Thinkpad T420, Ubuntu 11.04 Fan running all the Time

[robin.nightingale]

Hi,

I got my Thinkpad T420 with Nvidia Optimus T420 4180W1H and without an OS a few days ago. In the BIOS I selected the integrated graphics adapter and then I installed Ubuntu 11.04. It looks like almost every driver got installed automatically. However, I have the problem that the fan runs all the time. Is that always the case?

I updated the BIOS from 1.16 to 1.23 but no change.
I found thinkfan, which seems to be a program to control the fan of Thinkpad Laptops, but iam not able to controle the Fanspeed with it.

Can anyone help ?
Thanks

[unagimiyagi]

Same problem here for an x220 running 11.04 ubuntu natty

[antskip]

I have a switchable gpu - in the bios I choose to use only the dedicated gpu...My fan ran constantly until I installed the ATI gpu drivers. Then silence.

[robin.nightingale]

What do you mean with

until I installed the ATI gpu drivers

Waht did you installed and what do you use now ?
cause i would love to get my machine silent.

[robin.nightingale]

I found out that thinkfan is not working, because the Packet /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal isnt existing anymore for newer thinkpad models. So we need to wait for an update for this (but its not shure if there will be one)

Alternate you can try to install (patch) Thinkpad Fan Control on your system.
http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkpad_Fan_Control

I didnt managed to do so sucesfully but iam stil working on it.
Tell me if you guys gonna make it.

[jonathanysp]

im planning to get a T420 soon, is the fan really noisy when its on all the time?

Also, just wondering, does everything else work nicely out of the box with natty?

[antskip]

What do you mean with
Waht did you installed and what do you use now ?
cause i would love to get my machine silent.

I just installed the proprietary ATI FGLRX graphics driver through "additional drivers" in system settings/control centre.

Everything (except my Epson scanner - need to look into that) worked just great right out of the box. But adding "additional drivers" in ubuntu software centre provides a heap of basic software that most people will want.

[kenden]

I just installed the proprietary ATI FGLRX graphics driver through "additional drivers" in system settings/control centre.

This does not apply to the Thinkpad T420, there is no ATI card in it.
There can be a Nvidia Optimus NVS 4200M.

[mejo]

i got thinkfan working on my t420:

1. install thinkfan package
2. add kernel module 'coretemp' to /etc/modules
3. load kernel module 'coretemp'
4. add the following three sensor entries to /etc/thinkfan.conf just before the temperature levels:

sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp1_input
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.2/temp1_input
sensor /sys/devices/virtual/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input

5. add the following to /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf:

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

6. reload kernel module 'thinkpad_acpi'
7. set START="yes" in /etc/default/thinkfan
8. start thinkfan: /etc/init.d/thinkfan start

9. check whether it works: cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

if level has a value between 0 and 7, and changes by times, your thinkfan daemon works.

I found the solution in the thinkpad wiki (only german) at http://thinkpad-wiki.org/Thinkfan#Ke..._Kernel_2.6.38

greetings,
jonas

[fraktalek]

Thanks for the report, @mejo, worked for me like a charm.