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#1 2010-03-01 14:25:51

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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openbox running hotter than kde4.4

I put this in newbie 'cos I obviously don't know what I'm doing.

I've got an IBM T41 laptop, some five or six years old, running the latest arch i686 with vanilla KDE4.4 and openbox.

Idle KDE temp: 36-38°C
Idle openbox temp: 44 - 48°C

I checked top and X was the main culprit in both cases - with compositing in KDE and no compositing in openbox.

Am I going mad? What to check next?


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#2 2010-03-01 15:13:35

stefanwilkens
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From: Enschede, the Netherlands
Registered: 2008-12-10
Posts: 624

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

are you using any form of power management at all while in openbox? I'm no KDE user, but I guess that cpu scaling tools and such might come with KDE... it does not when using openbox.


Arch i686 on Phenom X4 | GTX760

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#3 2010-03-01 17:07:18

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Hm, thanks for the hint, sounds more than feasible. I'm not on the laptop at the mo but do believe that I have laptop-mode enabled. Must check...


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#4 2010-03-01 17:18:27

stefanwilkens
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From: Enschede, the Netherlands
Registered: 2008-12-10
Posts: 624

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Also try and compare the cpu governor, I believe it's in:
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor


Arch i686 on Phenom X4 | GTX760

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#5 2010-03-03 13:24:36

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Thanks for all your help. Managed to get the temp down to KDE levels. Only problem now is that the fan blows continuously - I'm sure "there is an app for that" (did I really say that? Ban me!)...


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#6 2010-03-03 13:51:34

evr
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
Registered: 2009-01-23
Posts: 554

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

For thinkpads, tpfand is good for setting up custom fan speeds based on different temperature thresholds.

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#7 2010-03-03 13:57:58

toad
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Nice one evr - will check tonight smile


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#8 2010-03-03 21:30:27

AlexS
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From: Munich, Germany
Registered: 2009-05-16
Posts: 114

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Would you mind reporting how you got your open box to behave? I would be interested in the details

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#9 2010-03-03 22:01:28

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

'cos smile

This made sense:

stefanwilkens wrote:

are you using any form of power management at all while in openbox? I'm no KDE user, but I guess that cpu scaling tools and such might come with KDE... it does not when using openbox.

So I read this which did the trick for CPU scaling.

The fan is blowing at anything above 30°C and I'm running at 33°C sad Installed tpfand but haven't made any inroads yet. The fan is so quiet anyway... (read me being lazy/deaf) smile


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#10 2010-03-03 22:09:55

ccc1
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Registered: 2009-04-16
Posts: 111

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

toad wrote:

Nice one evr - will check tonight smile

thinkfan is also worth trying:
http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=24359
minimalistic and easy to configure.

ccc1

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#11 2010-03-03 22:26:14

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

ccc1 - how would I configure it?


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#12 2010-03-03 22:27:00

evr
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
Registered: 2009-01-23
Posts: 554

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

oh yeah, i forgot to say you can use the tpfan-admin program to have an easy to use graphical interface to set up tpfand.

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#13 2010-03-03 22:40:38

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Yeah, I noticed that, but it has gnome dependencies - some 50MB

But thinking about it, I can throw them all out again afterwards smile

I love that KISS principle big_smile


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#14 2010-03-03 22:52:03

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Hm, I feel like I'm staring at the famous blue screen

toad@archtop 600\86 /home/toad > sudo /etc/rc.d/tpfand start
:: Starting ThinkPad fan control daemon                                                                  [FAIL] 

toad@archtop 600\87 /home/toad > thinkfan -n

/etc/thinkfan.conf: No such file or directory
Refusing to run without usable config file. Please read the documentation.

toad@archtop 601\88 /home/toad > man thinkfan
No manual entry for thinkfan

I tried apropos as well...

It appears I'm lacking a proper conf file. Found this thread and asked for one.


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#15 2010-03-04 00:23:31

cesura
Package Maintainer (PM)
From: Tallinn, Estonia
Registered: 2010-01-23
Posts: 1,867

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

I have a compaq presario CQ60-211DX and the fans are extremely loud. I don't remember them being this loud when I used window$ 2 years ago. I don't know if it is a linux thing or my hardware is just screwed up

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#16 2010-03-04 00:49:02

evr
Arch Linux f@h Team Member
Registered: 2009-01-23
Posts: 554

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

toad wrote:

Yeah, I noticed that, but it has gnome dependencies - some 50MB

But thinking about it, I can throw them all out again afterwards smile

I love that KISS principle big_smile

yeah, i know what you mean, i don't use it either because of all the dependencies.  But i just thought i'd mention it as it's a good way to generate your initial config file.  And like you said, once your done, you can just uninstall and get rid of all the bloat again smile

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#17 2010-03-04 18:49:05

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Hm,

upon starting the thinkfan daemon the gui programme gives me the following error message:

Unable to connect to ThinkPad Fan Control daemon (tpfand).

Please make sure you are running this program on a supported IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad, a recent thinkpad_acpi module is loaded with fan_control=1 and tpfand has been started.

Found this interesting thread for Thinkpads, but it didn't help me with this problem. Haven't found out how to start thinkpad_acpi with that parameter yet. The ThinkWiki is a bit cryptic.

Am also interested in how to stop the battery charging at 80% - that'd be a real winner smile I think I've stumbled across it once in the wiki - off to search...


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#18 2010-03-04 18:54:21

whompus
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From: Durham. UK
Registered: 2005-08-09
Posts: 256

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

toad wrote:

Hm,

Am also interested in how to stop the battery charging at 80% - that'd be a real winner smile I think I've stumbled across it once in the wiki - off to search...

If your laptop susports it http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tp_smapi

Edit wrong link.

Last edited by whompus (2010-03-04 19:01:12)

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#19 2010-03-04 21:10:35

ccc1
Member
Registered: 2009-04-16
Posts: 111

Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

toad wrote:

Haven't found out how to start thinkpad_acpi with that parameter yet.

just put

options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1

in your modprobe.conf

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#20 2010-03-04 21:30:08

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Yep, that worked, thanks smile


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#21 2010-03-04 22:06:20

toad
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From: if only I knew
Registered: 2008-12-22
Posts: 1,775
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Re: openbox running hotter than kde4.4

Testing the battery control which appears to be working, very pleased about that - thanks!

Had a look at the tpfand gui thanks to ccc1 but it seems a little OTT. I'm running consistently below 40 degrees, so that is not a problem anymore.

I have another issue with my xkb switcher here, but that is building site #245920184/3423.md!@~# smile


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