menu (“All” item);
  • enable/disable padding – when enabled, it preserves the indentation of indicator text (I recommend disabling this or else you’ll end up with a gap between the icons and text);
  • supports using custom icons (available via Dconf);
  • added a settings menu which allows changing the upload/download prefix, change the theme to dark/light or current (system) theme and run nethogs for a more detailed analysis.

Just like the original Netspeed indicator, the fork allows choosing the network interface for which it displays the data and it’s position on the panel can be changed via Dconf (by default, the indicator is placed as the first on the left so if its width changes, it doesn’t affect other indicators).
netspeed-indicator-unity-downloadonly

Not all the settings are available in the indicator menu – to be able to change the display mode (state), position on the panel (ordering-index), use custom icons or enable/disable displaying the settings menu, install Dconf Editor:

Linux Terminal: $

sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

Then navigate to apps > indicators > netspeed-unity and change the settings to suit your needs. Note that changing some of the settings that are only available via Dconf Editor requires restarting the indicator to apply them.

Install Indicator Netspeed Unity in Ubuntu

To add the official Indicator Netspeed Unity and install the app in Ubuntu and derivatives (which support AppIndicators), use the following commands:

Linux Terminal: $

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:fixnix/netspeed
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-netspeed-unity

If you don’t want to add the PPA, you can download the deb from HERE.
Once installed, run the indicator from the Dash/menu (there’s no need to add it to startup because it’s added automatically).

To report bugs or download the source code, see the Indicator Netspeed Unity GitHub page.



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