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goseph
June 18th, 2010, 08:38 AM
Hey everybody!

I am having overheating issues with an old thinkpad and having done some research have drawn up three potential partial solutions:

1) Wait for the next Ubuntu release, apparently 2.6.35 has super duper Radeon GPU (my hot graphics card) power saving features.

2) Patch existing kernel with linux-phc (http://www.linux-phc.org/forum/index.php) to undervolt system (requires recompiling the whole kernel)

3) Hardware mod. Glue in a thermal sink. This is reported to work fairly well.


Anyway, my idea is to combine solutions 1 and 2 and wait till the stable release of 2.6.35, patch it with linux-phc (http://www.linux-phc.org/forum/index.php) and install that on Lucid.

Since I am recompiling and reinstalling the kernel anyway, I may as well grab the latest and greatest and enjoy the benefit of the extra power saving features.

My questions are:

- IS THIS MADNESS?? If I am compiling my own kernel either way, is it a good idea to go ahead and grab the latest kernel instead of 2.6.32?

- If I am compiling my own kernel anyway, would the cautious use of a couple of architecture specific CFLAGS be a safe thing to do? Getting that bit of extra performance on an ageing laptop would be super.

dino99
June 18th, 2010, 09:39 AM
about thinkpad:

with synaptic, install: tp-smapi-dkms, thinkfan, acpitool

into synaptic repo, add these ppa:

https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-updates
https://launchpad.net/~kernel-ppa/+archive/ppa

then update

goseph
June 18th, 2010, 01:30 PM
ah!

Thanks for the reply - how will more up to date beta software help me out with the thinkpad? Are there important Radeon enhancements in the 2.6.32 and X.org pipeline that I was unaware of?

goseph
June 28th, 2010, 04:25 AM
I have done what you suggested but it does not appear to have made any difference :(