Thinkpad笔记本ubuntu风扇设置

If you own a ThinkPad, there's a piece of software called thinkfan that does exactly this. As the name obviously suggests, it is specifically made for ThinkPads (thinkpad_acpi).

The thinkfan software is available in the standard ubuntu software repositories, but it does require a few steps to configure.

Here's an easy step-by-step guide:

http://www.lxle.net/forums/discussion/821/how-to-set-up-thinkfan-on-a-lenovo-thinkpad-t430/p1

(which is basically a translated version of this German guide: Thinkfan – ThinkPad-Wiki)

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Relevant Information from Post:

Step 1. Install the thinkfan software and the sensors:

sudo apt-get install thinkfan lm-sensors

Step 2. Make sure that the daemon controls the fan by editting the thinkpad.conf file:

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/thinkfan.conf

by adding the following line:

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

Step 3. Make the daemon load automatically at start-up by editting the file:

sudo nano /etc/default/thinkfan

making sure that the START key is set to yes, i.e. there should be a line that says:

START=yes

Step 4. Detect your laptop's sensors:

sudo sensors-detect

and just choose the default answers whenever you're prompted by hitting Enter.

Step 5. Load the new modules. From ubuntu 13.10 this done by:

sudo service kmod start

while for previous versions like 13.04 you instead will need to do:

sudo service module-init-tools start

Step 6. Figure out which sensors are in use:

sensors

(the ones that indicate 0 degrees are not in use, I don't know why those are "detected" too). Remember which ones are in use.

Step 7. Find out the full paths of these sensors:

find /sys/devices -type f -name "temp*_input"

The output should be a list of paths like /sys/devices/...

Step 8. Copy-paste the paths to the sensors into the configuration file /etc/thinkpad.conf. To do this, first open up the file:

sudo nano /etc/thinkfan.conf

There should already be a line like

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

(the #-symbol means that that line is commented out). Add a line starting with sensor (without the #-symbol) and copy-paste you first sensor. Repeat this if you have more than one sensor. For example, on my machine, the output in step 7 yields

/sys/devices/virtual/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp3_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp4_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp5_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp6_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp7_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp1_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp8_input
/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/temp2_input
/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp4_input
/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp2_input 

The ones that are in use in my machine are the ones in the first and the last two lines, so I added the three lines:

sensor /sys/devices/virtual/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp4_input
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp2_input 

Step 9. Finally we can set the fan speed levels in the configuration file. Open the /etc/thinkpad.conf file if it wasn't open already.

sudo nano /etc/thinkfan.conf

The fan levels I use on my ThinkPad x201 are:

(0, 0, 51)
(1, 50, 52)
(2, 51, 55)
(3, 54, 58)
(4, 56, 63)
(5, 60, 70)
(6, 66, 79)
(7, 74, 92)
(127, 85, 32767) 

The last line ensures full fan speed (127 = "disengaged" i.e. unregulated). You can fiddle with these levels to fit your needs/wishes, but PLEASE BE CAREFUL!

Step 10. Reboot. Everything should work now. In order to check whether thinkpad is runnning correctly, use

sudo thinkfan -n

which starts thinkfan in verbose mode. You might want to stop the thinkfan daemon first:

sudo /etc/init.d/thinkfan stop

If you want to start the thinkfan daemon again, type:

sudo /etc/init.d/thinkfan start

Just to be complete, my /etc/thinkfan.conf configuration file is:

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

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


# My settings for my ThinkPad X201: (kris)

sensor /sys/devices/virtual/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp4_input
sensor /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/temp2_input

(0, 0, 51)
(1, 50, 52)
(2, 51, 55)
(3, 54, 58)
(4, 56, 63)
(5, 60, 70)
(6, 66, 79)
(7, 74, 92)
(127, 85, 32767)

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edited Mar 3, 2020 at 22:21

Kevin Bowen

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answered Jan 8, 2014 at 16:38

Kris

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• 3

  One comment: you want to have larger overlap of temperature values as in the table commented out. Especially in the 45-55 range. Otherwise, the fan speed keeps flipping. That's very disturbing. (Constant fan noise does not disturb so much as fluctuating noise.)

  – HongboZhu

  Feb 6, 2015 at 16:36

• 5

  We (the linux community) really suck at UX. :( Setting a fan speed shouldn't be a 10 step process.

  – Alexander

  Feb 28, 2017 at 22:53

• 3

  @Alexander If you feel strongly about this, you're free to write and maintain a little program to automate this process.

  – Kris

  Mar 2, 2017 at 22:14

• 1

  @Kris I'd be more inclined to modify the original program to not have such a nonsensical configuration process. Alas, I dont have a thinkpad, I was just passing by this post looking for thr fan control options available out there.

  – Alexander

  Mar 2, 2017 at 22:18

• 1

  How do you know which sensors are used by your machine and which ones aren't?

  – sequence

  Aug 8, 2021 at 8:48