Fan won't turn on
 

Hello,

I'm running a Debian/Fluxbox system on a Dell Inspiron 3800 laptop and I'm having some problems with the fan. When I was using Windows ME the fan would turn on after about 20 min - 1 hr of continuous use. Since I've switched to linux it hasn't turned on once, even after several hours, and the laptop bottom is getting very hot. I was wondering if there is anyway to turn the fan on manually from Linux as there's nothing about the fan in the BIOS. I've got APM installed for battery monitoring purposes and I've tried installing ACPI but it doesn't like my kernal for some reason.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

Ned

You will need to configure the ACPI modules within your kernel once the kernel sources are installed. What make + model laptop do you have? Check the HCL on this website amongst other places to see if others have any extra info on it. However, the fans should be running constantly, even if at low speed.

If the right ACPI control is compiled in, you can usually control the fans with
# echo -n 0 > /proc/acpi/fan/FN1/state
- this turns fan control off and sets it to full
# echo -n 3 > /proc/acpi/fan/FN1/state
- this sets the fan controls to auto. Then it follows the settings defined in /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points on when to activate one fan or both.
If you do not have these files, it is not compiled in. Also, there is a chance you do not have the sensors enabled. It is not a very useful thing if the fans are set to go off at a certain temperature, and the system insists it is 0 degrees.

Im almost completely new to Linux, and I have been having this problem...

Although, my /proc/acpi/fan directory is empty...so by this logic it isn't compiled in. I was wondering how do you do this, or what kind of modules can you use to remedy this? I've tried using lm-sensors with (seemingly) no luck. Maybe I'm way off...

Anyway, Im using a Compal Cl56 Laptop and running Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy).