NeoServer FAQ: SSH, Containers, Metrics and Widgets

NeoServer connects to your server over SSH and offers a terminal, file browser, monitoring dashboard, and container controls. The information it can show depends on what your server exposes to the connected account. Start by confirming that SSH works, then diagnose individual features.

Connect a server

Add a server with its hostname or IP address, SSH port, username, and your password or private key. On the first connection, compare the server’s host-key fingerprint with a trusted source before accepting it. For a machine on your home network, use its local address; from outside, arrange a VPN or another authorized route first. NeoServer does not make a private server publicly reachable.

Why is the container list empty?

NeoServer supports Docker and Podman, but the SSH account must be allowed to query the container runtime. Run docker info or podman info as the same user in NeoServer’s terminal. If that command fails, fix the server-side runtime or account permission first. On Linux, Docker socket access is highly privileged: follow your distribution’s documented group or rootless-Docker setup, rather than making the socket writable by everyone. Restart the SSH session after changing group membership.

Why are GPU or CPU temperatures missing?

For NVIDIA GPU metrics, install a compatible NVIDIA driver and confirm that nvidia-smi runs for the SSH account. NeoServer cannot invent GPU utilization if that command is unavailable. CPU temperature likewise requires a sensor exposed by the host. Virtual machines often do not expose a physical sensor. On supported Linux hosts, check whether sensors from lm-sensors returns a reading. If no reading exists, leave the metric unavailable rather than interpreting a placeholder as a measured temperature. The same applies to custom temperature fetchers (neo_get_temp in a startup script): avoid returning a fabricated value, since it would look like a real sensor reading.

On a Mac, those Linux sources do not exist — the reading lives behind the SMC and macOS ships no tool for it. Install smctemp and deploy the neo_get_temp wrapper script; once the command prints a milli-degree integer such as 45000, NeoServer shows the temperature. The Mac CPU temperature guide walks through the full setup and the protocol.

Use the terminal and widgets

Fonts, themes, gestures and the keyboard bar are covered in Terminal Settings.

Tap the terminal’s Copy Mode icon to select and copy output; tap it again to return to normal terminal input. This is useful because normal swipes and taps are sent to interactive shell programs.

To add a widget, long-press an empty area on the iPhone Home Screen, choose Add Widget, search for NeoServer, and select a size. Widget availability depends on the installed iOS version and the app’s current widget support. If data is blank, open NeoServer and verify that the saved server still connects.

Pick which disks are shown

You no longer need a script to choose which filesystems appear in the disk charts. Long-press a server card on the Metrics tab (or long-press the Storage section on a server’s detail page) and pick Select Disk. Tick the disks you care about, untick the rest, and tap Done — the selection is remembered per server, and the summary bar aggregates the total usage of just the selected disks. The same long-press menu also offers Select Default Network Interface for the network chart.

For focused help, read the NVIDIA GPU guide, the Mac CPU temperature guide, or Wake-on-LAN guide.