HOWTO: Install and configure i8kmon for configurable automatic fan speed control

[jmjohn]

Using 18kmon may be no longer necessary, it's best to update the bios first and see if this fixes the problem.

Here's info on the bios update: http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php...dellBiosUpdate

On my Dell XPS M1330, fan speeds seem normal after a bios update and switching to the nvidia 173 driver on Intrepid, though the fan seems to run more than normal after wakeup from sleep (anyone else have this problem?). It seems the fan can't shut down once revved up after wake up.

Does anybody have good information on whether or not this is necessary after upgrading to bios update a13 on an xps M1330? I'd be interested to hear anyone's thoughts.

-glass.dimly

[Clockswork]

I did a BIOS upgrade for my Dell XPS m1530 and the fans do seem to run better and with better thresholds.
Guide on how to do this can be found here: http://www.clockswork.org/?p=3

[Clockswork]

I did a BIOS upgrade for my Dell XPS m1530 and the fans do seem to run better and with better thresholds.
Guide on how to do this can be found here: http://www.clockswork.org/?p=3

[chadeldridge]

The BIOS on the m1710 does not seem to do a good job at all .. everything is about 60+ right now and the Bios is barely running the fans. i8kmon seems to be my best option, but despite reading the man page i am still very confused about exactly what these levels mean. low_ac high_ac low_batt high_batt . can someone explain in lamens please?

[LudaChr1s7]

Hi guys,
I am a fairly new Linux user. I have tried many different fan control programs now including nclock, dellfand and now gkrollm. While gkrollm seems to work, when set on automatic the fan goes on high (which is expected because my laptop is hot and over the degree) but every like 5 seconds or 10 seconds it pulses going to a lower speed and then back up, its not going completely off though just lower and starting up again. I worry this is wearing out the fan. I would also like to know how stop all these programs and just go back to the default Ubuntu fan settings as if I had never tweaked them.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[chadeldridge]

The BIOS on the m1710 does not seem to do a good job at all .. everything is about 60+ right now and the Bios is barely running the fans. i8kmon seems to be my best option, but despite reading the man page i am still very confused about exactly what these levels mean. low_ac high_ac low_batt high_batt . can someone explain in lamens please?

OK .. maybe someone can just tell me how to do this then:

1. I want both fans to kick on mode 1 at 40 and then both switch to mode 2 at 60... stay at 60 until at 40 and then back to 1. If below 30 both off.

[vwbeamer]

Thanks, I used this to increase the colling on my Inspriron B130, the fan was not running fast enough and the CPU temps were getting up to 50 C.

Running the fan on "1" drop the temp to 30 C

[b.karthi-k-yan]

Hi,
im using dell 1420 & tried to installing "i8k"



finally i ended up with this kind of display without fans speed specifications.just with a box containing two numbers

instead of this kind of display

can some body help me in displaying it in a right form

[mihai007]

Hi,
im using dell 1420 & tried to installing "i8k"



finally i ended up with this kind of display without fans speed specifications.just with a box containing two numbers

instead of this kind of display

can some body help me in displaying it in a right form

we are talking about different things here.
For monitoring only you just need to modprobe i8k with the force option, no need to add anything at start-up or to execute any application.
Then for the nice gui you are talking need to use the gnome sensors applet.

[mihai007]

P.S to all of you that use the fan's rpm sensor to display the data:
The fan's rpm may be wrong (as seen in post above, 119940 RPM is waaaayyy too much). You can adjust to the real values as explained in this bug report: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...et/+bug/200449