Overheating problem with Ubuntu OS

[andrea.mamprin]

Hi there.
I've installed Ubuntu OS 18.04 on my desktop PC and I'm experimenting overheating all the time. Very basic tasks (like launching Chrome for example) rises core's temperature at 70º C-80º C, a video stream boost it over 90 degrees, and the fans are continuously working.
This problem was also present with Ubuntu 16.04, but under windows 10 everything was fine. I've read a lot of posts about ubuntu overheating issues, I've tried some solutions (installing thermald, tlp, etc.) with no results.
Can anyone help me? Thanks in advance.

OS: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-3330 CPU @ 3.00GHz × 4
Graphics: Intel® Ivybridge Desktop
Gnome: 3.28.2
OS type: 64-bit

[QIII]

Hello!

Who is the OEM and what is the model number of your machine?

[andrea.mamprin]

Hello!

Who is the OEM and what is the model number of your machine?

Thank you for your very prompt response.

My pc is an assembled one. The motherboard is Asus P8H61-M LX3 R2.0.
Is this information useful for you?

[QIII]

There may be something about that particular motherboard and Linux somewhere. I'll look as I have time.

In the meantime, let's check to see if you have a runaway process or something.

When it gets hot, please issue the following in the command line:


top

Paste back the results.

[QIII]

All I am finding is to use thermald or tlp, which you have already tried.

How did you configure them?

[andrea.mamprin]

There may be something about that particular motherboard and Linux somewhere. I'll look as I have time.

In the meantime, let's check to see if you have a runaway process or something.

When it gets hot, please issue the following in the command line:


top

Paste back the results.


Here it is!



top - 23:42:00 up 7 min, 1 user, load average: 10,60, 4,19, 1,76
Tasks: 287 total, 2 running, 234 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
%Cpu(s): 58,4 us, 32,3 sy, 0,0 ni, 3,4 id, 5,3 wa, 0,0 hi, 0,6 si, 0,0 st
KiB Mem : 7860000 total, 2701372 free, 2863912 used, 2294716 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 2097148 total, 2097148 free, 0 used. 4263428 avail Mem

PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
2828 andrea 20 0 1052080 348316 77620 R 68,4 4,4 0:11.98 chrome
2665 andrea 20 0 1106680 248048 99020 S 39,9 3,2 0:17.10 chrome
2848 andrea 20 0 996520 343092 77372 S 38,5 4,4 0:09.84 chrome
2913 root -51 0 0 0 0 S 34,2 0,0 0:02.42 kidle_inject/0
2914 root -51 0 0 0 0 S 34,2 0,0 0:02.42 kidle_inject/1
2915 root -51 0 0 0 0 S 34,2 0,0 0:02.42 kidle_inject/2
2916 root -51 0 0 0 0 S 34,2 0,0 0:02.42 kidle_inject/3
1861 andrea 20 0 3353328 241724 59720 S 23,6 3,1 1:58.22 dropbox
2222 andrea 20 0 1799760 241964 120624 S 19,3 3,1 0:11.73 chrome
2527 andrea 20 0 849552 169912 65780 S 18,6 2,2 0:10.68 chrome
2288 andrea 20 0 599420 129532 91340 S 12,6 1,6 0:06.09 chrome
1617 andrea 20 0 3850244 327264 73064 S 10,3 4,2 0:23.39 gnome-shell
2732 andrea 20 0 1072504 123676 70384 S 5,3 1,6 0:01.21 chrome
1487 andrea 20 0 373448 79892 56880 S 4,7 1,0 0:03.88 Xorg
1638 andrea 9 -11 1696656 12924 9672 S 1,3 0,2 0:00.69 pulseaudio
2253 andrea 20 0 800524 37660 27680 S 1,3 0,5 0:00.49 gnome-terminal-
2566 andrea 20 0 748924 99140 70596 S 1,0 1,3 0:00.38 chrome
2814 andrea 20 0 822804 152212 77208 S 1,0 1,9 0:02.11 chrome
1053 gdm 20 0 3308568 119352 65140 S 0,7 1,5 0:02.10 gnome-shell
2359 andrea 20 0 51484 4216 3480 R 0,7 0,1 0:00.19 top
17 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:00.20 kworker/1:0
47 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:00.17 kworker/2:1
198 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:00.33 kworker/2:1H
227 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0,3 0,0 0:00.19 jbd2/sda2-8
2200 andrea 20 0 813292 39172 30456 S 0,3 0,5 0:01.12 psensor
2474 andrea 20 0 720188 84152 60836 S 0,3 1,1 0:00.26 chrome
2776 andrea 20 0 733500 92676 63856 S 0,3 1,2 0:00.38 chrome
1 root 20 0 225444 9176 6604 S 0,0 0,1 0:01.24 systemd
2 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 kthreadd
4 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 kworker/0:0H
5 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,0 0,0 0:00.05 kworker/u8:0
6 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 mm_percpu_wq
7 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.01 ksoftirqd/0
8 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,0 0,0 0:00.22 rcu_sched
9 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 rcu_bh
10 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 migration/0
11 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 watchdog/0
12 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 cpuhp/0
13 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 cpuhp/1
14 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 watchdog/1
15 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 migration/1
16 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.01 ksoftirqd/1
18 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 kworker/1:0H
19 root 20 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 cpuhp/2
20 root rt 0 0 0 0 S 0,0 0,0 0:00.00 watchdog/2

[andrea.mamprin]

All I am finding is to use thermald or tlp, which you have already tried.

How did you configure them?

I only installed them, the instructions I've found are not explaining about configuration.
However, I've tried to configure intel_pstate with no results.

[QIII]

There appear to be two problems:

1. Chrome is sucking up a lot of cycles on at least one of your cores.

2. kidle_inject is sucking up a lot.

For the kidle_inject issue, you might want to look through this confirmed-but-not-resolved bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1389077) on launchpad. It's four years old, but there may be a regression.

[QIII]

By the way, please enclose all commands and output from the terminal in code tags. That preserves formatting and makes your posts easier to read.

To use code tags, either:

1. Click the "paperclip" icon in the toolbar, place your cursor between the code tags that appear and type or paste your text. Alternatively, type or paste your text, highlight it and then click the paperclip button.

2. Type
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[Doug S]

I would suggest using turbostat (linux-tools-common package) to attempt to assess what is going on with your computer. For just an overview:

sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15And then perhaps more to see that it is actually going into deep idle states when the inject stuff is used (not sure what your deepest idle state is):

sudo turbostat --quiet --Summary --hide Avg_MHz,SMI,GFXMHz,TSC_MHz,GFXWatt,CorWatt,CPU%c1, CPU%c3,CPU%c6,CPU%c7,CoreTmp,G*​FX%rc6,Pkg%pc2,Pkg %pc3,Pkg%pc6 --interval 15
check your idle states with:

grep . /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state*/name
You could try disabling intel_powerclamp, and use thermald instead, using this config file (https://askubuntu.com/questions/897217/cpu-overheating-on-ubuntu-16-04-msi-ge40/897856#897856).

EDIT: By the way, that motherboard should not have a cooling problem. i.e. you should be able to go flat out without exceeding critical temperatures. Are your fans working O.K. and your thermal paste between your processor and heat sink good?

[andrea.mamprin]

There appear to be two problems:

1. Chrome is sucking up a lot of cycles on at least one of your cores.

2. kidle_inject is sucking up a lot.

For the kidle_inject issue, you might want to look through this confirmed-but-not-resolved bug (https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1389077) on launchpad. It's four years old, but there may be a regression.


Thanks for the suggestion.
My feeling is that the overheating is not depending on a specific process.
I'm starting monitoring the top processes in different moments when temperature boosts.
In the case shown below, for example, the temperature rises when I start downloading podcasts with Rhythmbox and backup them with Dropbox.


andrea@andreaUbu:~$ top

top - 13:07:41 up 1:33, 1 user, load average: 2,68, 2,73, 1,97
Tasks: 308 total, 2 running, 252 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
%Cpu(s): 12,2 us, 0,8 sy, 0,0 ni, 63,5 id, 23,2 wa, 0,0 hi, 0,3 si, 0,0 st
KiB Mem : 7860000 total, 1291672 free, 3054204 used, 3514124 buff/cache
KiB Swap: 2097148 total, 2097148 free, 0 used. 4096596 avail Mem


PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
1879 andrea 20 0 3406560 615588 64828 S 37,9 7,8 13:08.16 dropbox
1630 andrea 20 0 3869492 338188 76348 S 5,3 4,3 3:50.40 gnome-shell
7955 andrea 20 0 545624 20732 12048 R 4,0 0,3 0:29.09 gvfsd-http
1500 andrea 20 0 407184 86048 60148 S 2,0 1,1 1:02.98 Xorg
8968 andrea 20 0 1452868 82972 44860 S 1,3 1,1 0:15.75 rhythmbox
10247 andrea 20 0 799180 36472 27572 S 0,7 0,5 0:00.32 gnome-term+
208 root 0 -20 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:02.66 kworker/2:+
239 root 20 0 0 0 0 D 0,3 0,0 0:04.29 jbd2/sda2-8
1613 andrea 20 0 220772 6932 6216 S 0,3 0,1 0:00.51 at-spi2-re+
1840 andrea 20 0 1265568 74444 43940 S 0,3 0,9 0:08.82 nautilus-d+
1865 andrea 20 0 204888 6680 6020 S 0,3 0,1 0:00.92 ibus-engin+
2135 andrea 20 0 813288 38808 30100 S 0,3 0,5 0:21.03 psensor
3741 andrea 20 0 3210436 305604 119732 S 0,3 3,9 0:33.51 chrome
4209 andrea 20 0 1546100 97180 65956 S 0,3 1,2 0:05.04 chrome
4896 andrea 20 0 1598020 122484 75520 S 0,3 1,6 0:03.71 chrome
6006 root 20 0 0 0 0 I 0,3 0,0 0:01.26 kworker/u8+
6075 andrea 20 0 1337400 250172 129068 S 0,3 3,2 1:49.78 chrome


There is no trace of kidle_inject.

However I attemp to manage the priority of temperature controllers editing the file thermal-cpu-cdev-order.xml, as described in the link you suggest, but with no results.

[andrea.mamprin]

I would suggest using turbostat (linux-tools-common package) to attempt to assess what is going on with your computer. For just an overview:

sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15And then perhaps more to see that it is actually going into deep idle states when the inject stuff is used (not sure what your deepest idle state is):

sudo turbostat --quiet --Summary --hide Avg_MHz,SMI,GFXMHz,TSC_MHz,GFXWatt,CorWatt,CPU%c1, CPU%c3,CPU%c6,CPU%c7,CoreTmp,G*​FX%rc6,Pkg%pc2,Pkg %pc3,Pkg%pc6 --interval 15
check your idle states with:

grep . /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state*/name
You could try disabling intel_powerclamp, and use thermald instead, using this config file (https://askubuntu.com/questions/897217/cpu-overheating-on-ubuntu-16-04-msi-ge40/897856#897856).

EDIT: By the way, that motherboard should not have a cooling problem. i.e. you should be able to go flat out without exceeding critical temperatures. Are your fans working O.K. and your thermal paste between your processor and heat sink good?

Hi Doug. Thank you for your contribution.
The turbostat analysis give the following data.


andrea@andreaUbu:~$ sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15[sudo] password for andrea:
Busy% Bzy_MHz PkgTmp PkgWatt
4.38 2603 63 25.75
1.51 2031 63 23.51
2.85 2475 62 24.59
1.22 1818 61 24.01
1.63 1953 60 23.51
1.28 1724 59 23.17
3.46 2394 61 24.52
2.70 2344 59 25.20
10.04 2567 67 29.59
12.39 2643 65 29.70
13.86 2643 67 30.95
14.33 2662 76 31.00
22.43 2934 78 35.67
21.12 2779 78 37.99
17.50 2697 77 36.34
25.22 2818 85 40.96
24.42 2784 86 40.79
17.77 2761 83 36.73
14.17 2574 79 33.47



my idle states

andrea@andreaUbu:~$ grep . /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state*/name/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state0/name:POLL
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state1/name:C1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state2/name:C1E
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state3/name:C3
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpuidle/state4/name:C6



andrea@andreaUbu:~$ sudo turbostat --quiet --Summary --hide Avg_MHz,SMI,GFXMHz,TSC_MHz,GFXWatt,Corwatt,CPU%c1, CPU%c3,CPU%c6,CoreTmp,G*​FX%rc6,Pkg%pc2,Pkg%pc3,Pk g%pc6 --interval 15
Busy% Bzy_MHz IRQ C1 C1E C3 C6 C1% C1E% C3% C6% CPU%c7 PkgTmp GFX%rc6 PkgWatt CorWatt
10.99 2232 16991 4741 6185 3439 28857 2.29 7.21 2.76 76.17 0.00 86 0.00 34.89 8.07
13.75 2378 21575 4588 7775 4568 29719 2.92 7.25 3.26 72.13 0.00 80 0.93 37.34 9.69
11.12 2223 16548 3137 5505 3341 22681 3.16 5.03 2.50 77.76 0.00 78 16.11 34.11 8.11
2.97 2328 5929 1593 698 166 5444 6.06 0.73 0.21 89.99 0.00 69 7.19 24.94 4.47
3.58 2440 5613 1996 1031 324 5533 7.11 1.40 0.29 87.55 0.00 70 8.00 24.93 4.62
19.40 2606 36846 5971 9158 5907 26624 2.90 6.06 4.27 66.64 0.00 77 10.16 36.26 10.65
27.58 2822 42141 7888 13483 6430 19703 4.23 6.81 3.74 56.89 0.00 89 11.20 40.69 14.21
12.84 2409 30271 4401 9994 6862 23248 4.06 5.31 3.90 73.34 0.00 82 17.52 33.94 8.96
15.72 2286 28128 3782 10391 5523 38875 2.40 8.83 4.39 67.66 0.00 83 0.00 38.59 10.52
12.48 1973 24399 2820 7578 4006 39524 1.44 7.73 3.24 74.19 0.00 89 0.00 36.78 8.71
18.77 2473 25589 2857 7607 3753 37100 1.71 7.45 3.02 68.06 0.00 84 0.00 40.20 11.60


My fans are o.k., just cleaned the pc a few months ago. I don't known was is the state of thermal paste, but I'll investigate with my assistant.

[Doug S]

Your processor is getting hotter than expected for what it is doing. It is properly going into deep idle states which consume negligible power. I am a server guy, so I always forget about graphics. Have a look with this command (from memory, I might not have syntax or position of "GFXWatt" correct):


sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,GFXWatt,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15
Could you also post the big spew of stuff at the start of the command if you delete the "--quiet" option.

[andrea.mamprin]

Your processor is getting hotter than expected for what it is doing. It is properly going into deep idle states which consume negligible power. I am a server guy, so I always forget about graphics. Have a look with this command (from memory, I might not have syntax or position of "GFXWatt" correct):


sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,GFXWatt,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15
Could you also post the big spew of stuff at the start of the command if you delete the "--quiet" option.

Here it is:


andrea@andreaUbu:~$ sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,GFXWatt,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15[sudo] password for andrea:
Busy% Bzy_MHz PkgTmp PkgWatt GFXWatt
5.57 2606 64 24.71 0.79
7.97 2668 64 25.92 1.23
8.13 2594 65 27.90 2.45
3.11 2375 62 23.56 0.29
18.70 2998 79 31.94 2.58
11.26 2842 77 27.82 0.79
14.49 2869 69 33.03 3.63
7.93 2632 71 29.45 3.46
10.44 2567 69 30.43 3.41
2.93 1968 65 24.82 1.26
10.91 2557 70 30.48 3.52
15.19 2589 76 35.08 5.68
4.36 2083 72 29.31 3.96
3.50 2104 69 27.14 2.97
30.09 2794 93 41.27 6.45
21.63 2515 77 35.04 4.07
17.99 2262 74 30.43 2.47
15.62 2082 72 28.70 2.12
31.11 2603 85 41.24 6.36
32.80 2623 90 47.33 9.49
27.88 2329 93 44.69 9.81
26.51 2245 92 44.60 10.17
29.45 2414 96 47.70 11.01
22.79 2146 89 41.87 9.40




turbostat version 17.06.23 - Len Brown <lenb@kernel.org>
CPUID(0): GenuineIntel 13 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping 0x6:3a:9 (6:58:9)
CPUID(1): SSE3 MONITOR - EIST TM2 TSC MSR ACPI-TM TM
CPUID(6): APERF, TURBO, DTS, PTM, No-HWP, No-HWPnotify, No-HWPwindow, No-HWPepp, No-HWPpkg, EPB
cpu1: MSR_IA32_MISC_ENABLE: 0x00850089 (TCC EIST No-MWAIT PREFETCH TURBO)
CPUID(7): No-SGX
cpu1: MSR_MISC_PWR_MGMT: 0x00400000 (ENable-EIST_Coordination DISable-EPB DISable-OOB)
RAPL: 851 sec. Joule Counter Range, at 77 Watts
cpu1: MSR_PLATFORM_INFO: 0x81010e0011e00
16 * 100.0 = 1600.0 MHz max efficiency frequency
30 * 100.0 = 3000.0 MHz base frequency
cpu1: MSR_IA32_POWER_CTL: 0x0014005d (C1E auto-promotion: DISabled)
cpu1: MSR_TURBO_RATIO_LIMIT: 0x1e1f2020
30 * 100.0 = 3000.0 MHz max turbo 4 active cores
31 * 100.0 = 3100.0 MHz max turbo 3 active cores
32 * 100.0 = 3200.0 MHz max turbo 2 active cores
32 * 100.0 = 3200.0 MHz max turbo 1 active cores
cpu1: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_NOMINAL: 0x0000001e (base_ratio=30)
cpu1: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_LEVEL_1: 0x1e0000000000000 (PKG_MIN_PWR_LVL1=480 PKG_MAX_PWR_LVL1=0 LVL1_RATIO=0 PKG_TDP_LVL1=0)
cpu1: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_LEVEL_2: 0x1e0000000000000 (PKG_MIN_PWR_LVL2=480 PKG_MAX_PWR_LVL2=0 LVL2_RATIO=0 PKG_TDP_LVL2=0)
cpu1: MSR_CONFIG_TDP_CONTROL: 0x80000000 ( lock=1)
cpu1: MSR_TURBO_ACTIVATION_RATIO: 0x00000000 (MAX_NON_TURBO_RATIO=0 lock=0)
cpu1: MSR_PKG_CST_CONFIG_CONTROL: 0x1e008402 (UNdemote-C3, UNdemote-C1, demote-C3, demote-C1, locked: pkg-cstate-limit=2: pc6n)
cpu1: cpufreq driver: acpi-cpufreq
cpu1: cpufreq governor: ondemand
cpufreq boost: 1
cpu1: MSR_MISC_FEATURE_CONTROL: 0x00000000 (L2-Prefetch L2-Prefetch-pair L1-Prefetch L1-IP-Prefetch)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_ENERGY_PERF_BIAS: 0x00000000 (performance)
cpu0: MSR_RAPL_POWER_UNIT: 0x000a1003 (0.125000 Watts, 0.000015 Joules, 0.000977 sec.)
cpu0: MSR_PKG_POWER_INFO: 0xd000001e00268 (77 W TDP, RAPL 60 - 0 W, 0.012695 sec.)
cpu0: MSR_PKG_POWER_LIMIT: 0x8000830200148268 (locked)
cpu0: PKG Limit #1: ENabled (77.000000 Watts, 1.000000 sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: PKG Limit #2: ENabled (96.250000 Watts, 0.000977* sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: MSR_PP0_POLICY: 0
cpu0: MSR_PP0_POWER_LIMIT: 0x00000000 (UNlocked)
cpu0: Cores Limit: DISabled (0.000000 Watts, 0.000977 sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: MSR_PP1_POLICY: 0
cpu0: MSR_PP1_POWER_LIMIT: 0x00000000 (UNlocked)
cpu0: GFX Limit: DISabled (0.000000 Watts, 0.000977 sec, clamp DISabled)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_TEMPERATURE_TARGET: 0x00691400 (105 C)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_PACKAGE_THERM_STATUS: 0x881d0002 (76 C)
cpu0: MSR_IA32_PACKAGE_THERM_INTERRUPT: 0x00000003 (105 C, 105 C)
cpu1: MSR_PKGC3_IRTL: 0x0000883b (valid, 60416 ns)
cpu1: MSR_PKGC6_IRTL: 0x00008850 (valid, 81920 ns)
cpu1: MSR_PKGC7_IRTL: 0x00008857 (valid, 89088 ns)

[Doug S]

As I mentioned previously, your processor seems to run too hot for the given load. I assume you have a good processor heat sink with an attached fan. (?) Is the fan spinning faster when the processor is hot? If it were me, I would toss out anything else attempting to throttle things, and use thermald with the configuration file I pointed to earlier, but set to 75 or 80 degrees.

[andrea.mamprin]

Yes, my fans are cooling faster, that was the clue that made me realize that there was a high temperatures issue.
My PSU is Thermaltake toughpower gold 750w.

Now, I'll try to configure thermald as you suggest and I'll tell you what happens.

[andrea.mamprin]

I've changed the thermal-conf.xml file changing <Temperature> from 55000 to 75000. Is it right? Well... it seems to me that nothing relevant happens with processor temperature.

[Doug S]

I've changed the thermal-conf.xml file changing <Temperature> from 55000 to 75000. Is it right? Well... it seems to me that nothing relevant happens with processor temperature.Just for a test, change it to 45 degrees. Does that have an effect? Is thermald running? What command do you use to re-start it with the new configuration file?

My test server is doing a 17 hour test at the moment, so i can not try it just now.

[andrea.mamprin]

Just for a test, change it to 45 degrees. Does that have an effect? Is thermald running? What command do you use to re-start it with the new configuration file?

My test server is doing a 17 hour test at the moment, so i can not try it just now.

When I changed the thermal-conf.xml parameter, I execute in terminal the following code


sudo service thermald restart

Is it right? How can I understand if thermld is running?

[CatKiller]

It does sound like a thermal interface problem to me. The fans are going crazy because they're cooling the heatsink, which isn't in thermal contact with the cpu, and the cpu isn't getting any cooler.

Even with a crappy heatsink, under heavy load, your processor wouldn't be getting that hot if the interface were good.

[QIII]

Is this a dual-boot system. Does it still behave normally in Windows if it is?

Have you recently opened the machine and perhaps bumped the cooler?

[Doug S]

You can observe the status of thermald via:


doug@s15:~/idle$ sudo systemctl status thermald.service
[sudo] password for doug:
● thermald.service - Thermal Daemon Service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/thermald.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-12-19 23:50:55 PST; 2min 52s ago
Main PID: 13755 (thermald)
Tasks: 2
Memory: 1.5M
CPU: 23ms
CGroup: /system.slice/thermald.service
└─13755 /usr/sbin/thermald --no-daemon --dbus-enable

Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 systemd[1]: Starting Thermal Daemon Service...
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 systemd[1]: Started Thermal Daemon Service.
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 thermald[13755]: 13 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping 0x6:2a:7 (6:42:7)
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 thermald[13755]: Polling mode is enabled: 4
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 thermald[13755]: XML zone: invalid sensor type []
You can re-start it via:

sudo systemctl restart thermald.service
I re-installed it on my test server and set the trigger temperature to 55 degrees. I fully loaded all of my CPUs with thermald disabled, then enabled it. Turbostat output:

doug@s15:~$ sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15
Busy% Bzy_MHz PkgTmp PkgWatt
100.00 3400 66 57.75
100.00 3400 67 58.23
100.00 3400 69 58.59
100.00 3400 70 58.85
100.00 3400 71 58.97
100.00 3199 65 54.54 <<< Thermald service started.
98.96 1678 58 23.68
71.25 1600 55 17.26
69.45 1600 54 16.82
88.33 1600 54 20.33
100.00 1600 52 22.44
100.00 1909 54 27.60
100.00 2114 55 31.15
100.00 1743 56 24.72
100.00 1862 51 26.85
100.00 2045 56 29.91
100.00 2035 53 29.79
100.00 1869 55 26.99
100.00 1945 53 28.20
100.00 1909 54 27.62
100.00 1770 55 25.23
100.00 1817 54 26.08
EDIT: I am using the intel_pstate CPU frequency scaling driver and the powersave governor. For less extreme temperature control thermald limits CPU via the max percent setting:

doug@s15:~/idle$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/max_perf_pct
60If the temperature is still too high, even at minimum CPU frequency, then thermald starts to use "kidle_inject", which is why you see my "Busy%" drop below 100%, for a short time, above. Also:

doug@s15:~$ sudo turbostat --quiet --Summary --hide Avg_MHz,SMI,GFXMHz,TSC_MHz,GFXWatt,CorWatt,IRQ,POL L,C1,C1E,C3,C6,CPU%c1,CPU%c3,CPU%c6,CPU%c7,CoreTmp ,GFX%rc6,Pkg%pc2,Pkg%pc3,Pkg%pc6 --interval 5
Busy% Bzy_MHz POLL% C1% C1E% C3% C6% PkgTmp PkgWatt
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 74 59.69
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 74 59.74
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.69
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.69
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 74 59.68
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 76 59.74
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.72
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.74
100.00 3241 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 71 56.11 <<< Thermald enabled
100.00 2358 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 65 36.86 <<< Thermald starts by lowering the maximum CPU frequency
100.00 1712 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 62 24.71
99.88 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.12 61 22.77 <<<< Processor is still too hot, even at minimum CPU frequency. Thermald starts using kidle_inject
92.67 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7.34 60 21.36 <<<< Kidle_inject forces C6, the deepest and lowest energy idle state (for mine, and your, processor)
80.66 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 19.35 58 19.07
61.64 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 38.38 56 15.49
50.57 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 49.45 56 13.51
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.17 55 13.35 <<<< Minimum CPU frequency and 50% idle.
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.17 55 13.33
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.17 53 13.28
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.18 52 13.28
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.18 52 13.23
51.60 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 48.42 51 13.56 <<<< Temperature undershoots target
57.74 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 42.28 51 14.71
64.30 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 35.71 51 15.86
71.26 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 28.75 51 17.17
77.15 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 22.86 52 18.18
83.29 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 16.72 51 19.30
89.44 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.57 52 20.44
96.26 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.74 52 21.70
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.38 <<<< Thermald has now removed kidle_inject
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.41
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.38
100.00 1668 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 23.42 <<<< And even starts to increase the CPU max Frequency
100.00 2071 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 56 30.24
100.00 2050 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 29.98
100.00 2220 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 33.10
100.00 1832 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 26.17
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.40
100.00 1788 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 25.44 <<<< It is not a great servo system, so oscillates some.
100.00 1660 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 54 23.42
100.00 1991 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 28.85
100.00 2129 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 31.47
100.00 1712 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 24.26
100.00 1609 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 22.63


I noticed you are using the acpi-cpufreq CPU scaling driver. I do not know how thermald works with it, but I assume it does.

[andrea.mamprin]

Is this a dual-boot system. Does it still behave normally in Windows if it is?

Have you recently opened the machine and perhaps bumped the cooler?

No my system is not a dual-boot one. Only ubtuntu. A few months ago I was using windows OS and the fans was very noiseless. Then I install ubuntu 16.04 and the fan start work harder. I supposed the problem was due to an excessive use of processor, a batch R script that download json file via Twitter Rest Api is running all the time. I discover that R was creating a giant history archive that blocked my memory. Once this problem has been overcome, the fan was reducing their work just a little bit. Some weeks ago I upgraded Ubuntu (18.04) and for a few days I've not worked with the batch script. Neverthless the fan was cooling almost all the time. So i keep exploring the overheating problem.

I'm not an expert in the hardware part, so this work is done by a computer technician. It was cleaning the pc a few months ago, when ubuntu was already installed. It seems to me that the fan action was the same before and after cleaning.

[CatKiller]

The thermal paste goes between the processor and the heatsink. I'm sure the fans are keeping the heatsink nice and cool, but not actually cooling the processor itself.

Air is a rubbish thermal conductor, so you use paste to keep contact between the chip and heatsink without any bubbles.

[andrea.mamprin]

You can observe the status of thermald via:


doug@s15:~/idle$ sudo systemctl status thermald.service
[sudo] password for doug:
● thermald.service - Thermal Daemon Service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/thermald.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2018-12-19 23:50:55 PST; 2min 52s ago
Main PID: 13755 (thermald)
Tasks: 2
Memory: 1.5M
CPU: 23ms
CGroup: /system.slice/thermald.service
└─13755 /usr/sbin/thermald --no-daemon --dbus-enable

Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 systemd[1]: Starting Thermal Daemon Service...
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 systemd[1]: Started Thermal Daemon Service.
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 thermald[13755]: 13 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping 0x6:2a:7 (6:42:7)
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 thermald[13755]: Polling mode is enabled: 4
Dec 19 23:50:55 s15 thermald[13755]: XML zone: invalid sensor type []
You can re-start it via:

sudo systemctl restart thermald.service
I re-installed it on my test server and set the trigger temperature to 55 degrees. I fully loaded all of my CPUs with thermald disabled, then enabled it. Turbostat output:

doug@s15:~$ sudo turbostat --Summary --quiet --show Busy%,Bzy_MHz,PkgTmp,PkgWatt --interval 15
Busy% Bzy_MHz PkgTmp PkgWatt
100.00 3400 66 57.75
100.00 3400 67 58.23
100.00 3400 69 58.59
100.00 3400 70 58.85
100.00 3400 71 58.97
100.00 3199 65 54.54 <<< Thermald service started.
98.96 1678 58 23.68
71.25 1600 55 17.26
69.45 1600 54 16.82
88.33 1600 54 20.33
100.00 1600 52 22.44
100.00 1909 54 27.60
100.00 2114 55 31.15
100.00 1743 56 24.72
100.00 1862 51 26.85
100.00 2045 56 29.91
100.00 2035 53 29.79
100.00 1869 55 26.99
100.00 1945 53 28.20
100.00 1909 54 27.62
100.00 1770 55 25.23
100.00 1817 54 26.08
EDIT: I am using the intel_pstate CPU frequency scaling driver and the powersave governor. For less extreme temperature control thermald limits CPU via the max percent setting:

doug@s15:~/idle$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/max_perf_pct
60If the temperature is still too high, even at minimum CPU frequency, then thermald starts to use "kidle_inject", which is why you see my "Busy%" drop below 100%, for a short time, above. Also:

doug@s15:~$ sudo turbostat --quiet --Summary --hide Avg_MHz,SMI,GFXMHz,TSC_MHz,GFXWatt,CorWatt,IRQ,POL L,C1,C1E,C3,C6,CPU%c1,CPU%c3,CPU%c6,CPU%c7,CoreTmp ,GFX%rc6,Pkg%pc2,Pkg%pc3,Pkg%pc6 --interval 5
Busy% Bzy_MHz POLL% C1% C1E% C3% C6% PkgTmp PkgWatt
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 74 59.69
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 74 59.74
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.69
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.69
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 74 59.68
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 76 59.74
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.72
100.00 3400 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 75 59.74
100.00 3241 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 71 56.11 <<< Thermald enabled
100.00 2358 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 65 36.86 <<< Thermald starts by lowering the maximum CPU frequency
100.00 1712 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 62 24.71
99.88 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.12 61 22.77 <<<< Processor is still too hot, even at minimum CPU frequency. Thermald starts using kidle_inject
92.67 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 7.34 60 21.36 <<<< Kidle_inject forces C6, the deepest and lowest energy idle state (for mine, and your, processor)
80.66 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 19.35 58 19.07
61.64 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 38.38 56 15.49
50.57 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 49.45 56 13.51
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.17 55 13.35 <<<< Minimum CPU frequency and 50% idle.
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.17 55 13.33
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.17 53 13.28
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.18 52 13.28
49.85 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 50.18 52 13.23
51.60 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 48.42 51 13.56 <<<< Temperature undershoots target
57.74 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 42.28 51 14.71
64.30 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 35.71 51 15.86
71.26 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 28.75 51 17.17
77.15 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 22.86 52 18.18
83.29 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 16.72 51 19.30
89.44 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 10.57 52 20.44
96.26 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 3.74 52 21.70
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.38 <<<< Thermald has now removed kidle_inject
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.41
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.38
100.00 1668 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 23.42 <<<< And even starts to increase the CPU max Frequency
100.00 2071 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 56 30.24
100.00 2050 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 29.98
100.00 2220 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 33.10
100.00 1832 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 26.17
100.00 1600 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 52 22.40
100.00 1788 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 25.44 <<<< It is not a great servo system, so oscillates some.
100.00 1660 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 54 23.42
100.00 1991 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 28.85
100.00 2129 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 55 31.47
100.00 1712 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 24.26
100.00 1609 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 53 22.63


I noticed you are using the acpi-cpufreq CPU scaling driver. I do not know how thermald works with it, but I assume it does.


Following your suggestion I've checked if termald was working. The status is active, nevertheless the ouput tells me that "sysfs write failed".


andrea@andreaUbu:~$ sudo systemctl status thermald.service[sudo] password for andrea:
● thermald.service - Thermal Daemon Service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/thermald.service; enabled; vendor preset:
Active: active (running) since Fri 2018-12-21 09:49:43 -05; 1h 36min ago
Main PID: 814 (thermald)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/thermald.service
└─814 /usr/sbin/thermald --no-daemon --dbus-enable


dic 21 09:49:44 andreaUbu thermald[814]: 13 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping
dic 21 09:49:44 andreaUbu thermald[814]: Polling mode is enabled: 4
dic 21 09:49:42 andreaUbu systemd[1]: Starting Thermal Daemon Service...
dic 21 09:49:43 andreaUbu systemd[1]: Started Thermal Daemon Service.
dic 21 09:49:46 andreaUbu thermald[814]: sysfs write failed /sys/devices/virtual
dic 21 11:06:36 andreaUbu thermald[814]: sysfs write failed /sys/devices/virtual
dic 21 11:06:36 andreaUbu thermald[814]: sysfs write failed /sys/devices/virtual
lines 1-15/15 (END)...skipping...
● thermald.service - Thermal Daemon Service
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/thermald.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fri 2018-12-21 09:49:43 -05; 1h 36min ago
Main PID: 814 (thermald)
Tasks: 2 (limit: 4915)
CGroup: /system.slice/thermald.service
└─814 /usr/sbin/thermald --no-daemon --dbus-enable


dic 21 09:49:44 andreaUbu thermald[814]: 13 CPUID levels; family:model:stepping 0x6:3a:9 (6:58:9)
dic 21 09:49:44 andreaUbu thermald[814]: Polling mode is enabled: 4
dic 21 09:49:42 andreaUbu systemd[1]: Starting Thermal Daemon Service...
dic 21 09:49:43 andreaUbu systemd[1]: Started Thermal Daemon Service.
dic 21 09:49:46 andreaUbu thermald[814]: sysfs write failed /sys/devices/virtual/powercap/intel-rapl/intel-rapl:0/enabled
dic 21 11:06:36 andreaUbu thermald[814]: sysfs write failed /sys/devices/virtual/powercap/intel-rapl/intel-rapl:0/enabled
dic 21 11:06:36 andreaUbu thermald[814]: sysfs write failed /sys/devices/virtual/powercap/intel-rapl/intel-rapl:0/constraint_0_power_limit_uw




In this link (https://github.com/intel/thermal_daemon/issues/148#issuecomment-388573608) I found this tip: "This probably means that the system vendor has disabled modifying the power limits for the CPU". Is it right? How can I bypass this situation?

[CatKiller]

Have you got
intel_pstate=enable in your grub? It used to be a necessary step, but I don't know if it still is.

[andrea.mamprin]

Have you got
intel_pstate=enable in your grub? It used to be a necessary step, but I don't know if it still is.

Yes I've enabled it and then disabled it. It seems to me that the fan works harder when pstate is enabled.

[Doug S]

In this link (https://github.com/intel/thermal_daemon/issues/148#issuecomment-388573608) I found this tip: "This probably means that the system vendor has disabled modifying the power limits for the CPU". Is it right? How can I bypass this situation?For my configuration file, you don't need to bypass the situation, because it shouldn't exist. That stuff is disabled for my processor also. (use the intel_pstate CPU frequency scaling driver)

[Doug S]

Have you got
intel_pstate=enable in your grub? It used to be a necessary step, but I don't know if it still is.It is no longer needed. It is the default CPU frequency driver for the appropriate Intel processors.

[pqwoerituytrueiwoq]

Unless your ambient temp is near unbearable you should not be able to get temps of 80C+ without a synthetic stress test (or mining software) running without a hardware level issue, bad cooler mount, bad paste application, no airflow
you should make sure the cooler is mounted properly and you have a good paste application
A lot of people flip out about how paste is applied, but given you use a NON-CONDUCTIVE paste, too little paste means overheating, too much makes cleaning it off in the future a mess
*Some CPU coolers come with a peal off plastic cover on the bottom you need to remove before installing
can you take some pictures around the cpu cooler in your system, maybe it is bad enough for us to see something from them


If you see lower temps with another OS this is probably why
The GPU load heating up the cpu, gnome is probably keeping the gpu under enough load it can not idle
if this is correct you will see lower temps using xubuntu or lubuntu, you can test this live

Assuming this is just cause the load is very high cause of the gnome desktop eating the GPU's processing power you could get a older gaming class GPU like the GTX 600 series or RX 400 series or getting a better cpu cooler like a Hyper 212 which run 15 to 30 USD make sure it will fit in your case before buying