Arch Linux

donaastor

Member

Registered: 2022-03-14

Posts: 72

[SOLVED] Setting fan speed on my AMD GPU from the installation ISO?

Hello,

NEW VERSION:

I need to set fan speed on my AMDGPU from the installation ISO. After some research, I found out that there is a way to install mesa on the installation ISO and I have learned that updating mesa doesn't require kernel reboot, but requires restarting X.org. On the installation ISO, there is no X.org. So then, how can I start mesa and apply my fan speed to the GPU? Am I actually overthinking this, do I simply install mesa and it immediately gets loaded so that after I change the proper files, fan speed gets updated too? Do I not even need to install mesa?

OLD VERSION:

I recently had a major f**kup of my filesystem and now I need to save what's left on my disk. My only option (since I have only one motherboard with M.2 slots) is to boot a live installation ISO and work from it. However, my GPU overheats if I use it without fans. For that I wonder, does the installation ISO have mesa installed so that I can adjust the fan speed when I boot it. The other, less attractive option is to install Linux on a different disk, get mesa on it, set up the fan speed and then rescue my original disk, then install Linux properly on the original disk. I would favor the first method. ---- If not, what other ways exist to set the fan speed on my AMD GPU, from installation ISO?

Thank you

Last edited by donaastor (2024-08-03 08:55:12)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 23,451

Re: [SOLVED] Setting fan speed on my AMD GPU from the installation ISO?

Fan speed is completely irrelevant to mesa... And doing filesystem recovery is best done from a terminal which shouldn't necessitate the GPU at all/much -- in doubt boot with nomodeset.

If you really think you can fix this with fanspeed, or this is even related at all, see e.g. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/AMDGPU#Power_profiles

It generally sounds like you're asking a theorethical question. Why do you think you can't boot the live ISO to do filesystem recovery without manually mucking about with GPU fanspeeds?

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,110

Re: [SOLVED] Setting fan speed on my AMD GPU from the installation ISO?

first: what gpu do you have soecificly? name of board partner and exact model number
second: why dovyou think your gpu overheats? do you hafe meassured the temp? to what get it raised?
third: any modern electronics since the rise of the uefi era has safetylimits to throttle down or shut off if the critical temp is reached - that a component really overheats - as in the silicon itself gets damaged - is quite unlikely

why do you think you need to fiddle with thevfans at all? most modern cards have "fan stop" profiles - so fans often not even turn on until the gpu gets to 40-60 C as the big heatsinks have enough heat capacity to keep the card at these temps by simple cinvection cooling even open grnch or a case with bad to no cooling
also: I doubt that whatever you did (might be helpful so go ahead snd explain it) has a chance to completely disable the fans - unless you either flashed a custom vbios or cut the cables

just post the system - enter uefi - and select system monitor - often it can graph at least temp of a gpu so you can monitor if it actually does get toasty

donaastor

Member

Registered: 2022-03-14

Posts: 72

Re: [SOLVED] Setting fan speed on my AMD GPU from the installation ISO?

@V1del I believe that the main reason I had so many doubts is that I assumed that Linux requires manual installation of GPU drivers like Windows. But, in reality, drivers are inside the kernel, as I have learned now. In conclusion, I will be able to set the fan speeds without any complications. I apologize for somewhat unnecessary post. I want control over GPU for the heat while I recover my filesystem in terminal. I remember that in my old setups, the fans wouldn't start until I enter X.org environment.

@cryptearth On the old PC (with Windows) I currently use to write this I can't control the fan speed until GPU (ASUS R7 250X) reaches temperatures of 60 degrees and I really don't like it. Windows has already destroyed two of my hardware units (GPU, MSI GTX 960, and HDD), that's why I moved to Linux initially and that's why I am overly conscious about my hardware. The GPU in a newer PC (currently not operational) is RX 570, I believe XTX, and it gets very hot while I set up the BIOS (I couldn't know the temperature, but it could burn my fingers). My current GPU is RX 6650 XT (Sapphire something) which was very expensive in my country (for me at least) and I overcool it all the time (I keep it under 40). I understand your point that hardware doesn't break that easily, but I experienced it getting broken and I don't have money for new hardware so I do my best to protect it. I hope this explains my attitude towards these things.

just post the system - enter uefi - and select system monitor - often it can graph at least temp of a gpu so you can monitor if it actually does get toasty

I am sorry, I didn't really get this line, but I hope it's not that relevant anymore. I monitor the temperatures in i3's status bar with a custom script which reads from /sys/class/drm/card0/device/hwmon/hwmon0/temp1_input . EDIT: I think you were talking about BIOS so that I can see if it gets hot with no fans. Ok, I didn't know BIOS can do this, I will actually try this, thank you.

All in all, my question is answered, thank you, both of you!

Last edited by donaastor (2024-08-03 08:58:34)

cryptearth

Member

Registered: 2024-02-03

Posts: 1,110

Re: [SOLVED] Setting fan speed on my AMD GPU from the installation ISO?

I highly doubt that windows as the OS or one of the drivers caused any hardware to fail on purpose - and most stuff has safety built in to prevent user error to cause harm (as in a driver might allow you to set a very low fan curve but the vbios safeties either ramp up the fan when the card gets too toasty or just shut it off) - it's not the 90s anymore when poorly written software had direct hardware access and actually were able to physically damage and destroy hardware
60 C is not "hot" for any amd radeon - and I also have some on my bench here: R9 290x, RX 570 and currently installed RX 7700 XT - all these cards have fan stop vbios profiles so they stop the fans until they hit around 50-60 C - right now my 7700 XT (sapphier pulse) sits at around 40 C with vmem at 50 C and fans off - and my case doesn't have that much airflow
also: as for the current RX cards of the 5000, 6000 and 7000 series at least according to the wiki linux doesn't provide a way to manipulate fan control anyway - so you just have to rely on the vbios' fan curve anyway