Silence of the fan

[Fintan]

Since quite a while now my fan on my laptop is going nuts right after start up. I have been to busy to really do any seaching, but now have some time on my hands.

I have checked htop, nothing strange there.

I am running x-edgers and kernel 3.7.0-7-generic #15-Ubuntu SMP.

running sensors gives:

$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +77.0°C (crit = +99.0°C)

radeon-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1: +84.5°C

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Physical id 0: +76.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +68.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +73.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2: +73.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3: +69.0°C (high = +86.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

I then ran:

sudo sensors-detect

and came up with:

Driver `coretemp':
* Chip `Intel digital thermal sensor' (confidence: 9)

To load everything that is needed, add this to /etc/modules:
#----cut here----
# Chip drivers
coretemp
#----cut here----
If you have some drivers built into your kernel, the list above will
contain too many modules. Skip the appropriate ones!

then

Do you want to add these lines automatically to /etc/modules? (yes/NO)

Unloading i2c-dev... OK
Unloading i2c-i801... OK
Unloading cpuid... OK

I am not sure what all this means but my fan is still shouting away with only FF 18, kate and konsole running.

[dmeyer]

99% of Fan issues has to do with your GPU. What GPU do you have and which drivers are you using (I’m guessing open source radeon something)? Not to come off judgmental but any reason for using xorg edgers?

1% of the time the issue is actually a hassle that isn't solved by just installing the proprietary drivers.

[SteveRiley]

What does the Idle states page of powertop show? Here's mine:



This is from my ThinkPad X1, Core i5, HD 3000 graphics (Sandy Bridge), with the i915 module's power savings options enabled. Do Radeon drivers have any power savings controls? modinfo radeon didn't show anything, but maybe there's something else you can do.

Also, I've seen sporadic, inexplicable thermal issues with various iterations of the 3.7 kernel. Sometimes a newer kernel would drive my temperatures through the roof. I could boot into an older 3.7 kernel and the problem would go away. You might try the latest 3.8 from the Ubuntu mainline kernel repository. Kernels built with the Raring toolchain will work just fine on Quantal. 3.8, so far, has been consistently, blissfully, quiet for me, on both the X1 (Intel graphics) and the T520 (nVidia graphics). I'm not even using Thinkfan anymore.

[Fintan]

Thanks GUys.
Here is my lspci:

lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 05)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 05)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b5)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 (rev b5)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 3 (rev b5)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 05)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 05)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 05)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Caicos [Radeon HD 6400M/7400M Series]
07:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
0d:00.0 Network controller: Ralink corp. RT5390 [802.11 b/g/n 1T1R G-band PCI Express Single Chip]
13:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTS5209 PCI Express Card Reader (rev 01)

Powertop is similar although I don't have a GPU reading.

I am not using any prop. drivers.

This is from my ThinkPad X1, Core i5, HD 3000 graphics (Sandy Bridge), with the i915 module's power savings options enabled. Do Radeon drivers have any power savings controls? modinfo radeon didn't show anything, but maybe there's something else you can do.

Where do I find i950 module power savings option?

I started usig x-edgers in 11.11 and that quited things down. Now come to think of it this started when I started using kernels 3.6 then with 3.7 it got worse. I was under the impresssion they had improved sandy bridge support in 3.7.

Will try 3.8 and see what goes.

[SteveRiley]

Hm, so your laptop has Intel and AMD graphics. Which one's actually being used? lspci -k lists kernel modules available and in use for each PCI device. The file /var/log/Xorg.0.log will indicate which graphics X uses.

Even if both the kernel and X are outputting video on the AMD graphics, you might consider enabling Intel graphics power saving. See the answer to your next question.

Where do I find i950 module power savings option?

Run the following:

echo "options i915 i915_enable_rc6=7" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf > /dev/null
echo "options i915 i915_enable_fbc=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf > /dev/null
echo "options i915 lvds_downclock=1" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf > /dev/null

Reboot. Check powertop.

this started when I started using kernels 3.6 then with 3.7 it got worse. I was under the impresssion they had improved sandy bridge support in 3.7

Power regressions are an on-going problem. Phoronix regularly reports them. Both 3.6 and 3.7, in various states, have caused problems.

[Fintan]

Hi Steve, thanks for the info. I have enabled i950 power saving. I also had a look at lspci -k and the log file. Not really sure how to read them so I have attached them here. If you have some time could you have a look?

Edit: I nstalled kernel 3.8. It seems to have quieted things down a lot, but still no silence

[SteveRiley]

So a couple times now, you've written "i950" when the actual module name is "i915". When you created the modprobe.d/i915.conf file, did you perhaps make the same accidental substitution?

Your kernel is loading modules for both the Intel and the AMD graphics. However, X sees only the Intel. Your AMD is therefore not being used. Did you know you had a dual graphics laptop? You might see if you can switch off the AMD in your firmware (BIOS) settings, because right now it's sucking power but not doing anything.

[dmeyer]

So a couple times now, you've written "i950" when the actual module name is "i915". When you created the modprobe.d/i915.conf file, did you perhaps make the same accidental substitution?

Your kernel is loading modules for both the Intel and the AMD graphics. However, X sees only the Intel. Your AMD is therefore not being used. Did you know you had a dual graphics laptop? You might see if you can switch off the AMD in your firmware (BIOS) settings, because right now it's sucking power but not doing anything.

Last I checked the only way round this was using the proprietary graphics driver. It has support for hybrid graphics switching although it needs a logout (uses vga_switcheroo I think) unlike Bumblebee. I'm not sure if the hybrid graphics supports two amd cards and/or amd+intel card.

@Fintan Please reconsider using the proprietary drivers or disabling the amd card entirely else you won't really get very far with reducing fan noise.

[Fintan]

When you created the modprobe.d/i915.conf file, did you perhaps make the same accidental substitution? :wink:

No, I just copy/pasted what you gave.

Did you know you had a dual graphics laptop? You might see if you can switch off the AMD in your firmware (BIOS) settings, because right now it's sucking power but not doing anything.

Yes, I did know that. always wondered how to get them both running (like windows supposedly does). I have to run mow but I'll check my bios and see if I can turn radeon off and see if that helps any.

Thanks

[SteveRiley]

Getting nVidia + Intel dual graphics to work in Linux has been troublesome enough ... I don't know of any projects that are trying to get dual AMD + Intel to function. Of course, Google might know!

[dmeyer]

Getting nVidia + Intel dual graphics to work in Linux has been troublesome enough ... I don't know of any projects that are trying to get dual AMD + Intel to function. Of course, Google might know!

If you use Bumblebee its pretty painless! Set it up so many times and its not once been a hassle except for this one gut I couldn't manage to help on the forums. My only Bumblebee failure.

[SteveRiley]

except for this one gut I couldn't manage to help on the forums

Perhaps you just need a bit more intestinal fortitude.

[dmeyer]

Well spotted.

[Fintan]

Can't find a setting to turn off amd radeon in my BIOS

[dmeyer]

Can't find a setting to turn off amd radeon in my BIOS

There might still be some kind of solution, but its out of my depth. Probably going to need to use the OSS drivers, VGA_Switcheroo (or whatever its called) or maybe prime plus some manually configuring of xorg.conf and blacklisting things. I can't help you with this.