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View Full Version : [ubuntu] 10.04 Lucid Installation, ACPI-thinkpad woes!



dave2001
February 20th, 2011, 12:48 AM
Since support for 8.04 LTS will be ending soon, I decided to move up to 10.04 LTS. On my old Thinkpad A20m laptop, the install went well, and everything seemed to work except the middle trackpoint button. Fixed that easily by editing a conf file.
Then I began to notice some problems; all power management options (suspend, idle timers, etc) have no effect. I checked the startup logs and it seems that ACPI was not loading due to my aged bios (yes it's the newest version available). I tried using acpi=force in the boot options, and viola: power management is working. But that made two other problems crop up.
Problem 1: [Edit: solved]
Problem 2: Since using acpi=force, the laptop runs so hot it sometimes gets sluggish and locks up. I tried installing "thinkfan" from the ubuntu repositories to have some way of easily changing the fan behavior(which I believe relies on ACPI in some fashion). No luck there. ACPI seems to not see my fan at all, and it only kicks on when the bios high temp failsafe is tripped.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated! I should also mention I am using Xubuntu (for the lighter desktop). I'm still kind of an Ubuntu-noob, so I wasn't sure what other info to post. I would be happy to provide any other information which could help diagnose the problem.

mörgæs
February 21st, 2011, 06:23 AM
How does the machine behave in a live boot of 10.10?

dave2001
February 21st, 2011, 01:59 PM
This machine doesn't like live CD's. It meets min sys requirements just fine, but for some reason it often locks up when using a live CD (of any recent version from jaunty up).
Also, some progress: I added "options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1" to the file /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf
Now I at least can manually turn on the fan in terminal with

echo level (choose one number 1-7) | sudo tee /proc/acpi/ibm/fanHowever this only provides a static fan speed. I've tried installing thinkfan from repositories again, still doesn't work.

dave2001
February 22nd, 2011, 05:59 PM
Solved overheating and fan control by installing "TPfan", a fan-controller daemon for Thinkpads, with a GUI frontend. I will include info for other Thinkpad users who dislike or can't use "thinkfan"

TPfan used to be available for Ubuntu as a .deb up until Hardy when the maker stopped updating it.
I found that someone else has updated it for Lucid and Maverick. Look here:
https://launchpad.net/~jcollins/+archive/jaminppa (https://launchpad.net/%7Ejcollins/+archive/jaminppa)

You'll want the both tpfand and tpfand_admin packages for the appropriate version of ubuntu.

Install tpfand first, then tpfan_admin. BE SURE TO INSTALL AS ROOT OR BY USING SUDO, otherwise installation will fail.

Then configure tpfan, look under System>Admin>Thinkpad Fan Control, there are many tutorial on how to use tpfan around the web. I have noticed that on my comp, if any sensor has a hardware controlled temp range, the program doesn't control the fan at all. As a result all temp ranges must be manually set for every sensor. BE CAREFUL, if you set your fan levels to low or your temp thresholds to high your comp can overheat and be permanently damaged.