Bug 100851 - thinkpad_acpi with fan level=auto causes overheats
Summary: thinkpad_acpi with fan level=auto causes overheats
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: Drivers
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Platform_x86 (show other bugs)
Hardware: Intel Linux
: P1 normal
Assignee: drivers_platform_x86@kernel-bugs.osdl.org
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2015-07-03 01:44 UTC by Yill Din
Modified: 2015-07-20 13:35 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Kernel Version: 4.0.2
Subsystem:
Regression: No
Bisected commit-id:


Attachments
acpidump of my system (313.79 KB, text/plain)
2015-07-17 19:54 UTC, Yill Din
Details

Description Yill Din 2015-07-03 01:44:36 UTC
Hello, i have Thinkpad x201 and it overheats under load and fans do not even try to run faster in order to cool things down.

as workaround i use modprobe.conf:
options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1 fan="level disengaged"

however this is running too high when there is no load, therefore wasting my battery and fan lifetime.
some people are using userspace daemons and funky desktop applets that control fan speed according to temperature. i don't think this is way to go. there is already code for this in kernel, so we should probably use it instead.

my system is shutting down because of overheat, but i barely can feel any wind coming out of my fan. there's probably something wrong. if i set it manualy to level=7 or level=disengaged then i feel that fan is really blowing. this should probably happen with level=auto automatically when temperatures are rising too high, so there's no need to shutdown.

THX
Comment 1 Aaron Lu 2015-07-08 05:38:09 UTC
If the fan is controlled by thinkpad_acpi module, then we need to move it to the platform driver category.

BTW, does the standard ACPI fan work?

Please attach your acpidump, that is needed no matter where the bug belongs:
# acpidump > acpidump.txt

Thanks.
Comment 2 Yill Din 2015-07-17 19:54:25 UTC
Created attachment 183021 [details]
acpidump of my system
Comment 3 Yill Din 2015-07-17 19:56:00 UTC
> BTW, does the standard ACPI fan work?

how do i tell?

however i think that automatic fan control works a bit, but it need to be tuned up... maybe some way to manually adjust the tresholds to be more sensitive may be useful...
Comment 4 Aaron Lu 2015-07-20 02:07:07 UTC
Do you have any of the following files?
/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device* and if so, please check its type. If its type is Fan, then it should be ACPI standard fan device and you can check if they work or not by writing 0/1(on/off) to their cur_state file.
Comment 5 Yill Din 2015-07-20 04:46:20 UTC
I don't think so :-(

$ grep . /sys/class/thermal/cooling_device*/type

/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device0/type:Processor
/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device1/type:Processor
/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device2/type:Processor
/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device3/type:Processor
/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device4/type:intel_powerclamp
/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device5/type:LCD
Comment 6 Aaron Lu 2015-07-20 04:53:06 UTC
That means your fan is not controlled through standard ACPI but platform specific driver thinkpad_acpi, and that's why I moved the bug to platform_x86 category.
Comment 7 Yill Din 2015-07-20 13:35:55 UTC
well obviously... thinkpad_acpi module is probably not standart ACPI. it's IBM ACPI...

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