[ltp] Re: tpfand configuration for an X200s

[Christoph Bier]

Henrique de Moraes Holschuh schrieb:
> On Tue, 02 Dec 2008, Christoph Bier wrote:
>> Henrique de Moraes Holschuh schrieb am 02.12.2008 15:13:
>>> On Tue, 02 Dec 2008, Christoph Bier wrote:
>>>> Henrique de Moraes Holschuh schrieb:
>>>>> On Tue, 02 Dec 2008, Christoph Bier wrote:
>>>>> The sensors you get from thinkpad-acpi are discrete thermal sensors, located
>>>>> in the various parts of the mainboard, inside battery packs, etc.
>>>> Just to get it right: Does tpfand use/show thinkpad-acpi's data?
>>> Yes, and it is not the most brilliant implementation on how to interface to
>>> thinkpad-acpi, either.
>> So you wouldn't recommend its usage? But then, how can I influence
> 
> I don't recommend using any fan control loop application, period.

Good to know.

[...]

>> the fan's behaviour? Should I load ibm_acpi that is not loaded by
> 
> ibm-acpi is gone.  That driver has been renamed to thinkpad-acpi for a
> long time now.

> You need to load thinkpad-acpi with the "fan_control=1" parameter to
> enable fan control.  [...]

Yes, that's what I already do. And after about five minutes the fan is 
constantly running at at least 2300 RPM.

>> default? You see, I'm not very familiar with this. To be honest, the
>> information provided by the ThinkWiki is surely helpful but also
>> confusing because there are so many ways to solve a problem. I know
>> http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ACPI_fan_control_script but I don't
>> know which solution to choose.
> 
> Let me tell you one thing that you MUST keep in mind:
> 
> Unless you *really* know better, using any sort of fan control to slow
> down the fan is never completely safe.  The thinkpad wanted the fan
> faster for a reason, and unless you actually are SURE that it was for
> a bad reason, there is risk in overriding it.
> 
> So take it from me, the guy who writes the code that goes in the
> kernel to let you do fan control: do not do fan control for frivolous
> reasons.
> 
> If your fan is noisy, get it fixed.  If it needs to run because the
> thinkpad is getting too hot, forcing it to slow down is the WRONG
> answer.

Basically (without your experience) I totally agree with you and I'm 
happy that things are really that easy.

>> I take your answer as an indication that fan control should work
>> out-of-the-box without user interference. What can I do---as a
> 
> Correct.  On thinkpads, it is supposed to work out-of-the-box even if
> the operating system has crashed.
> 
>> common user, I'm not a programmer---to improve the situation?
> 
> As I said, it is not supposed to be too noisy.   Check with other X200
> users, tell us the RPM in your fan when it is being noisy.  And after
> you have some idea whether it is normal or not, call Lenovo and
> complain that the thing is broken [if it is too noisy].

It isn't noisy. But I'm quite sure that the fan isn't supposed to run 
all of the time, even if it's not used for one hour. Frequency scaling 
is activated and working, I followed powertop's recommendations and the 
sensors show temperatures that rarely rise above 40°C.

Would it be helpful to check against the fan's behaviour under Vista?

Best
Christoph
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