I'm currently using thermald for the performance and thermal handling. What improvements i should expect to see using your tool?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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. EDIT 2: The service tag is correct.

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".

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.

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.