Arch Linux

Inixi

Member

Registered: 2016-10-15

Posts: 54

Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

Hello,
I have Thinkpad Yoga S1 and I have installed `thinkfan` from AUR and tried to change fan levels in /proc/acpi/ibm/fan, but no luck. The speed is always 0. I have read that fan is controlled with EC but I wasn't able to find the way to access it. Does anyone know how to access it?

The reason I want to do this is that my processor reaches temperatures higher than 70 degrees celsius only while, for example, watching only youtube videos and the fan is not speeding up to cool down the CPU.

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2020 ASUS Zephyrus G14

Inixi

Member

Registered: 2016-10-15

Posts: 54

Re: Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

Anyone?

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2020 ASUS Zephyrus G14

timthelion

Member

Registered: 2012-07-31

Posts: 6

Re: Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

Hi,
I'm running debian and I have the same problem with the Yoga 12, so lets work through this together.

As is written elsewhere on the net, there is a bug in the yoga BIOS that was fixed in version 1.20 which makes the fan not work. You can see the fix in the change log on the lenovo website:

"- Updated Fan table" - https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p … uj71wd.txt

If your BIOS version is < 1.20, then you need to update your BIOS. https://support.lenovo.com/cz/en/olddownloads/ds102287

I've updated my BIOS to 1.24
I'm not sure if I recomend that version, as it is quite unstable. So I would sugest you try upgrading to precicely version 1.20 first.

In order to update my bios, I had to extract the image for a bootable USB key using the geteltorito utility. Google it. I then burned the image onto my usb key using dd.

Once I restarted my computer and selected boot from USB key by pressing f12 repeatedly, I saw a black screen. Nothing happened. This puzled me for a long while. Finally, I selected for the BIOS to reset to factory defaults, and magically it started working. Obviously lenovo's firmware code is utter crap (I don't think I'll buy anything from the thinkpad line again unless it is at least 5 years old and proven to work ).

For me, the BIOS upgrade ran successfully, but in the new version of the BIOS, legacy boot no longer works. That means that my system is unbootable. However, if I launch a livecd style USB key, I can feel the fan running even after linux is up, which means that the fan problem is probably fixed.

Now, I have to go and figure out how to install grub-efi. Whish me luck.

timthelion

Member

Registered: 2012-07-31

Posts: 6

Re: Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

So I fixed the boot issue with ubuntu's livecd and https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair. However, unfortunately, the fan issue was NOT fixed by the BIOS upgrade!

timthelion

Member

Registered: 2012-07-31

Posts: 6

Re: Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

So the /proc/acpi/ibm/fan inteface seems to just not work in linux. But if you dissable fan control, then the new BIOS controlls the fan correctly. So before the BIOS update, I created a  /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf  file as described here: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_control_fan_speed trying to get the fan to turn on because it was just off all the time and the laptop was overheating. Now, if that file exists, then the fan never turns on, but if I delete it, than the fan automatically controls itself

So everything is solved by the BIOS update so long as fan control is turned off.

Inixi

Member

Registered: 2016-10-15

Posts: 54

Re: Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

@timthelion
My BIOS version:

$ sudo dmidecode | grep 'BIOS Revision'
	BIOS Revision: 1.30

I must disappoint you, because this BIOS update you are talking about not does not enable fan control under linux. As I read previously on some web page (can't remember where) it corrects/patches fan thermal table to settle the fan noise and overheat. But we are still unable to control the EC which is responsible for fan speed.

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2020 ASUS Zephyrus G14

timthelion

Member

Registered: 2012-07-31

Posts: 6

Re: Thinkpad Yoga S1 and fan control

Sorry, I cannot help you fix the problem with controlling fan speed from linux. I was on the origional BIOS version 1.03 and in that version, my fan literally wasn't spinning at all, causing my system to overheat. So for me, personally, I'm happy that at least the fan is turning

Good luck trying to control it from linux. I'm sorry that I don't know how to help you further.