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As far as I know Project Sputnik from Dell, it is a developer notebook with Ubuntu installed.

This notebook has a fan and some kernel module / driver / user land app to handle turning it on and off.

Does anyone could tell me which software controls the fan in this Ubuntu? Any reference.

vitorafsr
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2 Answers2

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I answered a similar question here on askubuntu, but it concerned Dell inspiron models so I can't flag your question as a duplicate, since it's not. I don't own your notebook model, but you can try and see if this guide will help you anyway.

I partially solved Dell fans and heating issues using i8kutils, a collection of utilities for Dell laptops. In this collection there is i8kmon, which is the utility I'm actually using right now.

How To solve Dell laptops fan issues in Ubuntu

  1. First of all, let's download and install i8kutils. Open your terminal and write:

sudo apt-get install i8kutils

  1. Now you've got to add i8k to your modules. Open the modules file:

sudo gedit /etc/modules

and add the string "i8k" (without quotes) to the file. Save and exit.

  1. Create an i8k.conf file

    sudo vim /etc/modprobe.d/i8k.conf

    and fill it with this code:

    options i8k force=1

Note: Some older guides will tell you to create a /modprobe.d/options file. The "options" file isn't used anymore on Ubuntu. What does matter is that you create a file with a .conf extension (the filename isn't important, but I decided to name it i8k.conf for clarity). So beware of older i8kmon configuration guides.

  1. Now restart your computer, or run this code to make i8k run:

sudo modprobe i8k force=1

  1. We will now create a i8kmon.conf file which will tell the i8kmon utility how to behave.

sudo gedit /etc/i8kmon.conf

Paste the following code in it:

    # Run as daemon, override with --daemon option
    set config(daemon)      0

# Automatic fan control, override with --auto option
set config(auto)        1

# Report status on stdout, override with --verbose option
set config(verbose) 1

# Status check timeout (seconds), override with --timeout option
set config(timeout) 20

# Temperature thresholds: {fan_speeds low_ac high_ac low_batt high_batt}
set config(0)   {{-1 0}  -1  40  -1  40}
set config(1)   {{-1 1}  30  60  30  60}
set config(2)   {{-1 2}  53  128  53  128}

# For computer with 2 fans, use a variant of this instead:
# Temperature thresholds: {fan_speeds low_ac high_ac low_batt high_batt}
# set config(0) {{-1 0}  -1  52  -1  65}
# set config(1) {{-1 1}  41  66  55  75}
# set config(2) {{-1 1}  55  80  65  85}
# set config(3) {{-1 2}  70 128  75 128}

# end of file

This has been edited to match my Dell Inspiron 15r 5521 fan configuration, but you should be able to change these settings for your particular needs. If you want more informations take a look at the documentation on Ubuntu Manuals: http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/gutsy/man1/i8kmon.1.html

  1. Now you should be able to run i8kmon from your terminal and see if (and how) it's working. Simply run:

i8kmon

Finished!

Sources:

Kurt Bourbaki
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  • Nice answer! But I'm particularly interested in the Dell model with Ubuntu pre-installed, from project Sputnik. I imagine that it is i8kutils but this is just a guess. I'm the developer of i8kutils and I'm trying to discover if Dell is using this software to control fan on their pre-installed Ubuntu laptop without providing any information to this development. Thanks for all, but this is not the answer I'm searching for. – vitorafsr Feb 13 '14 at 21:30
  • @vitorafsr Sorry, it seems like I misunderstood your purpose. I use this occasion to thank you for your great work on i8kutils: it really saved my mind and ears :) – Kurt Bourbaki Feb 14 '14 at 09:00
  • By chance @vitorafsr have you made any progress to get an answer? Also have an XPS 13 with fan problems. It seems I can't install i8kutils because i8kmon refuse to start. Any idea? See also my problem details here: http://askubuntu.com/questions/801226/fans-arent-fullspeed-while-cpu-is-100-then-cpu-frequency-decrease – Sebastien Lorber Jul 21 '16 at 10:06
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I have a Dell XPS 13 (2013 edition, the 2015+ edition may be different). The fan is primarily controlled by BIOS. It appears invisible to almost any Ubuntu software.

It responds to i8kutils commands, e.g. i8kfan 2 2 makes it run fast, but after a few seconds any i8kutils commends apparently get overwritten by BIOS (I have BIOS version A08 rev 0.1 according to "sudo dmidecode -s bios-version"), and i8kmon does not realise it. I am not aware of any way to stop BIOS from doing this, and that is a shame, because BIOS never keeps fan speed high for a long time. Rather, it appears to regulate the CPUs down. The reason might be that the fan would break when running high for a long time, and Dell are just too ashamed to tell us!?

user127094
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