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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 10:28 Post subject:
BIT METER OS 0.7.6 (stable) & 0.8.0 (experimental) Subject description: A rather useful app for measuring your broadband & network data usage |
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"BIT METER OS" 0.7.6 (stable)
Hello, everyone.
We ALL spend a lot of time in the browser nowadays, don't we? If you're anything like me, you can quickly find yourself gobbling up several GB's of data without really trying. Not everybody is lucky enough to have an unlimited data-plan. Those of us in Puppy-Land probably less than most, since many of us are operating older, low-end equipment anyway.....and some may be operating on a tight budget, or have a set 'cap' on our data-plans. Especially those of us using mobile broadband dongles, given that the ISPs tend to charge outrageous amounts for data purchased in this manner.
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At home, we have a data limit of 20 Gb/month on our service with British Telecom, here in the UK. Sounds quite generous, doesn't it? Believe me, you've only got to download a few .isos, watch a few videos, or stream live radio or TV for a few hours per day, and that SOON disappears; like magic!
Accordingly, about a year ago, I started hunting around for an app that would monitor my broadband usage in 'real-time'. That would show a graphical representation of data used, IN 'real-time'. That would summarise usage not only daily, but weekly, or monthly, or even yearly. That would allow the user to set an alarm, to warn you when you're approaching your monthly limit. And other network-related stuff.
After 2 or 3 days of Googling, I found it. On the 'CodeBox' website, belonging to an absolute genius of a guy by the name of Rob Dawson. It's not widely publicised; I don't know why, because Rob has written most of the cross-platform utilities on his site with a view to making them as small & tidy as possible. Which makes them attractive to those of us using Puppy, where RAM usage is, for many, a real issue.
I, personally, am running this on a 10-yr old Compaq desktop; Athlon 64 X2 dual-core CPU, 3 GB RAM, close to a terabyte of total storage....but this is definitely not a 'RAM hog'. It uses approx 800k-1 MB, tops.so.....it shouldn't pose any problems for those of you on lower-spec hardware.
Having said all THAT, I just wanted to share this with the community, in case anybody's interested.
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"BitMeterOS"
You can find it here, on this page:-
http://codebox.org.uk/pages/bitmeteros/downloads
Many of us will want the Linux 32-bit version. There IS a 64-bit version, for those that require it.
As it currently stands, the version you will probably want is the 'stable' one (currently 0.7.6). The experimental version (0.8.0) is a wee bit 'buggy', apparently; haven't yet tried it myself.....feel free to do so if you're adventurous. Let us know how it works, please.
The file is in the form of a .deb file. I use this in Tahrpup, Slacko 570, and ETP's obPrecise 14.07.26 'ChromeBook' Pup. It installs without a murmur.
MikeB tells me that it installed in Lucid, with just a little bit of tinkering. Moat & bigpup also seem quite pleased with it. Now, it's no use asking me to provide .pets, .sfs's and the like, 'cos I'm NOT a programmer, or coder. I'm simply passing on the information, you understand. However, I believe it's not TOO hard to create .pets.....
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BitMeterOS also measures data used by your LAN. The only snag I can see with this, is that it doesn't differentiate between broadband, and non-broadband usage. (??)
However, it's a useful enough app to be able to 'work round' small niggles like that.
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PROGRESS REPORTS
OscarTalks has produced a .pet of the experimental version, 0.8.0:-
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks
See post#16, top of page 2, for more info.
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Geoffrey has modified a 'workaround' originally produced by mavrothal, which ensures BitMeter 0.8.0 re-starts the database logging function at each boot.
See post#26, page 2, for more details, and a download of the 'xbitmeter.tar.gz':-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99025&start=26
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Geoffrey has now also produced a .pet of the experimental version, 0.8.0, for general use on most 32-bit Pups; it includes the xbitmeter auto-start routine.
See post #39, page 3, for more details, and the download link:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99025&start=39
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Geoffrey has now produced a 64-bit .pet of BitMeter-OS 0.8.0. Xbitmeter auto-start routine included.
See post #52, page 4, for further details, and the download link:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99025&start=51
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A method has now been worked out for linking multiple Puppies to a common BitMeterOS database, thereby enabling you to add together bandwidth usage from different OSs for an overall monthly total. This equates to a Puppy version of Rob Dawson's 'bmsync' utility.....so this method performs the same task, but in a different way.....and without the need to query from one OS to another.
This is the very thing I'd been trying to achieve with BitMeter from day one of using it...
This started with davids45's query, @ post # 89:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99025&start=89
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Further to the above comment, Geoffrey has now produced a pair of .pets which will assist you to set up the location of your common database for use with multiple Pups on the same hard drive (or the same machine, if you have more than one hard drive; it'll work via Puppy's sym-link capability).
For the BitMeter 0.7.6 version (32-bit), see post #141, page 10:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99025&start=141
For the BitMeter 0.8.0 version (32-bit), see post #132, page 9:-
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=99025&start=132
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An alternate mirror for these can be found here.
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When it's installed (by whatever means takes your fancy), open your web browser of choice. Once you're 'up & running', enter THIS into the address bar:-
http://localhost:2605/index.html
Within a matter of seconds, the BitMeterOS web interface should appear. Once it has, BOOKMARK it.....so you can find it easily. Goes without saying, really.
Then.....explore. You can do all sorts of 'stuff' with this app; see a graphical representation of your usage, see your history, for as far back as you like (obviously, as far back as the point when it was installed). You can get a summary in daily, monthly and yearly output. You can set 'reminders', to inform you when you're getting close to your limit. You can even play around with the appearance of the app itself.
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For those of you with the desire to experiment, Rob Dawson does have, somewhere on his 'CodeBox' site, a utility called 'bmsync'. This utility should enable you to collect and add together the data summaries of multiple OS's by querying across the LAN. Personally, I've never been able to get this to work, but it's probably something silly that just needs a bit of attention. Those of you who are 'at home' with the terminal will in all likelihood have this up-and-running in no time.
If anybody SHOULD manage it, please let me know how you achieved it. I'd LOVE to know.
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Hope this proves to be of some use to some of you!
Regards,
Mike Walsh.
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Pups so far known to work with BitMeterOS (both versions)
32-bit:-
'TahrPup' 6.02
'Slacko' 5.7.0
OBPrecise 14.07.26 'ChromeBook' Pup (v.1 & v.2)
'Carolina'
'Vanguard'
'Lucid'
412
D-Pup 'Wheezy'
'Racy' 5.2.9
'Wary' 5.5
X-Slacko 2.1
'Puppex' 6.0 (have I spelt that correctly?)
'Slacko' 5.9.3
'LXPupTahr' 15.03.2
'Precise' 5.7.1
X-Slacko 2.3.2
64-bit:-
'Slacko64' 5.9.1
'Wary64' 6.99
'LXpup64'
'Tahr64 6.05'
'Lighthouse64' ('Mariner' Edition)
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(14/05/15) I feel I should echo here what has been discovered during testing and development so far; some people have found that the original .deb file (from the 'CodeBox' website) seems to work for them, where the .pet file doesn't. If you've tried one of the .pets produced so far, and nothing happens (or doesn't work as expected)...go to the original download link, download the .deb file directly, and try with that. It will help to go into /var/lib and delete the 'bitmeter' directory before you install afresh.
(16/05/15) Might be worth mentioning that I don't know whether or not Geoffrey's 64-bit .pet will work with the FatDog64 series. As far as I can tell, jamesbond and kirk have constructed the filesystem on these somewhat differently.....so you may need to post on the FatDog threads/forums to get a definitive answer to this.
_________________ MY 'PUPPY' PACKAGES

Last edited by Mike Walsh on Fri 09 Dec 2016, 18:24; edited 63 times in total
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mikeb

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 11281
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 10:38 Post subject:
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Very efficient posting young Mike.
Just to add got it working as we speak in puppy 4.12 and firefox 3.6.
There is a command line client too for those wanting to make say a gtkdialo interface.
This is just great and desrves a (scaled) sceen shot
I could knock up an sfs for testing and post it here....
mike
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 10:46 Post subject:
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Hallo, Mike!
mikeb wrote: | Very efficient posting young Mike. |
I try..!
THAT was quick. I haven't even finished editing this yet...!
Mike to Mike.
The attachment shows the 'Summary' tab.
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_________________ MY 'PUPPY' PACKAGES

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mikeb

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 11281
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 10:58 Post subject:
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See you have to give the eyecandy round here to get attention.
Ok sfs4
https://www.dropbox.com/s/3rjuwskl708k1p2/BitmeterOS_sfs4.sfs?dl=1
sfs3
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hra4qe1f1lkzs3k/BitmeterOS_uni.sfs?dl=1
for testing purposes with generic start scripts and defaultbrowser used.
mike
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 11:29 Post subject:
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That's OK, Mike.
All contributions gratefully received! I don't mind anybody helping to make this more usable, for as many people as want to use it. I'm not a programmer, or 'coder'; I'm pretty new to Linux, as you know. But the whole idea of this thread is to make this as 'usable' as possible, for as many Puppy variants as we can.
Cheers for that! A good start...
Mike to Mike.
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mikeb

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 11281
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 13:03 Post subject:
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I got myself in a weird permissions tangle... cannot get the web interface working on lucid even though it did before... its causing a sore head...
time to eat I think
Well nice one for making the thread
mike
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Geoffrey

Joined: 30 May 2010 Posts: 2377 Location: Queensland
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 16:18 Post subject:
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mikeb wrote: | I got myself in a weird permissions tangle... cannot get the web interface working on lucid even though it did before... its causing a sore head...
time to eat I think
Well nice one for making the thread
mike |
It didn't work for me at all until I edited the /var/lib/bitmeter/runweb.sh, had to change
Code: | WEB_URL=http://localhost:2605 |
To
Code: | WEB_URL=localhost:2605/index.html |
_________________ Carolina: Recent Repository Additions

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mikeb

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 11281
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 16:43 Post subject:
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well i did the url boogie... the log file was not being written... the original deb has everything owned by 1000:1000 ... I had it all running just by after using deb2sfs manually creating the missing log folder i assume as root.... but somewhere along the line its all now a bit of a mess...similar effect to that which causes the cups interface to not show...web servers are particular beasties. One folder with the wrong owner is probably the problem...the command line stuff works 100%.
A fresh head and a clean out of the save folder will probably bring it all back to happiness.
mike
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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2038 Location: London, England
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Posted: Wed 06 May 2015, 19:00 Post subject:
Re: BIT METER OS 0.7.6 (stable) Subject description: A rather useful app for measuring your broadband data usage |
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Mike Walsh wrote: | The only snag I can see with it, is that it doesn't differentiate between broadband, and non-broadband usage. |
This is the experimental version 0.8.0 which does differentiate between internet and LAN traffic and it looks OK to me at a glance. Took a bit of manipulation but I got it all working, made a nice icon for ROX pinboard and menu entry. In Slacko 5.7 you may find that you need to create a libpcap.so.0.8 symlink to the real library libpcap.so.1.3.0
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_________________ Oscar in England

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mikeb

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 Posts: 11281
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Posted: Thu 07 May 2015, 03:49 Post subject:
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Quote: | The only snag I can see with it, is that it doesn't differentiate between broadband, and non-broadband usage. |
I recall the bmclient had options to select what interface to get info from.... ie separate wifi from 3g .... perhaps its just the web interface lacking support for this.
mike
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Thu 07 May 2015, 06:39 Post subject:
Re: BIT METER OS 0.7.6 (stable) Subject description: A rather useful app for measuring your broadband data usage |
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OscarTalks wrote: | Mike Walsh wrote: | The only snag I can see with it, is that it doesn't differentiate between broadband, and non-broadband usage. |
This is the experimental version 0.8.0 which does differentiate between internet and LAN traffic and it looks OK to me at a glance. Took a bit of manipulation but I got it all working, made a nice icon for ROX pinboard and menu entry. In Slacko 5.7 you may find that you need to create a libpcap.so.0.8 symlink to the real library libpcap.so.1.3.0 |
Thanks for that, Oscar. I tend to stick with the 'stable' versions, normally; when I first began with BM-OS, 0.7.6 was the experimental version. I switched to it about 4 months ago, when the current 'experimental', 0.8.0, first came out.
Might give this one a look. Cheers.
Regards,
Mike.
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Last edited by Mike Walsh on Tue 12 May 2015, 18:52; edited 1 time in total
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Thu 07 May 2015, 06:40 Post subject:
Re: BIT METER OS 0.7.6 (stable) Subject description: A rather useful app for measuring your broadband data usage |
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Deleted:- *Duplicate*
_________________ MY 'PUPPY' PACKAGES

Last edited by Mike Walsh on Thu 07 May 2015, 17:21; edited 1 time in total
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Thu 07 May 2015, 06:46 Post subject:
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mikeb wrote: | well i did the url boogie... the log file was not being written... the original deb has everything owned by 1000:1000 ... I had it all running just by after using deb2sfs manually creating the missing log folder i assume as root.... but somewhere along the line its all now a bit of a mess...similar effect to that which causes the cups interface to not show...web servers are particular beasties. One folder with the wrong owner is probably the problem...the command line stuff works 100%.
A fresh head and a clean out of the save folder will probably bring it all back to happiness.
mike |
MIKE!!!
What have you gone and done? From the sound of things, it was all working quite happily yesterday...
I must admit, despite trying some of the older Puppies (and running into some of the same problems that many others have!), I tend to stick with 'Tahrpup' for my everyday, 'working' OS. On my setup, at least, it just simply works.....and seems to be extremely stable.
Haven't had any problems yet that weren't easily sorted...
Mike to Mike.
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Thu 07 May 2015, 07:50 Post subject:
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Just installed BitMeterOS 0.8.0 (the experimental version), from the .deb file.
Installed without a murmur, just as the previous one did.....after a re-boot, following removal of the older version (just to be on the safe side).
So far, looking very good. As Oscar says, this version differentiates between internet downloads, and all downloads (which will include any LAN usage). Handy for me, as I do quite a bit of back-and-forth file transfer work with Samba-TNG; prior to this, I simply couldn't tell how much of the total was which...
I think I shall be keeping this one; although 0.7.6 is still in my 'Utilities' directory.....just in case!
Regards,
Mike.
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Last edited by Mike Walsh on Tue 12 May 2015, 18:54; edited 2 times in total
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Mike Walsh

Joined: 28 Jun 2014 Posts: 5619 Location: King's Lynn, UK.
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Posted: Thu 07 May 2015, 08:18 Post subject:
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Geoffrey wrote: |
It didn't work for me at all until I edited the /var/lib/bitmeter/runweb.sh, had to change
Code: | WEB_URL=http://localhost:2605 |
To
Code: | WEB_URL=localhost:2605/index.html |
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Hello, Geoffrey.
I believe that's the same edit bigpup had to employ (posted in the same thread that led to my creation of this one).
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=98971&start=23
If it works for you...that's great. It's a very neat, and useful little app. I've sent Rob Dawson a donation for this, as I think it's one of the most 'relevant' utilities I've come across for a long time.
BTW: Thanks for the s̶t̶r̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶r̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ text tool; most useful! I've been trying to figure out how to make that 'persist' for ages .....
Regards,
Mike.
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Last edited by Mike Walsh on Tue 12 May 2015, 18:55; edited 3 times in total
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