Getting thinkfan to work

[james-r]

I am following this guide: https://medium.com/@mirul/setting-up-th ... ec5108f75f.
My laptop is a Thinkpad T440P.
I did what described in the URL, until the line Configure thinkpad_acpi modprobe.
My

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/etc/thinkfan.conf

file is the following now:

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######################################################################
# thinkfan 0.7 example config file
# ================================
#
# ATTENTION: There is only very basic sanity checking on the configuration.
# That means you can set your temperature limits as insane as you like. You
# can do anything stupid, e.g. turn off your fan when your CPU reaches 70°C.
#
# That's why this program is called THINKfan: You gotta think for yourself.
#
######################################################################
#
# IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (thinkpad_acpi, /proc/acpi/ibm)
# ====================================================
#
# IMPORTANT:
#
# To keep your HD from overheating, you have to specify a correction value for
# the sensor that has the HD's temperature. You need to do this because
# thinkfan uses only the highest temperature it can find in the system, and
# that'll most likely never be your HD, as most HDs are already out of spec
# when they reach 55 °C.
# Correction values are applied from left to right in the same order as the
# temperatures are read from the file.
#
# For example:
# tp_thermal /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 0, 10)
# will add a fixed value of 10 °C the 3rd value read from that file. Check out
# http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thermal_Sensors to find out how much you may
# want to add to certain temperatures.

#  Syntax:
#  (LEVEL, LOW, HIGH)
#  LEVEL is the fan level to use (0-7 with thinkpad_acpi)
#  LOW is the temperature at which to step down to the previous level
#  HIGH is the temperature at which to step up to the next level
#  All numbers are integers.
#

# I use this on my T61p:
#tp_fan /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
#tp_thermal /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 10, 15, 2, 10, 5, 0, 3, 0, 3)

tp_fan /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
hwmon /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon2/temp3_input
hwmon /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon2/temp1_input
hwmon /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon2/temp2_input
hwmon /sys/devices/virtual/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input

(0,     0,      42)
(1,     40,     47)
(2,     45,     52)
(3,     50,     57)
(4,     55,     62)
(5,     60,     77)
(7,     73,     93)
(127,   85,     32767)

#(0,	0,	55)
#(1,	48,	60)
#(2,	50,	61)
#(3,	52,	63)
#(4,	56,	65)
#(5,	59,	66)
#(7,	63,	32767)

but I have no idea where to find the correction values for the sensors so

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#tp_thermal /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 10, 15, 2, 10, 5, 0, 3, 0, 3)

is still commented out.
The second issue is that I don't know what the commands

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sudo modprobe -rv thinkpad_acpi
sudo modprobe -v thinkpad_acpi

do.
Are they safe?
Do they break anything in case I don't want to use thinkfan anymore?

[Lanser]

Hello James-r. Thinkfan is a useful utility for the older generation Thinkpads. It's not so relevant for your T440
For all the newer generation machines the thermal management in the BIOS and newer Linux Kernels seems to work well.
Are you seeing higher than normal temps? Have you cleaned the heatsink and fan ?

Lanser

[james-r]

Hi Lanser, thanks for the answer.
I think the temps are alright, 51 °C with room temperature of 24 ° C.
But I still don't like the hot air coming from the left part of the keyboard when I type.

The laptop is basically new; I opened it and repasted the CPU.
I am using a metal support to keep it raised from the desk.
I am also using tlp and intel-undervolt.

[Lanser]

Just my 10c on T Series Thinkpads and Thermal Management.

The embedded thermal management in the BIOS is mostly very good and doesn't need any assistance.
There are real sensors, virtual sensors and composite sensors grouped into thermal zones.
Generally LInux kernels do a good job talking to Thinkpad T Series BIOS's and generally work well together.
However.
Sometimes the temperatures reported by Linux utilities may not be correct. (out by 10c or more)
Sometimes specific additional power & thermal management utilities don't do anything on Thinkpads.
And occasionally even cause problems with the embedded systems leading to increased power usage and or temps.

Currently on my T440 and my T460 with the current 4.15.0.x series kernel, I see idle and moderate workloads give about 10c to 15c above ambient.
And the fan only really is noticeable on heavy workloads. At 20c above ambient, the fan will be pushing a lot of air. Then I use GKrellM to check what's going on.

So I guess what I am saying is before making changes, establish a base line using the default settings on everything. Then tweak and test as needed.
My experience is that the Linux world likes the T-Series and it should run pretty much "optimised" out of the box for all the N-1 gen Models.
Try booting into a couple of "Live" Versions and see how warm it gets. Also check your BIOS version. And take a look at the BIOS update release notes.

Lanser