aldermon

btop-style TUI monitor for Alder Lake (i5-12600KF), built around real vCore voltage for overclock-safety work.

Usage

aldermon --tui          # TUI (default workhorse)
aldermon --vid          # VID spike tool (debug, needs root + msr module)
aldermon --log          # append CSV samples to ./aldermon-vid.log
aldermon                # one-shot sensor dump
aldermon --help         # options

The TUI always shows the delivered vCore (SIO in0), the CPU's requested SVID setpoint (IA32_PERF_STATUS), and the delta (delivered − requested; negative = VRM droop, positive = LLC overshoot). The VID read needs root + /dev/cpu/*/msr; without it the panel shows VID n/a (needs root).

--log appends one CSV row per poll to ./aldermon-vid.log (header + per-CPU VID / frequency / raw MSR columns). With --tui it logs live; with --vid it logs continuously until interrupted.

Short flags group: -lvt == --log --vid --tui.

The TUI needs a real terminal; piped/redirected stdout exits with a clear error instead of a panic.

Features: vCore hero panel (limit marker, 5-min peak, auto-scale), package power/temp, per-core frequency bars + temps, E/P-core sections, braille sub-pixel scrolling graphs, footer max frequency.

Config

aldermon.conf is read from the working directory, then ~/.config/aldermon/aldermon.conf, then /etc/aldermon/aldermon.conf (first file found wins; no merging). Simple KEY = VALUE lines; # comments; unknown keys are ignored. All values optional — built-in defaults target an ASRock Z690M ITX/ax (nct6798). Numeric keys are range-checked; an out-of-range value falls back to the default.

vcore_limit   = 1.403   # safety limit shown as marker on the vCore bar
temp_warn     = 80.0
temp_crit     = 95.0

# Per-graph y scales (also editable in the settings pane, F2)
vcore_min     = 0.0
vcore_bar_max = 1.50
clock_min     = 0          # kHz
clock_bar_max = 4500000
power_min     = 0.0
power_bar_max = 200.0
temp_min      = 0
temp_max      = 100

poll_ms         = 250      # sample/tick period (50..10000)
graph_secs      = 300      # history kept, sizes peaks + auto-scale
graph_scale_fixed = false  # true = pin to the scales above
graphs          = true
layout          = auto     # auto | single | dual

Install

make            # release build
make check      # fmt + clippy + tests
doas make install   # PREFIX=/usr/local by default

Installs aldermon to $(PREFIX)/bin, this repo's aldermon.conf to /etc/aldermon/aldermon.conf (system default — override per-user via ~/.config/aldermon/), and the udev helper to /usr/share/aldermon/. make uninstall reverses it (leaves the system conf dir if non-empty).

Package power (RAPL) — one-time setup

energy_uj is root-only on this kernel. To read watts as a normal user, install the udev rule once as root (comes from make install):

doas /usr/share/aldermon/powercap-pl-rules.sh
doas usermod -aG adm $USER   # then re-login

Status

Working: TUI, config (+ system /etc default), RAPL power. Remaining notes live in the local-only .LLM_Memory/ (gitignored).