laptop temperature/fan?

[ajy0852]

Hi,

I have a Toshiba Satellite L305 laptop. The fan frequently spins up (with high CPU usage) and won't spin back down until I reboot or shut down.

I don't think acpi -V is giving me the correct temperature:

     Battery 0: Full, 100%
  AC Adapter 0: on-line
     Thermal 0: ok, 0.0 degrees C
     Cooling 0: LCD 0 of 7
     Cooling 1: Processor 0 of 10
     Cooling 2: Processor 0 of 10
     Cooling 3: Fan 1 of 1

No matter when I check, it's 0.0 degrees Celsius. I'm guessing these problems are related, but I'm kind of a newbie in this area.

Any ideas? Let me know if I should post more information. Thanks!

[linux_tech]

You can install sensors-applet to show CPU, GPU, and HD temperatures.

sudo apt-get install sensors-applet

[ajy0852]

Thanks, but this also shows 0 degrees Celsius. It installed hddtemp as one of the dependencies, though, and I'm able to get a temperature reading on my hard drive (currently 38 degrees C, though I just started up again since I was gone for a while).

Edit: I found this blog post and followed the instructions there, it loaded the "coretemp" module for me which says my cpu is around 67-68 degrees C most of the time. My hard drive has settled at 46 degrees C. From what I've been able to find, these numbers are warm but not terrible, so I'll be OK. I don't know if this will affect the fan at all.

[mnd]

I've got a Toshiba L305-S5933 running 64-bit 8.10 and I had the same problem. After much googling, I found this fix that worked for me. Add

acpi_osi="Linux"

to the kernel boot options in grub. My fan now turns on (low speed) at about 50°C and turns off around 35°C.

[IlSeniore]

hi,

I just bought a Satellite L305-S5921 and experience the exact same problem. (Ubuntu 8.10 32bit)
Fan comes on when CPU usage is higher and then never turns off again. Remains at this one speed. I am totally new to Linux and am glad I got it to dual boot. Could you please tell me where I can find instructions (that I can understand and follow) to get your suggestion:
"acpi_osi="Linux"
installed?

Thanks!

[mnd]

There's a good GRUB HowTo at http://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto. Look at the section "Setting kernel parameters".

[IlSeniore]

There's a good GRUB HowTo at http://help.ubuntu.com/community/GrubHowto. Look at the section "Setting kernel parameters".

Thank you for your response. I edited the Kernel boot section, but the temperature reading is still "0.0" C So far it doesn't seem like the fan speed is controlled at all. It seems more that it remains in whatever speed it was during boot up. Any ideas how I can get the temperature to be read correctly?
Thanks.

[mnd]

Try installing the lm-sensors package.

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

[IlSeniore]

I installed the lm-sensors package. It also reads 0.0 degree Celsius.
When I run this laptop using Win Vista, the fan seems to be conrolled correctly. So I believe the internal sensor is working correctly.

[mnd]

How are you checking the CPU temperatures? Try running /usr/bin/sensors .