Mac Pro - Ubuntu Studio Fan Speed

[peanutboy]

Hello all,

I am a complete beginner to all things ubuntu.
I just installed in a triple boot setup this morning. within ubuntu studio, i decided to try out the fancy desktop effects. It seems like ever since then, no matter what setting the desktop effects are set at (currently at no effects) my fans are spinning at an unnecessarily high speed.

I of course do not know the rpms or anything like that as I haven the slightest idea of how I would check that. All I know is that when I am doing absolutely nothing, or maybe using firefox, the fans are whirring as if I were doing some 3d graphics acceleration or something.

any suggestions would be great.

many thanks in advance

[cyberdork33]

fan control in the Mac Pro is not that great last I heard. The fans are probably high as a default to make sure things stay cool.

[barisurum]

Im not a mac user but I had the same issue (video card radeon X1650). I did the following:

in a terminal open xorg.conf:

sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

in the file if not enabled enable composite extension:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

After I did this all the effects working on the cpu usage doesnt exceed
%5

[peanutboy]

strange, I see no section labled "Exentions"

it is 3:00 am though so maybe im overlooking something

# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Generic Keyboard"
Driver "kbd"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "XkbVariant" "mac"
Option "XkbOptions" "lv3:ralt_switch"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Configured Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

[cyberdork33]

just add it.

[stream303]

Did this issue get resolved with the fan-speed?

Although I'm coming from the PPC architecture, I found that as of Hardy-beta, my cpu frequency-scaling no longer worked with the default powernowd daemon. The system ran at maximum performance levels all the time, and of course the fans eventually ramped up.

I changed the cpu frequency scaler by removing powernowd, and installing Cpudyn instead. Now I have scaling, and fans are under control. Cpudyn ignores on-demand power settings, and seems to use only power-save and performance, which may actually be preferable in your case if your studio needs low-latency.

You can see a discussion of it here in the archives:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=741289

I'm just throwing this out there, knowing that I'm coming from a completely different architecture - but maybe it would be something to consider, especially if low-latency is your thing.

[cyberdork33]

I am not saying you shouldn't try stream's suggestion, but unfortunately, the Intel Macs have a not-fully-understood power control interface which might be the root of the issue. patches may need to be added to the applesmc module.

[peanutboy]

cyberdork,

This has not worked yet, simply because I have not tried it.
I am away from my home studio for 4 weeks and only on a powerbook g4

stream,
as for that line to modify, I'll add it when I get home and get back to you guys.


another related question.

The way in which I discovered this problem is this. A message popped up and told me an unsupported driver was available for my ati graphics card. I installed it and tried out my fancy ubuntu GUI windows. this is when the fans kicked on and didn't stop.

my question is how do I access the area in which I would switch the driver on or off?


thanks.

[cyberdork33]

my question is how do I access the area in which I would switch the driver on or off?
*IF* the module works, it should function like this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MacBookPro/SantaRosaFanControl