Speedtest Meter

Run an internet speed test with a live speedometer, then see full technical results: ping, jitter, download/upload, test server (host, location, country) and your ISP.

Plugin

Field	Value
ID	nilsonlinux/speedtest-meter
Entries	Bar widget: speedtest-widget; Panel: speedtest

Entries:

• Widget: speedtest-widget - Shows an icon in the bar; click to open the panel
• Panel: speedtest - Runs the speed test and displays the results

Settings

Setting	Type	Default	Description
glyph (widget)	glyph	brand-speedtest	Icon shown in the bar for the speedtest-widget widget.

Installation

Install via Noctalia Plugin Store.

Requirements

At least one speedtest tool must be installed and on PATH:

• speedtest - the official Ookla Speedtest CLI. Gives a truly live gauge (per-phase progress). Not always in official distro repos (e.g. Arch: AUR, package name varies — check yay -Ss speedtest).
• speedtest-cli - the Python speedtest-cli package. Packaged in most distros' official repos (Arch: pacman -S speedtest-cli, also Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, Alpine). No incremental progress, so the gauge pulses instead of tracking real numbers while it runs — the final result is still complete either way.

If neither is found, the error screen shows the right install command for the detected package manager (pacman/apt/dnf/zypper/apk).

IPC Command:

noctalia msg panel-toggle nilsonlinux/speedtest-meter:speedtest

Usage

1. Click the widget in the bar to open the panel
2. Click "Start test" to run a speed test
3. Watch the gauge while it runs (live numbers with the Ookla backend, a pulse with the legacy backend)
4. Review the results: download/upload, ping, jitter, packet loss, test server details, your ISP and external IP

Dependencies

stdbuf (coreutils) - forces line-buffered output from the Ookla CLI so the live gauge updates in real time instead of only at the end. Present on virtually every Linux system.

Notes for further development

• speedtest on PATH isn't proof it's the Ookla CLI: some distros' Python speedtest-cli package also installs a speedtest binary (same tool, different entry point name). speedtest --version is checked for the string "Ookla" before trusting it; otherwise the plugin falls back to speedtest-cli.
• ui.progress's exact prop schema (beyond value, 0..1) isn't confirmed — a text-based bar (block characters) and an elapsed-time readout are shown alongside it as guaranteed-to-render fallbacks.
• Icon names tried for ui.glyph in the results screen (download, upload, timer, dns, etc.) turned out not to exist in this Noctalia's bundled icon set — they rendered as random unrelated glyphs instead of failing visibly, so they were removed entirely rather than guessed a fourth time. The results screen is icon-free plain text (plus the ↓/↑ characters, which render fine since they're just text) until the real icon name list is known.
• The download/upload headline switched from stat cards to colored circles per request. Colors are explicit hex (#22c55e green, #f97316 orange) rather than semantic role names ("success"/"warning"), since the earlier role-name attempt rendered with no visible color difference in testing — hex is guaranteed to show up regardless of what this theme's color roles are actually called. fill/width/height/radius on ui.column are confirmed working (that's how the circle and the earlier rss-notifier badge pill are built).
• [[panel]] field names (title/width/height) in plugin.toml are still unconfirmed; [[widget]]/[[widget.setting]] are confirmed against a working rss-notifier plugin.

Panel IPC Command

To toggle the panel widget:

noctalia msg panel-toggle nilsonlinux/speedtest-meter:speedtest text

License

MIT