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Controlling fanspeeds in Linux on PWM motherboards, Thinkpads and ASUS Eee PC

by Tho mas Jansso n Octo ber 31, 2008

Introduction In Windows I controlled the f anspeed on my stationary computer by using a ASUS program that read the temperatures. I wanted the same temperature/f anspeed scaling in Linux, so I decided to setup fancontrol, which is a small script that monitors temperatures and f anspeeds and sets the f an at the minimum required level to insure low noise levels. T he f ollowing should work on most Linux distributions and with most modern motherboards. For the record I did this on a Ubuntu 8.04 installation with a setup consisting of a ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Digital Home Series motherboard, Gigabyte Triton GZ XX1CA-SNS casing and a Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4 GHz with a Noctua NH-U12P CPU cooler, see (Hvilke elementer jeg valgte til min nye computer [tjansson.dk]) f or more details. Controlling the speed using PWM Pulse width modulation (PWM) can be used to control the f an speed on modern motherboards. My ASUS P5W DH is such a motherboard. T he PWM values goes f rom 0 to 255 and can be controlled quite easily:

root @bohr:~# cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/fan1_input 1054 root @bohr:~# echo "50" > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/pwm1 root @bohr:~# cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/fan1_input 390 root @bohr:~# echo "255" > /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/pwm1 root @bohr:~# cat /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/fan1_input 1054

But this solution is a bit to basic. I wish to be able to do this automatically depending on the temperature. T his is where f ancontrol comes into the picture. fancontrol and the related pwmconfig is a part of the lm_sensors program which is quite easy to install under Ubuntu:

root @bohr:~# apt it ude inst all lm-sensors

T he f irst thing todo is see whether or not the lm_sensors detects anything:

t jansson@bohr:~$ sensors w83627dhg-isa-0290 Adapt er: ISA adapt er VCore: +1.47 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +1.74 V) in1: +12.09 V (min = +5.17 V, max = +3.80 V) ALARM AVCC: +3.25 V (min = +0.32 V, max = +0.51 V) ALARM 3VCC: +3.25 V (min = +2.21 V, max = +0.77 V) ALARM in4: +1.37 V (min = +0.51 V, max = +0.80 V) ALARM in5: +1.58 V (min = +0.34 V, max = +0.02 V) ALARM in6: +4.17 V (min = +3.30 V, max = +3.28 V) ALARM VSB: +3.25 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.56 V) ALARM VBAT: +3.23 V (min = +1.02 V, max = +0.00 V) ALARM Case Fan: 1054 RPM (min = 5273 RPM, div = 128) ALARM CPU Fan: 1054 RPM (min = 5273 RPM, div = 128) ALARM Aux Fan: 1506 RPM (min = 105 RPM, div = 128) fan4: 1318 RPM (min = 10546 RPM, div = 128) ALARM fan5: 0 RPM (min = 215 RPM, div = 128) ALARM Sys Temp: +49.0C (high = +92.0C, hyst = +32.0C) sensor = t hermist or CPU Temp: +47.0C (high = +80.0C, hyst = +75.0C) sensor = diode AUX Temp: +119.0C (high = +80.0C, hyst = +75.0C) ALARM sensor = t hermist or

which it clearly did in my case even though it has some f unny alarms. To setup f ancontrol the f irst thing to do is run pwmconf ig to f ind the relations between devices in /sys/class/hwmon/hwmon0/device/ and f anspeed. pwmconf ig is described as:

This program will search your sensors for pulse width modulation (pwm) controls, and test each one to see if it controls a fan on your motherboard.

To start the conf ig run

root @bohr:~# pwmcong

And remember to write the inf ormation to the f ile /etc/fancontrol when asked. T his is how my f ile looks (DO NOT COPY-PAST E. SYST EM SPECIFIC):

root @bohr:~# cat /et c/fancont rol INTERVAL=5 FCTEMPS=hwmon0/device/pwm1=hwmon0/device/t emp1_input hwmon0/device/pwm2=hwmon0/device/t emp2_input FCFANS=hwmon0/device/pwm1=hwmon0/device/fan1_input hwmon0/device/pwm2=hwmon0/device/fan2_input MINTEMP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=40 hwmon0/device/pwm2=40 MAXTEMP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=52 hwmon0/device/pwm2=60 MINSTART=hwmon0/device/pwm1=50 hwmon0/device/pwm2=50 MINSTOP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=45 hwmon0/device/pwm2=100

Running fancontrol on every reboot Now I have conf igured everything, so only thing lef t to do is to run f ancontrol. To start f ancontrol just write f ancontrol in the console as root user (or using sudo). f ancontrol will however stop when the console is closed or the computer is rebooted. T he solution to have f ancontrol running on every restart is to create a init.d script. T he f ollowing should be

entered in to a f ile called /etc/init.d/fancontrol

#!/bin/sh # # Fancont rol st art script . # set -e # Default s DAEMON=/usr/sbin/fancont rol PIDFILE=/var/run/fancont rol.pid PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin t est -f $DAEMON || exit 0 . /lib/lsb/init -funct ions case "$1" in st art ) log_begin_msg "St art ing fancont rol daemon..." st art -st op-daemon --st art -o -q -m -b -p $PIDFILE -x $DAEMON log_end_msg $? ;; st op) log_begin_msg "St opping fancont rol daemon..." st art -st op-daemon --st op -o -q -p $PIDFILE log_end_msg $? ;; force-reload|rest art ) sh $0 st op sh $0 st art ;; *) log_success_msg "Usage: /et c/init .d/fancont rol {st art |st op|rest art |force-reload}" log_success_msg " st art - st art s syst em-wide fancont rol service" log_success_msg " st op - st ops syst em-wide fancont rol service" log_success_msg " rest art , force-reload - st art s a new syst em-wide fancont rol service" exit 1 ;; esac exit 0

and then the script should be executable and added to rc.d:

root @bohr:~# chmod +x /et c/init .d/fancont rol root @bohr:~# updat e-rc.d fancont rol default s 99 01 Adding syst em st art up for /et c/init .d/fancont rol ... /et c/rc0.d/K01fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol /et c/rc1.d/K01fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol /et c/rc6.d/K01fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol /et c/rc2.d/S99fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol /et c/rc3.d/S99fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol /et c/rc4.d/S99fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol /et c/rc5.d/S99fancont rol -> ../init .d/fancont rol

Monitoring the temperatures Personally I use gkrellm, see image, to monitor the temperatures and f anspeeds but there are lots of programs out there, such as xsensors.

Special cases A f riend of my Kre H. Jensen made a special script f or controlling the ASUS Eee PC Howto reduce f an noise level on the eee pc 900 1000 1000h [hartvig.de] Howto reduce f an noise level on the eee pc 900 1000 1000h part ii [hartvig.de] For T hinkpad owners there is nice program called tpfand which I have written about on this page Server setup [tjansson.dk] under the section called Noisy fan. References Fan speed control [wiki.archlinux.org] HOWT O: Fancontrol [ubuntuf orums.org]