I've tried i8kutils to control the fan, but everytime when the temperature was asked by the tool, there was a noticable lag/freeze in the UI. I guess it was in 12.10 or 13.04, don't know if this happens still.
Controlling the fans directly with i8kfan works without problems, though.
Would be cool to have a better support! After some hours of work, the fan won't stop anymore on my sptunik (2012), even when the cpus have cooled down. The fans are for me the only, but really annoying part of the Sputnik.
I had to forcefully load the module because insmod returned the following error:
insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /lib/modules/3.13-1-amd64/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.ko: No such device
Once the module is inserted, I'm able to change the speed of the fans (just for a short amount of time, but that could be because of the daemon setting the right fan speed as the man reports), and this is the output of i8kctl:
1.0 A04 XXXXNNN 68 -1 1 -1 117180 -1 -1
(At the moment, I can't verify whether the service tag is correct or not, I obfuscated it here).
I can confirm what marbor wrote, the notebook freezes for a moment whenever i8kctl is executed.
EDIT: I also have the impressions that when the module is inserted, the fans behave differently, they stop spinning too soon.
To be able to issue the common '$ sudo apt-get install i8kutils' (the latest version is 1.41), the ppa:vitorafsr/ppa must be added to the list of places where 'apt-get' searches.
This is curious that Dell notebooks from project Sputnik were/are released without a properly configured cooling software.
Hi,
I've tried i8kutils to control the fan, but everytime when the temperature was asked by the tool, there was a noticable lag/freeze in the UI. I guess it was in 12.10 or 13.04, don't know if this happens still.
Controlling the fans directly with i8kfan works without problems, though.
Would be cool to have a better support! After some hours of work, the fan won't stop anymore on my sptunik (2012), even when the cpus have cooled down. The fans are for me the only, but really annoying part of the Sputnik.
i8kutils is for fan control based on the system temperature and a table of thresholds!
I didn't know about thermald. It seems it does the same thing as i8kutils but I don't know which fan thermald controls: system fan, or CPU fan in motherboard that support CPU with own cooling. Perhaps thermald only function in newer systems with new processors (due the way it is implemented), and i8kutils handle more Dell models, but I'm not sure.
Well, the freeze is intrinsically associated to the way the fans are designed to function in Dell notebooks. It uses a interruption SMI that stops the OS to perform read/write in speed/status of the fans.
The major bug in the past was that the freeze occurred every two seconds, and was corrected to not do that. But when executing 'i8kctl' it calls all SMI an there is no way to correct that. Some models perform the measure very fast and does not notice the lag, but others are slower.
So, the freeze is a problem but it is unsolvable.
I'm already using v1.41 and my notebook freezes (for about a second) when I ran i8kctl.
EDIT: My laptop freezes also when I run 'sensors' while i8k is loaded, I guess it's a problem of the kernel driver.
EDIT 2: It seems that you are aware of that problem: https://bugs.launchpad.net/i8kutils/+bug/1179282
I suggest using 'modprobe' to insert the module 'i8k'; it is a clever program that might find where 'i8k' is.
If your system does not contain this module, you can compile it from 'i8kutils' source, issuing '$ make i8k'. But it depends on a set of tools installed to compile.
And you guessed right at "... that could be because of the daemon setting the right fan speed as the man reports".
I had to forcefully load the module because insmod returned the following error:
insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /lib/modules/3.13-1-amd64/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.ko: No such device
Once the module is inserted, I'm able to change the speed of the fans (just for a short amount of time, but that could be because of the daemon setting the right fan speed as the man reports), and this is the output of i8kctl:
1.0 A04 XXXXNNN 68 -1 1 -1 117180 -1 -1
(At the moment, I can't verify whether the service tag is correct or not, I obfuscated it here).
I can confirm what marbor wrote, the notebook freezes for a moment whenever i8kctl is executed.
EDIT: I also have the impressions that when the module is inserted, the fans behave differently, they stop spinning too soon.
I suggest using 'modprobe' to insert the module 'i8k'; it is a clever program that might find where 'i8k' is.
If your system does not contain this module, you can compile it from 'i8kutils' source, issuing '$ make i8k'. But it depends on a set of tools installed to compile.
I have the module, I don't know why I used insmod instead.
And you guessed right at "... that could be because of the daemon setting the right fan speed as the man reports".
Yes, without the daemon the fan is not shut down right away, I don't know why I didn't try this before posting my previous message.
Well, the freeze is intrinsically associated to the way the fans are designed to function in Dell notebooks. It uses a interruption SMI that stops the OS to perform read/write in speed/status of the fans.
The major bug in the past was that the freeze occurred every two seconds, and was corrected to not do that. But when executing 'i8kctl' it calls all SMI an there is no way to correct that. Some models perform the measure very fast and does not notice the lag, but others are slower.
So, the freeze is a problem but it is unsolvable.
I found that bug report after I tried to rebuild the module removing all of what is unsupported (like left fan, ac status etc) thinking that maybe the freezes were caused by that, but I was wrong.
Thanks for the technical explanation!
Anyway, even if Dell did not include any software to control the fan (I actually can't say this for sure, never used their Ubuntu images), I'm quite sure the BIOS is taking care of it in the way Dell wants. I also think that i8kmon has to be configured properly (which I think is the reason why you started this thread), as of know I think it tends to keep the fan shut down as opposed to the usual behaviour. I can see that whenever they starts, i8kmon stops them. I didn't do many tests though, just played with the module and i8kmon for few minutes.
When I bought my Dell laptop, and installed Ubuntu in it, the fans behaved turned on at max speed all the time. In Windows everything was ok. This says to me that Dell has a software in Windows to control the fans, and it is not in BIOS; also that project Sputnik (Dell + Ubuntu) has a area in which Dell did not took apropriate care.
I would appreciate a lot if Dell share its docs to improve i8kutils functionality. Let's see!
Anyway, even if Dell did not include any software to control the fan (I actually can't say this for sure, never used their Ubuntu images), I'm quite sure the BIOS is taking care of it in the way Dell wants.
When I bought my Dell laptop, and installed Ubuntu in it, the fans behaved turned on at max speed all the time. In Windows everything was ok. This says to me that Dell has a software in Windows to control the fans, and it is not in BIOS; also that project Sputnik (Dell + Ubuntu) has a area in which Dell did not took apropriate care.
What BIOS version? There've been loud fan issues that've been resolved with later BIOS versions.
[quote user="vitorafsr"]When I bought my Dell laptop, and installed Ubuntu in it, the fans behaved turned on at max speed all the time. In Windows everything was ok. This says to me that Dell has a software in Windows to control the fans, and it is not in BIOS; also that project Sputnik (Dell + Ubuntu) has a area in which Dell did not took apropriate care.
What BIOS version? There've been loud fan issues that've been resolved with later BIOS versions.
[/quote]
Well, at the time I faced the problem it was BIOS A09. But then I upgraded to A10 and the problem persist.
I did a simple test when I've upgraded BIOS turning 'i8kmon' off, and stressing the OS to see temperature raising, and waiting BIOS to take action. Nothing happened! BIOS did not turned the fans on. It reached 92 °C, considering that the temperature of resting state is 46 °C.
I guess it's better to specify the exact model then, there are indeed some differences between them.
I own an XPS13 9333. I couldn't notice differences between Windows and Linux.
This is more or less what happens without i8kmon:
When the temperature is above ~65°C, the fan starts spinning at low speed When the temperature is above ~70°C, the fan starts spinning at medium speed When the temperature is above ~75°C, the fan starts spinning at high speed
The speed of the fan then decreases all together with the temperature and it stops completely when the temperature is stable at ~50°C.
What I noticed is that there are way more than the two different fan speeds (and not just three as you could think looking at what I've just wrote) which I can set thanks to i8k.
Might be off topic for this thread but will i8kutils ever target recent machines under Windows?
I'd say it's very unlikely . If you take a look at the code you will see that it is specifically for Linux and has its own kernel module which will never work in Windows.
Might be off topic for this thread but will i8kutils ever target recent machines under Windows?
All recent Dell machines suffer poor/annoying/broken fan control that is totally fixed. Changes to cooling policy making absolutely no difference. No support from SpeedFan either.
Extremely frustrating to be stuck with a single, generic, ultra-safe cooling scheme that it totally unsuited to my usage. Not just me, many people complain about never ending fan noise in casual use.
dieghen89
6 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2014 02:00
I'm currently using thermald for the performance and thermal handling. What improvements i should expect to see using your tool?
marbor
5 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2014 03:00
Hi,
I've tried i8kutils to control the fan, but everytime when the temperature was asked by the tool, there was a noticable lag/freeze in the UI. I guess it was in 12.10 or 13.04, don't know if this happens still.
Controlling the fans directly with i8kfan works without problems, though.
Would be cool to have a better support! After some hours of work, the fan won't stop anymore on my sptunik (2012), even when the cpus have cooled down. The fans are for me the only, but really annoying part of the Sputnik.
UPDATE: But haven't tried thermald yet
Cheers
kfnmpah
1 Rookie
•
42 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2014 10:00
I had to forcefully load the module because insmod returned the following error:
insmod: ERROR: could not insert module /lib/modules/3.13-1-amd64/kernel/drivers/char/i8k.ko: No such device
Once the module is inserted, I'm able to change the speed of the fans (just for a short amount of time, but that could be because of the daemon setting the right fan speed as the man reports), and this is the output of i8kctl:
1.0 A04 XXXXNNN 68 -1 1 -1 117180 -1 -1
(At the moment, I can't verify whether the service tag is correct or not, I obfuscated it here).
I can confirm what marbor wrote, the notebook freezes for a moment whenever i8kctl is executed.
EDIT:
I also have the impressions that when the module is inserted, the fans behave differently, they stop spinning too soon.
EDIT 2:
The service tag is correct.
vitorafsr
15 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2014 13:00
The freeze problem was fixed in version 1.39. The latest version can be download from
https://launchpad.net/i8kutils
To be able to issue the common '$ sudo apt-get install i8kutils' (the latest version is 1.41), the ppa:vitorafsr/ppa must be added to the list of places where 'apt-get' searches.
This is curious that Dell notebooks from project Sputnik were/are released without a properly configured cooling software.
vitorafsr
15 Posts
0
April 22nd, 2014 13:00
i8kutils is for fan control based on the system temperature and a table of thresholds!
I didn't know about thermald. It seems it does the same thing as i8kutils but I don't know which fan thermald controls: system fan, or CPU fan in motherboard that support CPU with own cooling. Perhaps thermald only function in newer systems with new processors (due the way it is implemented), and i8kutils handle more Dell models, but I'm not sure.
kfnmpah
1 Rookie
•
42 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2014 03:00
I'm already using v1.41 and my notebook freezes (for about a second) when I ran i8kctl.
EDIT:
My laptop freezes also when I run 'sensors' while i8k is loaded, I guess it's a problem of the kernel driver.
EDIT 2:
It seems that you are aware of that problem: https://bugs.launchpad.net/i8kutils/+bug/1179282
vitorafsr
15 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2014 08:00
Well, the freeze is intrinsically associated to the way the fans are designed to function in Dell notebooks. It uses a interruption SMI that stops the OS to perform read/write in speed/status of the fans.
The major bug in the past was that the freeze occurred every two seconds, and was corrected to not do that. But when executing 'i8kctl' it calls all SMI an there is no way to correct that. Some models perform the measure very fast and does not notice the lag, but others are slower.
So, the freeze is a problem but it is unsolvable.
vitorafsr
15 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2014 08:00
I suggest using 'modprobe' to insert the module 'i8k'; it is a clever program that might find where 'i8k' is.
If your system does not contain this module, you can compile it from 'i8kutils' source, issuing '$ make i8k'. But it depends on a set of tools installed to compile.
And you guessed right at "... that could be because of the daemon setting the right fan speed as the man reports".
kfnmpah
1 Rookie
•
42 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2014 12:00
I have the module, I don't know why I used insmod instead.
Yes, without the daemon the fan is not shut down right away, I don't know why I didn't try this before posting my previous message.
I found that bug report after I tried to rebuild the module removing all of what is unsupported (like left fan, ac status etc) thinking that maybe the freezes were caused by that, but I was wrong.
Thanks for the technical explanation!
Anyway, even if Dell did not include any software to control the fan (I actually can't say this for sure, never used their Ubuntu images), I'm quite sure the BIOS is taking care of it in the way Dell wants. I also think that i8kmon has to be configured properly (which I think is the reason why you started this thread), as of know I think it tends to keep the fan shut down as opposed to the usual behaviour. I can see that whenever they starts, i8kmon stops them. I didn't do many tests though, just played with the module and i8kmon for few minutes.
vitorafsr
15 Posts
0
April 23rd, 2014 19:00
When I bought my Dell laptop, and installed Ubuntu in it, the fans behaved turned on at max speed all the time. In Windows everything was ok. This says to me that Dell has a software in Windows to control the fans, and it is not in BIOS; also that project Sputnik (Dell + Ubuntu) has a area in which Dell did not took apropriate care.
I would appreciate a lot if Dell share its docs to improve i8kutils functionality. Let's see!
DELL-Jared D
2 Intern
•
350 Posts
0
April 24th, 2014 11:00
What BIOS version? There've been loud fan issues that've been resolved with later BIOS versions.
vitorafsr
15 Posts
0
April 24th, 2014 19:00
What BIOS version? There've been loud fan issues that've been resolved with later BIOS versions.
[/quote]
Well, at the time I faced the problem it was BIOS A09. But then I upgraded to A10 and the problem persist.
I did a simple test when I've upgraded BIOS turning 'i8kmon' off, and stressing the OS to see temperature raising, and waiting BIOS to take action. Nothing happened! BIOS did not turned the fans on. It reached 92 °C, considering that the temperature of resting state is 46 °C.
kfnmpah
1 Rookie
•
42 Posts
0
April 25th, 2014 04:00
I guess it's better to specify the exact model then, there are indeed some differences between them.
I own an XPS13 9333. I couldn't notice differences between Windows and Linux.
This is more or less what happens without i8kmon:
When the temperature is above ~65°C, the fan starts spinning at low speed
When the temperature is above ~70°C, the fan starts spinning at medium speed
When the temperature is above ~75°C, the fan starts spinning at high speed
The speed of the fan then decreases all together with the temperature and it stops completely when the temperature is stable at ~50°C.
What I noticed is that there are way more than the two different fan speeds (and not just three as you could think looking at what I've just wrote) which I can set thanks to i8k.
delcypher
21 Posts
0
February 23rd, 2015 02:00
I'd say it's very unlikely . If you take a look at the code you will see that it is specifically for Linux and has its own kernel module which will never work in Windows.
CurbedLarry
2 Intern
•
130 Posts
0
February 23rd, 2015 02:00
Hi,
Might be off topic for this thread but will i8kutils ever target recent machines under Windows?
All recent Dell machines suffer poor/annoying/broken fan control that is totally fixed. Changes to cooling policy making absolutely no difference. No support from SpeedFan either.
Extremely frustrating to be stuck with a single, generic, ultra-safe cooling scheme that it totally unsuited to my usage. Not just me, many people complain about never ending fan noise in casual use.
Lawrence.