[SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

tethys · 2021-05-29 06:10:48

Hello,

I have an old HP Toshiba laptop that I am using from time to time. I updated it yesterday after few months and noticed that with kernel 5.12.7 the cpu fan is frozen in whatever state it was at boot time. The BIOS does adjust the fans at boot time, though. So for example if the laptop is cold at boot time, the fans will not work and continue so until cpu critical temperature is reached (read from lm_sensors). If then I make a restart, the fans will start at full speed and continue so after reboot. Everything works as it should with the lts-kernel: the fans will start and stop to keep the cpu temperature at about 50°C.

Any ideas where to look to solve this problem?

Last edited by tethys (2021-07-31 04:23:35)

seth · 2021-05-29 07:28:34

Something™ takes control over the fan for the OS, compare "lsmod" - hp-wmi has some recent commits reg. "thermal policy", https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commi … 6/hp-wmi.c
You can try blacklisting that (what will likely lose you special keys) or see whether you get userspace control over the fan now, https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Fan_speed_control

tethys · 2021-05-29 15:32:43

Thank you for the answer seth. A mistake I made in the first message: it is a Toshiba, not HP laptop. This is what happens when you have too many computers.

I searched (with lsmod) for differences in modules loaded but these are only related to nouveau and sound.

Modules loaded in 5.12 but not in 5.10:

Module                  Size  Used by
snd_intel_sdw_acpi     20480  1 snd_intel_dspcfg
drm_ttm_helper         16384  1 nouveau

Modules loaded in 5.10 but not in 5.12:

Module                  Size  Used by
vfat                   20480  1
fat                    86016  1 vfat
soundwire_intel        45056  1 snd_intel_dspcfg
soundwire_generic_allocation    16384  1 soundwire_intel
soundwire_cadence      36864  1 soundwire_intel
soundwire_bus          90112  3 soundwire_intel,soundwire_generic_allocation,soundwire_cadence
snd_soc_core          323584  1 soundwire_intel
snd_compress           32768  1 snd_soc_core
ac97_bus               16384  1 snd_soc_core
snd_pcm_dmaengine      16384  1 snd_soc_core

There are however Toshiba-related modules loaded, but the "wmi" module seth suggested does not seem to contain any changes related to thermal policy as in the case of hp-wmi:

$ lsmod | grep -i toshiba
toshiba_acpi           53248  0
sparse_keymap          16384  1 toshiba_acpi
industrialio           90112  1 toshiba_acpi
wmi                    36864  3 toshiba_acpi,mxm_wmi,nouveau
toshiba_bluetooth      20480  0
rfkill                 28672  4 toshiba_acpi,toshiba_bluetooth,cfg80211
video                  53248  2 toshiba_acpi,nouveau
i8042                  32768  1 toshiba_acpi

So I left the laptop run hot (with fans not working and kernel 5.12) to see what happens and I noticed that as soon as the "high" temperature, which is the same as the "critical" temperature, was reached the fans started working until the temperature decreased to about 85°C, when they stopped. Now the problem is that this temperature range (85-100°C) is too high, the laptop becomes very hot.

And this is the lts-kernel temperature, which I would like to have:

$ sensors
nouveau-pci-0100
Adapter: PCI adapter
temp1:        +45.0°C  (high = +95.0°C, hyst =  +3.0°C)
                       (crit = +110.0°C, hyst =  +3.0°C)
                       (emerg = +135.0°C, hyst =  +5.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:       +47.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:       +48.0°C  (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

What part of the 5.12 kernel is responsible for this behavior (given that the lts-kernel works fine)? Is it possible to change the "high" temperature so that the fans are engaged at a lower temperature (without installing AUR tools like NBFC)?

Last edited by tethys (2021-05-29 15:41:02)

seth · 2021-05-29 16:15:04

toshiba_acpi is what would provide you fan control.

Which notebook model is that exactly?

See also https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Laptop/Toshiba

tethys · 2021-05-29 16:48:05

This is a TOSHIBA Satellite A200 from 2007.

seth · 2021-05-29 17:22:46

Did you check whether you now have userspace fan control?
Is there a toshiba path under /proc{/acpi}?

tethys · 2021-05-29 18:28:15

seth wrote:

Did you check whether you now have userspace fan control?

I am looking into it. I installed thermald but it said that it does not support my hardware. I'd rather avoid AUR packages and especially NBFC as it has a large dependency (mono). lm_sensors/pwmconfig/fancontrol do not suport my hardware either. I would like to first understand what change between 5.10 and 5.12 caused this problem. Is there any other tool in the official arch repositories that would allow me to control the fan?

seth wrote:

Is there a toshiba path under /proc{/acpi}?

Yes, /proc/acpi/toshiba/, and it contains two files:

$ cat /proc/acpi/toshiba/keys
hotkey_ready:            0
hotkey:                  0x0000

$ cat /proc/acpi/toshiba/version
driver:                  0.24
proc_interface:          1

tethys · 2021-07-31 04:25:04

The issue does not appear with kernel 5.13.4 anymore, so the problem is solved.

Arch Linux

#1 2021-05-29 06:10:48

[SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#2 2021-05-29 07:28:34

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#3 2021-05-29 15:32:43

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#4 2021-05-29 16:15:04

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#5 2021-05-29 16:48:05

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#6 2021-05-29 17:22:46

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#7 2021-05-29 18:28:15

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

#8 2021-07-31 04:25:04

Re: [SOLVED] Laptop fan frozen with kernel 5.12

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