Laptops :: Laptop computer, fan does not switch on properly

When the fan runs on this machine, I know it! Sometimes, it will run before DSL starts up but then stops once the desktop gets fully displayed... then it never starts again.

The fan works properly when I run the machine under Windows XP, so I'm confident there are no hardware issues involved.

I've tried erasing the noacpi and noapm bootup codes from GRUB, with no change in performance. I'm running 4.0 or 4.1Rc1, I don't remember which it is... is there a version stamp somewhere?

When DSL boots up, I see it mention that the motherboard is ACPI and then see battery, fan, thermal and a couple of other words display in yellow text.

I've gone looking into /proc/acpi/fan/ as Curaga suggested in another thread, but I do not find a subfolder named FAN0 so I cannot create 'state' file to manually turn on the fan. I've seen two folders there named CL01 and CL02 (iirc).

What can I do next?

Thanks,
John

Take a look in:
ls -l /opt/acpi/actions/

These are scripts to be used with acpi.
Juanito is one of our resident experts in apci.
Hopefully he will see your post.

Also try the Search feature of the forums.

As for release info. It is displayed during boot up.
It is displayed on the first tab of System Stats.
And finally is a simple text file in /usr/share/doc/dsl/release.txt

There was post about a similar problem a while ago in these forums. Maybe the acpid daemon is not running after your machine starts - try this:

Code Sample

$ sudo /etc/init.d/acpid start

- to see if anything changes.

I have the cpu temperature displayed via torsmo on my machine and can see that the fan cuts in when the temperature increases above about 55degC (usually when compiling). There appear to be settings that control the temperature at which the fan starts, but I never tried to change these.

I'm using my laptop in w2k at the moment - I'll have a look at the fan settings next time I boot dsl.

Edit:
Here's what I have under /proc/acpi:

Code Sample

$ ls /proc/acpi
ac_adapter button event info sleep
alarm dsdt fadt power_resource thermal_zone
battery embedded_controller fan processor

- there is nothing under /proc/acpi/fan, but there is something under /proc/acpi/thermal_zone:

Code Sample

$ ls /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM
cooling_mode polling_frequency state temperature trip_points

$ cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/temperature
temperature: 46 C
$ cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/trip_points
critical (S5): 99 C
$ sudo echo -n 45 > /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/trip_points
bash: /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM/trip_points: Permission denied

Note that you can start acpid at boot using the boot code "acpid" and you can check it has started by:

Code Sample

$ sudo cat /var/log/acpid
[Tue Nov 27 09:59:23 2007] starting up
[Tue Nov 27 09:59:23 2007] 4 rules loaded

I'm guessing the bios controls the fan on my machine - if starting acpid does not help on your machine, you could always try apm instead of acpi.

@Juanito,

This helps, thank you.

1) I looked for the acpid log file in /var/log and it was not there on normal bootup.

2) I ran /etc/init.d/acpid start... and it created the log file, so now I know the dameon is started.

3) I changed the cheat code in /boot/grub/menu.lst to 'acpi' instead of noacpi. Rebooted and it looks like it might have had effect because acpid log file exists again.

4) My equivalent of /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THM is... /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/C106

5) it contains 5 files you mention:
temperature: 79 C
critical (S5): 95 C

6) I used 'more' to read above info... it looks like you executed temperature... but it doesn't at the same time... is it just the way your PS1 is set up?

I'll watch it later today as the temperature climbs.

Thanks a milion!

I'd *love* toget the battery monitor and temperature monitor scripts hooked up to my Torsmo. It's on my to-do list. I've read some entries about them and it doesn't sound too hard. Any chance you could send me your files and spare me some effort? I'm running 4.1RC3.

Many thanks,
John

Quote

I'd *love* toget the battery monitor and temperature monitor scripts hooked up to my Torsmo. It's on my to-do list. I've read some entries about them and it doesn't sound too hard. Any chance you could send me your files and spare me some effort? I'm running 4.1RC3.

torsmo should already show the battery time remaining, to see the cpu temp, change the end of the file /home/dsl/.torsmorc to look like this:

Code Sample

${color red}$hr
${color grey}Uptime: $color $uptime
${color #ddd}Battery: $color ${battery}
${color #ddd}CPU Temp: $color ${acpitemp} degC
${color green}$hr$color
$sysname $kernel on $machine
${color grey}Host: $color$nodename ${execi 180 ~/.torsmo_ip}
${color red}$hr

Then, to restart:

Code Sample

$ killall torsmo
$ torsmo

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