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How can i make Ubuntu 11.04 run cooler on my system?

Hey, I've been a Linux user for a little while, but i still call myself a newbie.
to start off. When i was running 10.10 not that long ago, my PC sensors had my CPU temperature nice and happy at 28 degrees running Photoshop, banshee and other programs, but about 3 days ago, i upgraded to Ubuntu 11.04 after putting it off for six months so i could hop skip and jump to 11.10 to make the most of the design tablet feature and I'm sort of regretting it and not going any further.

My temperatures are now 32 degrees lowest and something as small as downloading a peice of data on Firefox takes it way up to the mid 40s which is annoying especially when my cooling fan goes quite loud at that point.

I'm thinking perhaps it's the new interface? it's the only thing i can really think of that's significantly changed and could cause such an issue. would Changing to the classic interface do any good?
do you have any ideas on what to do to keep it cool?

System Spec:
AMD PhenomIIx2 550 (locked) 3.1Ghzpc
3gbRAM
160gb Hitachi hard drive
AMD radeon HD4550
Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal
Fan system: Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev 2.0

Thanks if you can help me out on this.
It could mean i have to get used to being in the 30s consistently, but i would like to get rid of those 40s

Is your kernel version 3.0 or higher? (I assume it is.) There is apparently a regression in the kernel that increases power drain on some/all systems.

Until it's fixed, all you can do is investigate using powertop (run with sudo) and, yes, maybe dropping some or all compositing effects by going back to the classic interface.

Edit: sorry, the regression was in kernel version 2.6.38. See [Phoronix] Mobile Users Beware: Linux Has Major Power Regression
And it gets worse in kernel 3.1: [Phoronix] Linux 3.1 Kernel Draws More Power With Another Regression

I have a mate which has almost the same specs as you she had a similar problem and he found that it was UNITY which totally screwed her system, he switch to gnome3 and gnome shell (don't ask me how she did it) and that runs simply stoning.
So my guess is that it is UNITY, I have heard from other mates, acquaintances and co-works whom uses Ubuntu and has AMD CPUs general has heath problems with Unity.

thanks for the help you two, i'll revert back to gnome then and see what i get.
and i'll keep an eye out for that kernel regression, by any chance does 11.10 use Kernel 3.0? i know my laptop has issues with it's battery and CPU running it.

I'm sure 11.10 uses 3.0, possibly 3.1, and there won't be any official earlier kernels in the repositories. You might be able to install an earlier kernel yourself, but that's beyond my expertise. There ought to be, I think, configs that you can adjust to bypass the bug, but I have not heard of any yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by zeealex (Post 4505915)

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ inxi -F

Resuming in non X mode: glxinfo not found. For package install advice run: inxi --recommends

System:    Host: ubuntu Kernel: 3.0.0-12-generic i686 (32 bit) Desktop Gnome Distro: Ubuntu 11.10 oneiric

Machine:  System: LENOVO product: 6075BHU version: ThinkCentre M57

          Mobo: LENOVO model: LENOVO Bios: LENOVO version: 2RKT41AUS date: 03/20/2008

CPU:      Dual core Intel Pentium Dual CPU E2160 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) 

          Clock Speeds: 1: 1800.00 MHz 2: 1200.00 MHz

Graphics:  Card: Intel 82Q35 Express Integrated Graphics Controller 

          X.org: 1.10.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 80x24 

Audio:    Card: Intel 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: HDA Intel Sound: ALSA ver: 1.0.24

Network:  Card-1: Ralink RT2561/RT61 802.11g PCI driver: rt61pci 

          IF: wlan1 state: up mac: <filtered>

          Card-2: Intel 82566DM-2 Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e 

          IF: eth1 state: down speed: 4294967295 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filtered>

Drives:    HDD Total Size: 82.0GB (2.4% used) 1: /dev/sda ST380815AS 80.0GB 

          2: USB /dev/sdb DataTraveler_2.0 2.0GB 

Partition: ID: / size: 1.2G used: 708M (63%) fs: overlayfs ID: swap-1 size: 3.27GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap 

Sensors:  Error: You do not have the sensors app installed.

Info:      Processes: 153 Uptime: 1:22 Memory: 443.1/1988.0MB Runlevel: 2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.7.2

readout above from a live persistent pendrive I made. Just made it out of curiosity. I don't have it anymore as this was just done to see what all the fuss was about with Ubuntu 11.10 and Unity. Kernel shows what downloaded iso uses.

I upgraded to Natty with odd results.
Normally my P4 is a smooth operating unit. after I installed Oneiric Ocelot 11.10, the disks got real noisy. like disk thrashing if you ask me. I dont know how Linux works but it would seem maybe something at the machine instruction set for the cpu.
Im goin back to Meerkat.

Hi,

you should load the appropriat module for the cpu-frequency-scaling. For AMD it is powernow-k8, for Intel I suppose a module named acpi_cpufreq.

Afterwards you can use cpufreq-info in order to check the frequency and cpufreq-set in order to configure the appropriate governor.

Note that this is independent of the kernel-version, it works with all 2.6 and 3.x kernels.

Markus