[solved!]fan ACPI problems, insyde H20 bios, toshiba satellite pro L300-x
 

After alot of research I am still left stumpt.
The latest toshiba satellite pro L300 series uses a new unfamiliar Bios called insyde H20. These bring about annoying issues like some of the fn-Fx buttons not working and the most troubling being aspects like the cooler fan not coming on and turning off correctly. The fan will only come on as basically a failsafe to it buring out at 79c and then the fan refuses to turn off.
toshiba_acpi does not work because of this new bios so its safe use as a laptop is pretty crippled.

Does anyone know of any more information on this? A development of a patch or otherwise to give back fan control?

Any information will be much appreciated!

lspci:

[update]
 

after upgrading to bios 1.60 it appears that the fan does come on and turn its self off not sure why but it appears to be controlling the temperature correctly. fan comes on at about 52-51c and turns off at approx 40c. Testing with cpuburn the fanspeed increases as it hits 62 to the next "notch" of speed also.
This is with the ac plugged in so I do not know if anything changes with it unplugged. Closing the lid also appears to work now also. (some function keys still dont work but thats tided to toshiba_acpi not working)
I hope this helps someone.

The fan control only seemed to work correctly on that once off. Brightness control tends to be sporadic, but always works if the system is put into suspend and the lid is left closed. after X amount of time, opening the lid resumes the computer and brightness control works again. hope someone can help me out soon.
regards,
netsurf

Hi,
Try to use Omnibook module. I have a notebook Toshiba Satellite L300-1AM with InsydeH2O BIOS and I have installed the "Omnibook" module (omnibook-source_2.20070211+svn20090227-1_all.deb) downloaded from http://packages.kirya.net/debian/pool/main/o/omnibook/ . I was reading here http://swinky-linuxblog.blogspot.com...305-howto.html about this. After installation, the package is sending "omnibook.tar.bz2" to /usr/src.
Install it with $ sudo make && make install. Them $ sudo depmod -a; $ sudo modprobe omnibook ectype=11. I'm not sure about this ectype if it's good or not for this Satellite model.
This module is working on my notebook , the fan is keeping my system under 40 degrees, the Fn+Fx keys for adjusting display brightness are working too, but the main problem is after shutdown, in 3-4 minutes or sometime after 15 minutes, the notebook is starting by itself.
I'm not experienced in linux and I couldn't find out how to solve this. I'm still searching.
If someone know about this, please help.
Thank you !

yes i can confirm that both this works and that there is the crazy problem where the laptop boots its self this must happen across the entire range!
Its weird though...
i checked the /proc/omnibook stuff for the system while it was running.
temperature is reported as 0c
fan is always reported off despite correct operating
you get the idea. The only detection function which appears to work correctly.. is the dmi information and version of the kernel module.
It looks like this module kickstarts something... I remember reading the fan for these toshiba's were mostly autonomous and automatically turned themselves on and off (it even manages this in the grub bootloader for me)
Makes me wonder if all this acpi needs is a kick in the head to wake it up.

If we can find a way to block it turning its self on again then it maybe possible to use this module in the mean time. But what ever it does it doesn't do it right. yet...

As for the supported versions of ectype i wonder if you have systematically tested them out at all? If maybe there is one option that doesn't cause this, or if there is an effect on the time it takes before power on again.
I cant help but think it maybe some kind of sneeky wakeup call you can use software to set in the bios.

I see you have already done alot of research on different forums silvad so i appreciate you posting a reply about it. hopefully we can gather enough information to get this fixed :D

Hi,
I've tested ectype=12; 13; 14 and 0. I think is something regarding battery or display, but I'm not sure and I don't know where to search. Last night after shutdown I took out the bettery and put it back. The notebook didn't reboot by itself. Today I didn't test more until now. I'll start again later.
Thank you for your support !

Hi,
I checked again. Is working with ectype=11 and if I remove the battery after shutdown and put it back, the notebook doesn't restart. If I use ectype=12, 13, 14 or 0, fan control and Fn+Fx keys are not working.

i had a quick check with ectype 1 also and that turned the laptop on too. It doesnt look like we are going to find a number which solves it :(

Hello again,

I'm using the Omnibook module and everytime I shutdown my notebook I take care to remove the battery for few seconds and put it back. In this way it won't restart by itself and all is ok. So, the problem is about the battery control or display, told me one colleague more experienced in linux than me. As you noticed, before starting Ubuntu or other distro, it displaying the message "...pci00:02.00...unsupported PM cap regs version 7", where PM means Power Management. For $ lspci, it will respond
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 07)
and other devices with (rev 03) or 02. For "dmesg" it will tell also something about an error on init function of display.

[ 152.458717] omnibook: Driver version 2.20070211-trunk.
[ 152.458722] omnibook: Forced load with EC type 11.
[ 152.458818] omnibook: LCD backlight turn off at console blanking is enabled.
[ 152.711512] omnibook: Init function of display failed with error -62.
[ 152.711522] omnibook: Enabling all hotkeys.
[ 152.718822] omnibook: Assuming that LCD brightness is between 0 and 10,

So is something wrong somewhere, the battery is not getting off-power and the notebook is restarting. Unfortunately this is too difficult for me, at my knowledges about how linux kernel is working, to see what is wrong in this omnibook module. But I'm happy that the cooling fan and Fn+Fx keys are working.
I hope we'll find a solution for this.

Latest bios update 1.80 appears to do something with acpi. I have yet to test it with the omnibook module. but the acpi -t now at the very least displays the correct temperature!
The acpi without though still doesnt work quite right. brightness etc.

Hi,

I have a Toshiba L300-1AS and of course the same problems with this bios. I have the version 1.40 and if I disassemble the DSDT.dat file with iasl, I can see that the fan implementation seems to be incomplete because the _ON and _OFF method are not implemented.
Could you disassemble your DSDT table and post it on this forum? It would be interesting to see what they have changed in version 1.80.
It is also interesting to see how the trip points are defined, if I do a

cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points

I obtain the following result:

critical (S5): 92 C
passive: 106 C: tc1=2 tc2=5 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
active[0]: 70 C: devices= FAN

Do you have something similar with the new version of the bios?

Thanks in advance,


Marc

cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points
critical (S5): 110 C
passive: 110 C: tc1=2 tc2=5 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
active[0]: 70 C: devices= FAN

Seems a bit greek to me but here you go
http://www.pastebin.ca/1415222
sorry for the pastebin but the disassemble is too long to post here.
post should never expire though (fingers crossed)
Hope that this helps you.

Hi,
The same to me for: $ cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/trip_points
critical (S5): 110 C
passive: 110 C: tc1=2 tc2=5 tsp=300 devices=CPU0 CPU1
active[0]: 70 C: devices= FAN
I have installed the new BIOS update 1.8 and noticed the correct temperature displayed.

Hi,

Thanks for the file, I recompiled it and I got some warning as for the DSDT version 1.40. Nevertheless, there are some change espcially in the thermal zone method. Which could my be explained why you can see the correct temperature with the version 1.80.

The method which describes the fan is the same but maybe differently called by other methods... I do not know as I am not an expert in ACPI. However, I will read the ACPI spec to understand a bit better this stuff.

With bios version 1.80, does the fan stop when the laptop is cold again?

Thanks for your help.

Marc

P.S: Have a look to this site http://costela.net/category/home/. This guy did something interesting with its DSDT table...

I read on some site which the name escapes me that the fan doesnt have throttle points per say it just gets called and changes depending on the coretemp. then the fan adjusts its speed depending on the temperature. I could just be babbling though :P

Toshiba wakes up by itself
 

Hi there,

Been reading your posts, and thought you guys might want to take a look at the BIOS setup on Toshiba 300 notebooks - there is a setting for "Critical Battery Wakeup" which apparently wakes the computer if the battery is too low....the logic escapes me, as it would make a bad situation worse...but anyhow - perhaps this is the reason the Toshiba's wake up by themselves...check it out !

i had seen this also and if i recall correctly turning it off appeared to do nothing. that said i haven't checked to see what changes with the new bios.

The logic behind it i believe is that instead of failing and loosing all volotile data that instead the computer resumes then the OS should automatically send it either in power off mode or hibernation which would preserve the state. Thats possibly why it didnt affect the option since our laptops automatically perform a cold boot instead. I'll give it a go with the new bios and report back :)

netsurf

Disable ACPID and it all works!
 

Reading about ACPID and thinking perhaps of writing my own event handler, I impulsively went to System/Admin/Services and disabled ACPID power management and rebooted.

My Toshiba L300D, Ubuntu 64 bit 9.10 notebook NOW has all of the functionality it should ie brightness mute keys all work, and best of all the friggen fan comes on at 50 or so and shuts itself off at 40. ( put a little tea candle beside the fan output...so quiet now I can't hear but can see the fan go off)

Anyhow....I believe, in my not too considerable opinion, that this machine has no bug in the Insyde H20 bios, but that it is the event handler that is mishandling the ACPI.

Thought to pass this info along for whatever its worth.

Ciao

can you post some more precise details about your system please?
I am unable to repeat this.
mine:
jaunty 9.04
bios 1.80
laptop toshiba satellite Pro l300-1fo

Be glad to :

Toshiba L300D Insyde H20 BIOS Setup is V3.5 Bios Version 1.70 (latest for this machine) , AMD Dual Processors (TK57), running Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 64bit, with "acpi_osi=Linux" in the grub boot menu.

I tried all of the fixes on the net I could find, except the Omnibook one. Interestingly, when I dissassembled the DSDT tables, did nothing to them, and reassembled them there were no errors in the compiler to trace and fix, leading me to think it wasn't the H20 bios.

I could send you the DSDT table and whatever else. But again,for this machine, it was the ACPID scripts that were trapping out the events from /proc/acpi and leaving them in outer space.

Let me know what you need. I actually was thinking of asking you for your dsdt table and the output of acpitool -e. Compare and figure it out. I'd be happy to help you nail this one.....

the tables are on a previous post as pastebin

okay i think i may have discovered a proper fix for just the fan side of things.
any of you using bios 1.80 already, please try boot option acpi_osi=Linux
this appeared to work for me but only with that version of the bios. Keys do not appear to work yet though sorry :(
Please someone let me know if this works for anyone but me and we can narrow down the problem :D

try this fix
 

update:

Try this: edit /etc/default/acpid

put a comment (#) in front of "modules=all"

uncomment the line "modules =" and take out the reference to the fan. Then add "panasonic-brightness-down" and "panasonic-brightness-up" and save the file.

enable powermanagement in "services",

reboot and the fan will work properly ( on at 50 off at 35) and the brightness keys f6 and f7 should work.

does for me !

Checked "http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/toshiba.html" did not see your model there.

ceyx I have tried your solution but it doesn't work for me i'm afraid. Only one which worked was the one i mentioned although without brightness :/

2 questions
 

Hey Netsurf

the first question is do your f6 and f7 keys work when you come out of a suspend / resume ?

2nd is do you know about the gnome applet to control LCD brightness with a icon/slider/widget thingy? Just thought I'd ask...you probably do.

Ciao for now

the keys did work before i changed kernel. but it was often sporadic when they did. I just use the brightness widget anyway now :P and cpufreqd to dull the screen during battery usage

Hi,
I solved the fan problem and also pm-suspend to ram/restore problem using an advice from another Toshiba Satellite L300 owner, but more experiencd than me.
For fan to work: edit /boot/grub/menu.lst in super user mode

sudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.lst

Add 'acpi_osi="Linux"' to your kernel's boot parameters. This is an example of my menu.lst file, with the part you need to add in bold (the rest may differ slightly in your file):

title Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-11-generic
uuid a91f7379-e93b-490c-b541-0681173bccc2
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-11-generic root=UUID=a91f.. ro quiet splash acpi_osi="Linux"

You can check here http://swinky-linuxblog.blogspot.com...lite-l305.html
I didn't manage to get Fn+Fx keys to work like there, but I'm happy for the fan is working normal and the laptop doesn't restart by itself after shutdown. So I'm not using the Omnibook module anymore.

yeah found the same workaround sivlad7ax if you read back a page you'd see. It only seems to work with the latest 1.80 bios however...
Marking this solved now.

I had a similar problem with my Toshiba Satellite. To solve it, I did
Then at the end of the kernel line type
Save the document.
that seemed to do it. when I updated the kernel, the same changes automatically applied.
If it doesn't, you can undo it easily.

thank you for the post but it appears that this option does not work for this range. just mprime'ed my laptop for a couple of seconds and the fans refused to kick in :( glad you solved your problem. if you find anymore suggestions on a fix for this with fan and keyboard working, let us know :)
netsurf

Hallo ceyx i have a same NB like you and I have still problem with fan controll, after i boot to Ubuntu 9.04 64BIT it seem a fan is not working, when a temperature of CPU reaches 8O°C fan is googing to max speed and until I swich off a NB never stop. Hybernate is only dream for my. Can you help me i attach acpitool -e list:

did you update your bios on the laptop?

yes I did, I have last version 1.7 for this model. Satellite L300D-10U. But I have some success, I installed Omnibook module, and CPU fan is working now, CPU temp is max 55°C now, and brightness keys working too. It working with ectype=14. With ectype=11, my laptop switch on by your self after I shut down it. But, what still don't working for my is hibernate and sleep mode.

hmm so only with ectype=11 but not 14? thats weird...
mine did it regardless with my l300's bios at 1.7 never bothered with it after that since osi_acpi=Linux seemed to fix it at version 1.8 and 1.9 (add it to the kernel boot options)
as for suspend and hibernate, its very hit and miss. If you search google for quirks you'll eventually find a troubleshooting site for suspend and hibernate issues. Has some very good ones and i got mine working on previous laptops although i forget how now...

Help!
 

I found this thread just by Googling. I'm not a programmer and am completely helpless when it comes to computer "issues." I have new Toshiba Satellite with InsydeH20Bios. The other day I was online and suddenly I got this light blue screen that said "Configuring updates: Stage 3 of 3 - 0% Complete. Do not turn off your computer." I thought it was the automatic update program running so I let it go, but then the "shutting down" message came on. It did shut down, but them booted right back up again and went straight to the same "configuring" message. Now it's stuck in a vicious cycle and that's all it will do. I've tried taking the battery out, but that didn't do any good. My son's homeschool curriculum is on this computer, so I need it fixed asap. Can anybody help me?

SomisMom, As I understand it you are using the windows operating system. This thread is to cover problems with linux, a completely different operating system. I realise you maybe frustrated with your problem so can understand why you thought posting here maybe of some help but, the problem we were discussing and your problem are like chalk and cheese.
If you really would like to get help from this forums, make your own topic under the "non *nix" general section.

reboot
 

Hi

Try this solution with your reboot problems:

http://www.webtlk.com/2009/07/02/how...7-reboot-loop/

good luck ....

I can confirm that on Ubuntu 9.10 the fan still does not change speed; it's either on or off

James

Hi everyone !
I can confirm this issue too on a Toshiba L505-10P laptop (quite new) with Ubuntu Karmic 9.10. The fan is on, but there is no thermal regulation, it means, it's always spinning at full speed....even with 30°C core temp.... Fan and thermal zone are not even recognized. I've tried almost everything on this thread. (by the way, this issue doesn't not occur on Windows 7 64 bits). I've even installed kernel 2.6.32rc5 to see it was better...but still the same thing...

Here is acpitool -e output :

Tell me if you need more information ;)

Thanks !

same for me
 

Hey,

I have the same trouble: upgraded to Karmic and fan stopped behaving as it should be. Previously I edited the /boot/grub/menu.lst - but now there is no such thing in my directories. I am unsure if I should create one and what exactly comes in there. My fan is going on and on and pushing out cold air - I am freezing! Please help!

hugohami >> if you have Karmic, then you have Grub 2 boot loader...you need to edit /etc/default/grub line with "quiet splash" to add some boot options to the kernel ;)

About this issue on my Toshiba L505, I have noticed that when I start the computer and when the temperature is below 40°C, then the fan acts normaly...but once the temperature go above 40°C, it starts to spin at full speed and never calms down...even when the temperature goes below 40°C again...

Thanks Anakin Starkiller,

I found the right file edited /etc/default/boot so that the line looks like this:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux"

No change after first reboot, but now it seems like it is doing something. Fan turned on at 50°C and running slowly and turned off at 35°C. So I am quite happy for now. Anybody knows if the sleep/hybernate/resume things got better in Karmic? Do you also need to edit something there?

Also check out
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...31#post8241131

and

http://www.symbiosoft.net/?q=node/66


Good luck.

Well, when I installed Karmic for the first time, suspend to ram was not working...I decided to upgrade to 2.6.32 kernel (from mainline ppa kernel, currently using 2.6.32rc6), and now I've got 3D/2D acceleration with open source radeon drivers and fully working suspend to ram ;) (haven't test hibernation yet, but it should be ok).
With L505 Toshiba, I still got fan issues...even with acpi_osi=Linux or acpi=force ;)

Anybody tried the new BIOS updates on Toshiba's site ? There is one for mine dated Oct. 27, 2009. I am happy with my setup so I'll pass on this one - thought I'd let you folks know...maybe there is one for your machines too.

Ciao

I don't think that would be wise to upgrade the BIOS because it's a software problem (no problem at all under Windows)....
Maybe I'll give a try to latest BIOS for L505 (updated 04/11/09)...but I want to be sure I can easily go back if something goes wrong...I know there's something called Crisis bios, but it's far too risky for the moment ;)

netsurf >> Could you please set the status back to [non solved] in this topic firt post ?
I don't think it's necessary to open a new thread about this problem that is not solved with Toshiba L505...
Thanks ;)

Hi everyone,
Do you think I should follow this guide >> http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1036051 in order to solve this issue ?

Up ! Anyone have tried the BIOS update ?

I've still got this problem with latest kernel 2.6.32rc7