Mailing List Archive: MythTV: Users

Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED

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allen.p.edwards at gmail

Nov 23, 2009, 7:36 AM

Post #1 of 6 (2397 views)
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Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED

On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Allen Edwards
<allen.p.edwards [at] gmail>wrote:

> I just searched the last year of posts and find nothing discussed on the
> problem I am having with lm-sensors. I have a AMD 5400+ on an M3A Asus
> mother board. We have been living with a very noisy CPU fan so today I
> finally got around to doing something about it. First, I got a new heat
> sink, a Thermaltake TR2-R1 and it is a big improvement. I checked the temp
> with sensors and it runs about the same, about 30 idle and 40-45 under load.
> (The bios reports over 50c on boot up. What's up with that? I guess an
> error in the bios).
>
> The problem is with trying to get lm-sensors to work. I installed all the
> programs and got as far as running pwmconfig. All looked good, it
> controlled the CPU fan and did a detailed profile. It got very quiet at a
> setting of 180. But when it got to the part about testing what setting will
> not start the fan, it didn't change the fan speed. And when I created the
> fancontrol file and re-booted, the fan is always at max speed, which is
> 1400RPM.
>
> So one level of the program controls the fan speed, but when it comes down
> to it, something is different and the fan speed is not controlled. I should
> point out that this fan has 3 pins and not 4 so that may be part of the
> problem but the fan was being controlled by the first part of pwmconfig so I
> don't understand what is going on.
>
> Any help out there? I would greatly improve the WAF if I could get that
> fan down to about 1000RMP when the CPU is at 1000GHz and doing nothing. I
> don't care how loud the fan is when we are watching something because the
> sound of the show covers it up.
>
> Anyone understand what I am doing wrong?
>
> Allen
>
>
I solved this problem. The version installed on my mythbuntu system with
"apt-get install" was version 3.0. this version does not work. The latest
version is 3.1 I downloaded that version from the lm_sensors web site.

Unzipped it: tar xvjf <file>
cd to the new directory
used apt-get install to install the dependencies listed in the INSTALL file
make clean (in case you had some false starts)
make all
make install
I already had a sensors-detect file so did not have to repeat that
Ran "watch sensors" in one windows to monitor what is going on
ran pwmconfig in another window
installed /usr/local/sbin/fancontrol in the place I use to start files and
re-booted to test things.

Hope this helps the next person with this problem. The fan is now so quiet
you can't hear it. When Myth is doing something, it speeds up but usually
you are watching something to that masks the noise, which wasn't much with
the new fan-heatsink anyway.

Allen

johnnyjboss at gmail

Nov 25, 2009, 3:03 PM

Post #2 of 6 (2324 views)
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Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED [In reply to]

On Mon, Nov 23, 2009 at 9:36 AM, Allen Edwards
<allen.p.edwards [at] gmail> wrote:
>
>
> On Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Allen Edwards <allen.p.edwards [at] gmail>
> wrote:
>>
>> I just searched the last year of posts and find nothing discussed on the
>> problem I am having with lm-sensors. I have a AMD 5400+ on an M3A Asus
>> mother board. We have been living with a very noisy CPU fan so today I
>> finally got around to doing something about it. First, I got a new heat
>> sink, a Thermaltake TR2-R1 and it is a big improvement. I checked the temp
>> with sensors and it runs about the same, about 30 idle and 40-45 under load.
>> (The bios reports over 50c on boot up. What's up with that? I guess an
>> error in the bios).
>> The problem is with trying to get lm-sensors to work. I installed all the
>> programs and got as far as running pwmconfig. All looked good, it
>> controlled the CPU fan and did a detailed profile. It got very quiet at a
>> setting of 180. But when it got to the part about testing what setting will
>> not start the fan, it didn't change the fan speed. And when I created the
>> fancontrol file and re-booted, the fan is always at max speed, which is
>> 1400RPM.
>> So one level of the program controls the fan speed, but when it comes down
>> to it, something is different and the fan speed is not controlled. I should
>> point out that this fan has 3 pins and not 4 so that may be part of the
>> problem but the fan was being controlled by the first part of pwmconfig so I
>> don't understand what is going on.
>> Any help out there? I would greatly improve the WAF if I could get that
>> fan down to about 1000RMP when the CPU is at 1000GHz and doing nothing. I
>> don't care how loud the fan is when we are watching something because the
>> sound of the show covers it up.
>> Anyone understand what I am doing wrong?
>> Allen
>
> I solved this problem. The version installed on my mythbuntu system with
> "apt-get install" was version 3.0. this version does not work. The latest
> version is 3.1 I downloaded that version from the lm_sensors web site.
> Unzipped it: tar xvjf <file>
> cd to the new directory
> used apt-get install to install the dependencies listed in the INSTALL file
> make clean (in case you had some false starts)
> make all
> make install
> I already had a sensors-detect file so did not have to repeat that
> Ran "watch sensors" in one windows to monitor what is going on
> ran pwmconfig in another window
> installed /usr/local/sbin/fancontrol in the place I use to start files and
> re-booted to test things.
> Hope this helps the next person with this problem. The fan is now so quiet
> you can't hear it. When Myth is doing something, it speeds up but usually
> you are watching something to that masks the noise, which wasn't much with
> the new fan-heatsink anyway.
> Allen

when i run pwmconfig I get this:

/usr/local/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

even though sensors returns:

atk0110-acpi-0
Adapter: ACPI interface
Vcore Voltage: +0.99 V (min = +0.80 V, max = +1.80 V)
+3.3 Voltage: +3.31 V (min = +2.97 V, max = +3.63 V)
+5 Voltage: +5.02 V (min = +4.50 V, max = +5.50 V)
+12 Voltage: +11.97 V (min = +10.20 V, max = +13.80 V)
CPU FAN Speed: 2385 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
CHASSIS FAN Speed:1240 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
POWER FAN Speed: 4245 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
CPU Temperature: +42.0ТАC (high = +60.0ТАC, crit = +95.0ТАC)
MB Temperature: +39.0ТАC (high = +45.0ТАC, crit = +95.0ТАC)

I tried to read the page at
http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/AsusFormulaHacking but at the moment
it's not making much sense to me. I could just need some sleep.

I wonder if my ASUS M3N78-EM motherboard just isn't compatible with fancontrol

Does anyone know?

>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
>
>
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drescherjm at gmail

Nov 25, 2009, 3:06 PM

Post #3 of 6 (2326 views)
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Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED [In reply to]

> when i run pwmconfig I get this:
>
> /usr/local/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed
>
> even though sensors returns:
>
> atk0110-acpi-0
> Adapter: ACPI interface
> Vcore Voltage: +0.99 V (min = +0.80 V, max = +1.80 V)
> +3.3 Voltage: +3.31 V (min = +2.97 V, max = +3.63 V)
> +5 Voltage: +5.02 V (min = +4.50 V, max = +5.50 V)
> +12 Voltage: +11.97 V (min = +10.20 V, max = +13.80 V)
> CPU FAN Speed: 2385 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
> CHASSIS FAN Speed:1240 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
> POWER FAN Speed: 4245 RPM (min = 600 RPM)
> CPU Temperature: +42.0ТАC (high = +60.0ТАC, crit = +95.0ТАC)
> MB Temperature: +39.0ТАC (high = +45.0ТАC, crit = +95.0ТАC)
>
> I tried to read the page at
> http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/AsusFormulaHacking but at the moment
> it's not making much sense to me. I could just need some sleep.
>
> I wonder if my ASUS M3N78-EM motherboard just isn't compatible with fancontrol
>
> Does anyone know?
>

Sounds like you do not have the driver/module for your pwm sensors installed.

John
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jarpublic at gmail

Nov 25, 2009, 5:33 PM

Post #4 of 6 (2324 views)
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Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED [In reply to]

> I wonder if my ASUS M3N78-EM motherboard just isn't compatible with fancontrol

It is compatible, kind of. The sensor reading you are getting are from
the new asus_atk0110 acpi module. Unfortunately this module doesn't
have pwm support yet. There is a problem where the old it87 sensor
module that you would have used for pwm in the past has been
intentionally disabled in the new kernel (2.6.31 I think) because it
was using the same resource that was reserved for ACPI. I don't
understand really but that is what I found with googling around. There
is a command you can add to grub that will relax this kernel
restriction and let the it87 module load anyway. That is what I did
and it works fine for me. Some have said this could cause problems and
other say it doesn't matter as long as it works for you. I think I
also had to install lm-sensors 3.1.1. It wasn't in the Ubuntu repos so
I downloaded the deb file for debian testing at packages.debian.org.
You could just install it from source as well.

Another option is to roll back and use an older kernel. I can't find
what I was looking at in the Ubuntu forums, but here is the bug report
that identifies the issue and gives some solutions.
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johnnyjboss at gmail

Nov 28, 2009, 5:37 AM

Post #5 of 6 (2255 views)
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Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED [In reply to]

What's the kernel argument to add to grub?

On Nov 25, 2009, at 7:33 PM, Johnny <jarpublic [at] gmail> wrote:

>> I wonder if my ASUS M3N78-EM motherboard just isn't compatible with
>> fancontrol
>
> It is compatible, kind of. The sensor reading you are getting are from
> the new asus_atk0110 acpi module. Unfortunately this module doesn't
> have pwm support yet. There is a problem where the old it87 sensor
> module that you would have used for pwm in the past has been
> intentionally disabled in the new kernel (2.6.31 I think) because it
> was using the same resource that was reserved for ACPI. I don't
> understand really but that is what I found with googling around. There
> is a command you can add to grub that will relax this kernel
> restriction and let the it87 module load anyway. That is what I did
> and it works fine for me. Some have said this could cause problems and
> other say it doesn't matter as long as it works for you. I think I
> also had to install lm-sensors 3.1.1. It wasn't in the Ubuntu repos so
> I downloaded the deb file for debian testing at packages.debian.org.
> You could just install it from source as well.
>
> Another option is to roll back and use an older kernel. I can't find
> what I was looking at in the Ubuntu forums, but here is the bug report
> that identifies the issue and gives some solutions.
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users [at] mythtv
> http://mythtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
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jarpublic at gmail

Nov 28, 2009, 9:12 AM

Post #6 of 6 (2246 views)
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Re: Fan speed control using lm-sensors doesn't work. Help, please. -- SOLVED [In reply to]

> What's the kernel argument to add to grub?

The list owner has asked that we not top post on the list. It keeps
the threads and archives much clearer when everybody follows the same
rules. Trim out everything but what your are specifically responding
to and post below it.

Sorry I thought I gave a link to the bug report. Here it is:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/418246. The
instructions and warnings are there.
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