Ade Malsasa Akbar contact
Senior author, Open Source enthusiast.
Monday, November 21, 2016 at 22:47



This article introduces a panel indicator program for Ubuntu Unity that show network speed (download/upload) in real-time. How to install and configure it are also mentioned below. This program name is System Load Indicator 4.0 by Michael Hofmann.  This indicator is very helpful to always show the network speed, directly on the desktop top panel, always visible, and is helpful especially for download-oriented users.
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Supported Ubuntu Version


System Load Indicator is available in all Ubuntu release versions, including 12.04 LTS, 14.04 LTS, 16.04 LTS, 16.10, and even 17.04 (the future version). It is available in the official repository of each Ubuntu release. The package name of this program is indicator-multiload.



How To Install


Perform this command line to install System Load Indicator:

$ sudo apt-get install indicator-multiload

How To Use


To use System Load Indicator as a real-time network-speed indicator, run this command line:

$ indicator-multiload &

and then a window showing, asking the user to configure it:



and then configure it to show only the network speed (download/upload):

  1. uncheck all options at "Monitored Resources" except "Network" option
  2. click "Indicator Items..." button > select "Net $(speed ...)" option > click "Up" button until this selection is on the top of list.
  3. OK and OK. 

Now see your top panel. You should see a new indicator showing real-time value of download and upload speeds in kB/s unit.