kmodemlights

• the connection-state on the button (offline - awaiting connection - online)
• two LEDs showing activity for Rx and Tx, much like a modems lights (hence the name). The update-frequency is configurable from 2 to 5 (default is 5).
• a graph displaying Rx-volume and Tx-volume (updated every 2 seconds).
• The bytes received per second (updated every second), as numerical value.
• The time since the modem is online.

• kmodemlights still has problems operating in a vertical panel!

Screenshots:

The applet itself: shown in the four kicker standard-sizes	The settings dialog:

FAQ

Why?

After trying to switch from GNOME (2.4) back to KDE (3.2.0), I had to notice there are some things missing I learned to love while using GNOME. One of this was modemlights, so I decided to port it to KDE.

And kppp?

I know there is kppp but that's not what I wanted because of the way it works. kppp assumes that the user has access to the modem and (miss-) configures his dialup-connection itself.

I feel that the dialup-connection should be configured by root and the user should simply use it. Most distributions offer tool for this, on Debian-system p.e. there is pppconfig to configure dialup-connections and pon/poff to go online and offline. A connection configured this way can be used with KDE, GNOME, twm and even in a terminal-session

frank has pointet out that, kmodemlights can be used with kppp too. To connect the command is kppp -c <provider> and to disconnect it is kppp -k -q. So kmodemlights can be used with the KDE-standard ppp-tool.

I don't know what to put for device and lockfile!

If you do not know what to set for device and lockfile, you can try this:
Make sure you are offline and do:

ls /var/lock
/sbin/ifconfig | grep "^[^ ]"

then go online and do:

ls /var/lock
/sbin/ifconfig | grep "^[^ ]"

There should be one file more at the second ls: this is the lockfile.
There should be one line more at the output of the second ifconfig starting with ppp: this is the device.
Enter them in the preferences Device-tab.

Thanks to

• »frank« for how to use kmodemlights with kppp.
• »Roland Wenzel« for testing (esp. in vertical panel) and suggestions.

Changelog

Download:

• kmodemlights-0.8.1.tar.gz (~470k)

Older Versions

• kmodemlights-0.7.tar.gz (~465k)
• kmodemlights-0.6.tar.gz (~460k)
• kmodemlights-0.5.tar.gz (~450k)
• kmodemlights-0.4.tar.gz (~450k)
• kmodemlights-0.3.tar.gz (~450k)
• kmodemlights-0.2.tar.gz (~450k)
• kmodemlights-0.1.tar.gz (~450k)