Ubuntu
lm-sensors package

pwmconfig claims it can't find pwm-capable sensor modules

Bug #134314 reported by Robert Persson
8
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
lm-sensors (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: lm-sensors

pwmconfig claims it can't find pwm-capable sensor modules on an Asus A7V KT133 motherboard, despite the fact that the fan speed is (according to what I have read) controlled when running Windows. mbmon has no trouble returning plausible temperature readings (something like 40±3C).

I ran sensors-detect and these are the modules it decided to modprobe:

# I2C adapter drivers
i2c-viapro
# Chip drivers
w83781d
via686a

This is what pwmconfig says:

root@brian:/lib/modules/2.6.20-16-generic/kernel/drivers/hwmon# pwmconfig
This program will search your sensors for pulse width modulation (pwm)
controls, and test each one to see if it controls a fan on
your motherboard. Note that many motherboards do not have pwm
circuitry installed, even if your sensor chip supports pwm.

We will attempt to briefly stop each fan using the pwm controls.
The program will attempt to restore each fan to full speed
after testing. However, it is ** very important ** that you
physically verify that the fans have been to full speed
after the program has completed.

/usr/sbin/pwmconfig: There are no pwm-capable sensor modules installed

I did a quick web search and found there were hundreds of people posting similar problems on various motherboards. Some of them said that this problem was specific to Ubuntu or to Feisty because it worked for them in SuSE or whatever.

Revision history for this message
Davis Zanetti Cabral (daviscabral) wrote :

I have this problem too.

My laptop is Acer 5720-6837.

Fans arent work. TZ01 arrives at 70C and system halt.

Revision history for this message
Avenca (claudiavilega) wrote :

I have the same problem described in the first message above. I use a Toshiba P105-S6024. I am using Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy), Kernel 2.6.24-16.

Sometimes, my notebook turns off suddenly. I suspect because overheating. I am monitoring the CPU temperature and sometimes it reaches the limit of 85 C.

Revision history for this message
Helge Stenström (h-stenstrom) wrote :

I have the same problem described in the first message above. I use a HP xw9400 Workstation with AMD Opteron. I am using Ubuntu 8.04.1.

My problem is that the fans are on full throttle, and the computer is too noisy.

Revision history for this message
Daniel T Chen (crimsun) wrote :

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 beta or later?

Changed in lm-sensors:
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Helge Stenström (h-stenstrom) wrote :

My problem went away when I enabled proprietary drivers for nVidia (NVIDIA accelerated graphics driver (latest card)). I don't understand why enabling a graphics driver made the fans slow down, but I'm glad it did. The GPU (nvidia) temperature is at 46 degC, which I hope is OK.

Revision history for this message
Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout) wrote :

Closing as invalid. lm-sensors uses these drivers to talk to the fans; unless the correct driver is installed, lm-sensors cannot control the fans.

Changed in lm-sensors (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Revision history for this message
Ketil Malde (ketil-ii) wrote :

I don't get this. It's invalid because...there aren't any drivers for these computer systems? On my HP dm1, I can see temperature and tripping points with 'acpi -V', and after loading the 'coretemp' module, 'sensors' will list the indidual core temperatures (interestingly with quite different tripping points).

The problem is that although the temperature is way lower than the tripping points, the fan is going. It's quite possibly a bug in the HP dm1, which is much cheaper than it is inexpensive, to put it generously.

Revision history for this message
Dimitrios Symeonidis (azimout) wrote :

@ketil, it seems you need to install the proprietary nvidia drivers to get this to work

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