How to: Enable power management features

[SteveRiley]

I been saving the files by using ^x to save and and exit is that how I should be saving them?

Yes. Ctrl+X will save changes and exit the editor.

I know I performed the below code but the line is not added to be in the conf file the how to configure it is all I see.

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

The options line must be in the file /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf file. There should be no other lines in this file.

The thinkfan config files are being an issue I have created one thinkfan.conf in the /etc/ directory which also has a thinkfan.conf.save. The issue is in the /etc/modprobe/ directory I have no thinkfan.conf only two thinkfan.conf.save and save1 files which if i try to remove with sudo rm thinkfan.conf.save no files exists which is not true i can see them in them not from the command line though.

There is no /etc/modprobe/ directory. The directory is /etc/modprobe.d -- note the .d. If you're having trouble removing those extra files, you aren't typing the command correctly. This will delete both files:

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf.save /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf.save1

Everytime I use nano I always get issues with files not being saved happen years ago never figured out why. I even searched how to save and still having issues. I still wat to try this but I need to find out why nothing is being saved.

As Snowhog mentions, you need to use sudo to elevate the privileges of nano when editing system files.

[Snowhog]

If you are editing 'root owned' files using nano, you have to launch it with sudo nano, otherwise, it will only open the files in 'read only' mode; you cannot save them.

I been saving the files by using ^x to save and and exit is that how I should be saving them?

I know I performed the below code but the line is not added to be in the conf file the how to configure it is all I see.

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

The thinkfan config files are being an issue I have created one thinkfan.conf in the /etc/ directory which also has a thinkfan.conf.save. The issue is in the /etc/modprobe/ directory I have no thinkfan.conf only two thinkfan.conf.save and save1 files which if i try to remove with sudo rm thinkfan.conf.save no files exists which is not true i can see them in them not from the command line though.

Everytime I use nano I always get issues with files not being saved happen years ago never figured out why. I even searched how to save and still having issues. I still wat to try this but I need to find out why nothing is being saved.

Thanks Steve

I read the output again, I read the output wrong I saw these

(high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

. which are the ranges. I did not see

Core 0:+35.0°C  Core 1:+36.0°C

. Yes, I was thinking after the post. Why if my laptop was that hot why would it not shut down or be hot to the touch which it is not I cannot even hear the fan or fans running. Do I need to install Powertop? I use nano like you did in the post. I will be working on this today

[SteveRiley]

I ran the sensors in the command line to me this looks bad in some areas but my laptop feels only warm not hot here is the output. What are the normal levels for C to F?

Your reported temperatures look well within a normal range. For so long as I've been using Linux (since 2009), laptops with Linux have run warmer than with Windows.

I looked at both the directories and I have both config files. The /etc/ has thinkfan.conf and thinkfan.conf.save and /etc/modprobe has thinkpad.conf.save and thinkpad.conf.save1 I think I need to remove one how would I do that?

I don't know what those ".save" files are -- possibly the editor you're using creates backups? You can delete them like this:

sudo rm [i]name-of-file[/i]

I need to do this setup with thinkfan from this output. If you do not think extra files will be an issue than I will try to finish this in the next few days. till I get thing configured I will be keeping this lappy off.

If you follow the instructions exactly as I wrote, ThinkFan will be working for you.

I ran the sensors in the command line to me this looks bad in some areas but my laptop feels only warm not hot here is the output. What are the normal levels for C to F?


$ sensors
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +37.0°C (crit = +127.0°C)
temp2: +36.0°C (crit = +100.0°C) ouch

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +35.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1: +36.0°C (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C) ouch

thinkpad-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
fan1: 1957 RPM
temp1: +37.0°C
temp2: +38.0°C
temp3: +34.0°C
temp4: N/A
temp5: +27.0°C
temp6: N/A
temp7: +27.0°C
temp8: N/A
temp9: +36.0°C
temp10: +40.0°C
temp11: +37.0°C
temp12: N/A
temp13: N/A
temp14: N/A
temp15: N/A
temp16: N/A









I looked at both the directories and I have both config files. The /etc/ has thinkfan.conf and thinkfan.conf.save and /etc/modprobe has thinkpad.conf.save and thinkpad.conf.save1 I think I need to remove one how would I do that? I need to do this setup with thinkfan from this output. If you do not think extra files will be an issue than I will try to finish this in the next few days. till I get thing configured I will be keeping this lappy off.

[SteveRiley]

I decieded to try this I think I am not doing something right I did create a thinkfan.conf but i have two which I need to remove one or rename it. I need to create the default thinkfan.conf. which I though I did but do not see it in the /etc/modprobe directory.

There are indeed two thinkfan.conf files. One is /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf and contains the single options line that enables the ThinkFan kernel module. The other is /etc/thinkfan.conf and contains many lines that configure the ThinkFan service.

This part confused me i did this but I am bot sure what it did.

sudo -i
cd /
find -iname '*temp*input*' >/tmpin
exit

Than you asks me to put the contains of the above file in the default/thinkfan.conf
How do i add the contains of /tmpin to the default/thinkfan config file?

The file /etc/thinkfan.conf needs to contain some information about the temperature sensors in your laptop. Unfortunately, the naming of these is inconsistent. So the four commands above result in creating a file called /tmpin with a list of discoverable sensors. Often these are only visible to the root account, that's why elevation (using sudo -i) is necessary.

How to add the contents of the file depends on what editor you're using. If you're using nano, after you place the cursor at the indicated location, press Ctrl+R. When prompted for the name of the file to read in, type /tmpin and press Enter.

Once I create it. See if i can do that without creating two of them.

Like I wrote earlier, you need two thinkfan.conf files. They're located in different directories and they do different things.

I decieded to try this I think I am not doing something right I did create a thinkfan.conf but i have two which I need to remove one or rename it. I need to create the default thinkfan.conf. which I though I did but do not see it in the /etc/modprobe directory. This part confused me i did this but I am bot sure what it did.

sudo -i
cd /
find -iname '*temp*input*' >/tmpin
exit

Than you asks me to put the contains of the above file in the default/thinkfan.conf
How do i add the contains of /tmpin to the default/thinkfan config file? Once I create it. See if i can do that without creating two of them.

dave

[SteveRiley]

You can ignore the two warnings from update-rc.d -- Upstart is just griping that it doesn't like the format of the script. But the script runs fine anyway, as you can see from the following Adding system... status messages.

The error from kbuildsycoca4 seems unrelated. I can't think of a reason why kbuildsyscoca4 would run here, since that's a KDE utility that reads .desktop (among other) files to construct the KDE application cache. I think you can ignore it.

I got the following output when doing the process. Is it some kind of error ?

sudo update-rc.d z-powerlevels defaults
update-rc.d: warning: /etc/init.d/z-powerlevels missing LSB information
update-rc.d: see <http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts>

Adding system startup for /etc/init.d/z-powerlevels ...
   /etc/rc0.d/K20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels
   /etc/rc1.d/K20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels
   /etc/rc6.d/K20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels
   /etc/rc2.d/S20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels
   /etc/rc3.d/S20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels
   /etc/rc4.d/S20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels
   /etc/rc5.d/S20z-powerlevels -> ../init.d/z-powerlevels

kbuildsycoca4 running...
Error: "/var/tmp/kdecache-username" is owned by uid 1000 instead of uid 0.

And my laptop has Amd's cpu and gpu. So i skipped i915 config in /etc/default/grub . Also skipped thinkfan.

[SteveRiley]

Cool find, thanks!

[NarcT]

Found the answer/fix for the after suspend problem. All you need to do is add a file to /etc/pm/sleep.d/ and tell it run your script in /etc/init.d/. Heres the code to do it.

#!/bin/bash
case "$1" in
    thaw|resume)
        /etc/init.d/z-powerlevels 2>/dev/null
        ;;
    *)
        ;;
esac
exit $?

Credit goes to http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1484156

[SteveRiley]

Yes, I have noticed that, too -- runtime power management for PCI devices. I need to track that one down.

Also, I'm experimenting with various settings for Thinkfan's temperature steps, trying to even out sudden (and loud) starts/stops. I'll report my findings once I find a config that seems reasonable.

[NarcT]

Hey thanks for the script it has greatly improved my power management! One thing I noticed after a suspend is some of the settings go back to normal of which I can just rerun the script. Just wanted to let you know.

Otherwise great script!

[GreyGeek]

I never bothered to read the text above the frame rate readings. When I saw it on your post I re-ran glxgears to see if mine said the same thing. It did. So, I experimented by resizing the glxgears window. Even filling the screen the fps is exactly the same. This behavior is totally diffferent from what I remember, when full screen windows gave only 1/10 the rate of the small default screen.

Glxgears is now a good indicator of fps.