Errors and logs in the monitor
When something stops working, the first place to look is the System Monitor. Besides consumption and services, it is where the logs are, errors included.
Opening the monitor#
It is in the menu as System Monitor (the package is vasak-monitor) and it has five
screens: Resources, Applications, Services, Cleanup and Logs.
Logs: where the errors are#
The Logs screen shows, newest first, the messages that applications and services write to the system journal: the local time, who wrote it and the message.
Choosing what to look at#
The Application selector narrows the list in three ways:
- The whole ecosystem: only VasakOS applications and services. This is what you look at when something in the system misbehaves.
- A single application, for example
vasak-keyring. The catalogue carries the whole ecosystem even if an application has not written anything yet, so it never looks like the monitor does not know about it. - The whole system: the complete journal, with everything that is not VasakOS. It is the last resort, because it is a lot of lines.
Seeing only the errors#
The Errors only box keeps the entries at error level or worse: emergency, alert, critical and error. It is the first filter to turn on when looking for what broke; with it off, the list also shows warnings.
Programs that write their own level —Wayfire, for instance, which marks every line with
EE, WW or II— are respected: an EE line counts as an error even if the journal
stores it as informational.
Searching#
The search field narrows by text across the message and the origin. It helps to jump straight to a service or to a particular word.
Where the messages come from#
The messages come from the systemd journal of the current boot, both the system’s and
the desktop session’s. A service shows up under the name of its unit
(vasak-keyring.service); an application opened from the menu writes to the session
journal. If you pick an application and the list stays empty, it may simply not have
written anything since the machine booted.
Services#
The Services screen lists the system services and lets you start, stop and restart each one. A box limits the list to the VasakOS ones, and the failed ones are marked. It is the place to restart a service that stopped responding without opening a terminal.
Applications#
The Applications screen groups the processes of a single program —a browser is ten of them— and sorts them by consumption, with the ones that have a window first. Close asks the program to quit and gives it time to save; it does not kill it.
Resources and Cleanup#
Resources shows processor, memory, swap, network and disks, with the last few minutes. Cleanup measures what can be reclaimed —caches, trash, packages, the old journal— and frees it when you ask.
The monitor does not measure more than it needs to: only Resources and Applications refresh on their own; Services, Cleanup and Logs are queried when you open them. And with the window covered it measures nothing: it would be first in its own list.
Before reporting#
When something fails and you are going to report it , the Logs screen is the source: pick The whole ecosystem, turn on Errors only and copy the messages from the moment it happened.