How to enable my laptop fan?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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vigil
Posts: 1
Joined: Thu 17 May 2007, 23:42

How to enable my laptop fan?

#1 Post by vigil »

Hi, there. Sincerely, I love this Linux distro, but Im afraid that my laptop could suffer some damages due to heating, he he he

I need my fan working... I can't figure out how to enable this feature. Is there anyone who can help me?

Regards!!! (y)

BTW: I have an AMD AthlonXP

Greystar
Posts: 26
Joined: Tue 20 Mar 2007, 23:56

#2 Post by Greystar »

As for fans I'm not sure but you have an Athlon(amd) prossessor this link will help on setting up cpu scaling to reduce heat worked for me.

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 1126868354


My Athlons(xp-m 1600) modeprobe is powernow-k7 some have a different modprobe so you might have to check. but does keep the computer cool if you follow the directions.

hope this helps.

Newcrest
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun 04 Mar 2007, 03:19

#3 Post by Newcrest »

I don't understand why this issue is not made a lot clearer. I think that at the very least there should be a warning in the boot up script that laptop fans will not work without user intervention.

Why is the issue of laptop fans not better documented?

This is what I have done but I have no knowledge of Linux so there may be a better way:
Add the following lines to /etc/rc.d/rc.local to activate the sensors at boot:
modprobe ac
modprobe battery
modprobe fan
modprobe processor
modprobe thermal


wmpower is a X application, so you must run it from /root/.xinitrc
Add it before the line
exec $CURRENTWM

add a "&" in the end, so that in runs in background, and does not block the rest of the script.

So it should look like this:
Code:
/root/my-applications/bin/wmpower -no-meddling &
exec $CURRENTWM

jonyo

#4 Post by jonyo »

How the heck did you figure this out :shock: if you don't know linux? What does the modprobe command do here? Is this a prob on desktops?

User avatar
Pizzasgood
Posts: 6183
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 20:28
Location: Knoxville, TN, USA

#5 Post by Pizzasgood »

modprobe loads modules (including drivers). rmmod will unload them.

The only other thing I know about this is that loading those modules will let you check the state of the processor and stuff. I didn't realize they were required for the fans to run. I thought they were only needed for fancier stuff, like monitoring them or controlling them from within Puppy. I had assumed the fans would run anyway.

Maybe it depends on the bios.
[size=75]Between depriving a man of one hour from his life and depriving him of his life there exists only a difference of degree. --Muad'Dib[/size]
[img]http://www.browserloadofcoolness.com/sig.png[/img]

Newcrest
Posts: 199
Joined: Sun 04 Mar 2007, 03:19

#6 Post by Newcrest »

Yes I did not know anything about linux prior to using Puppy. I had tried to get Damn Small Linux to work but failed.
How the heck did I figure this out if I don't know linux? With the help of this forum. After searching I found a number of posts referring to laptop fans but none that really explained it properly.
Then I came across this warning:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 50&t=13981
Maybe that post should be fixed up and made a sticky?

What I know is that my Compaq Evo laptop fan works when I turn laptop on, will work fully under FreeDos (and Windows of course) and even change speed depending on load but when using Puppy as soon as it gets to booting the kernel, the fan goes off even though I have it set in the bios to stay on permanently. I think there should be more of an issue made of this.

Doing the modprobe commands turns the fan on but it does not change speed depending on load. Fortunately this laptop uses a Pentium IIIM which runs cool anyway. If it was one of the Evo models with a Pentium IV then I fear that there would have been overheating.

User avatar
HairyWill
Posts: 2928
Joined: Fri 26 May 2006, 23:29
Location: Southampton, UK

#7 Post by HairyWill »

My thinkpad has a p3M 1200 and the fan does not come on unless I start making it do some serious work such as compiling or 3D graphics. Just browsing the web and editing files the temperature stays below 40C.

Probably your fan just doesn't need to run. I would be surprised if the BIOS is trusting enough to give total control of the fan to the OS and would expect there to be a temp at which the BIOS would force the fan to engage.

It would be nice if there was a laptop-configurator.pup that provided a central place to deal with battery monitoring, cooling, processor frequency control and any other power saving methods. Volunteers? :)
<edit>While I remember, adding DPMS to the list, turning the screen off</edit>
Will
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