i8k gone crazy

jalu · 2010-11-26 02:18:43

Hey everybody.

I haven't been following this too closely. Does anybody know that the status of the kernel issue that is causing this? /proc/i8k is still reporting my CPU temperature as 127 C...

Celti · 2010-12-09 23:48:40

I just upgraded to 2.6.36.1 (been busy); it's still broken. Anyone know who I should pester to get this two-word fix applied?

Anyway, rebuilt it for 2.6.36-ARCH kernels; available here.

Last edited by Celti (2010-12-09 23:49:06)

jalu · 2010-12-10 00:46:37

Celti: I don't know a ton about kernel development, but I do know they follow a "Dictator and Lieutenants" workflow.

What that basically boils down to is this: Anyone can git clone the Linux source tree and make changes. If one of the subsystem maintainers (Lieutenants) likes your changes, he will pull them into his source tree. If Linus likes the changes in that Lieutenant's source tree, he will pull it into his own.

Thus, the best thing to do might be to git clone Linux, make the necessary changes, publish your changes (GitHub, Gitorious, etc.) and then tell the proc maintainer (whoever that is) to consider your fix. If he likes it, it will be copied into his source tree, which will in turn be copied into Linus' source tree, which will in turn become a future version of the kernel.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. I've never done Linux development, but I have done some research into their development workflow.

edit: More on that workflow: http://whygitisbetterthanx.com/#any-workflow

Last edited by jalu (2010-12-10 00:49:34)

Celti · 2010-12-10 03:08:15

...yeah, I'm not going to figure out how to deal with the kernel git tree (and git in general, for that matter) on this lousy laptop to convince someone to add the word 'volatile' to two lines.

jalu · 2010-12-10 03:59:12

Do you have a copy of the updated file? If you do, I can attempt the git magic that I described above and give you credit.

Celti · 2010-12-10 06:13:11

Sure, grab it here.
I don't particulary care about credit (especially for something as simple as `sed -i -e 's/asm/asm volatile/' i8k.c`). I just don't want to waste two hours downloading and extracting the kernel sources and then rebuilding the module on every majour kernel revision. Besides, if anyone should get the credit, it's dking earlier in the thread. He's the one who provided the solution, I just implemented it.

tuhyk · 2010-12-11 18:26:03

I just updated to 2.6.36.2-1 and it works out of the box. So I guess the implementation works. Celti thanks anyway for your help

jalu · 2010-12-14 03:49:34

Cool, thanks Celti. I'll try to look at this soon. I'll keep you posted.

jalu · 2010-12-14 04:47:54

Interesting development.

Today I tried using Celti's i8k.ko file. I ran into an error very similar to the one described in post #7. I didn't have a backup, so I upgraded the kernel to 2.6.36.2. Sure enough, i8k is now working again.

The only thing I'm not sure about is this---is my current copy of i8k.ko the one provided by kernel 2.6.36.2, or is it the copy from Celti I copied in earlier today? If it's the former, then our problem is fixed. If it's the latter, then we obviously still have to submit this patch.

Last edited by jalu (2010-12-14 04:49:30)

el mariachi · 2011-04-09 19:11:37

As of 2.6.37 the issue is still here, after a weird brief time when the problem seemed to have gone away (maybe during 2.6.36?).

Using the solution in post #36 (sed -i -e 's/asm/asm volatile/' i8k.c) gives this error during kernel compilation:

drivers/char/i8k.c:27:34: fatal error: asm volatile/uaccess.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
make[2]: *** [drivers/char/i8k.o] Error 1
make[1]: *** [drivers/char] Error 2
make: *** [drivers] Error 2
==> ERROR: A failure occurred in build().

Last edited by el mariachi (2011-04-09 19:13:38)

Pyntux · 2011-04-09 20:25:06

I have dell vostro a860, can I use i8k? When I try to modprobe module, laptop freeze...

Any solution?

el mariachi · 2011-04-18 08:48:31

http://cdiefer.proboards.com/index.cgi? … thread=707
Doing the procedure described above + dellfand works like charm.
Now I just need a way to make these changes permanent... redoing everything every boot is tiresome.

el mariachi · 2011-04-19 22:30:24

this is 'the' most annoying and embarrassing (I have the loudest laptop in my uni) issue I've been struggling with the this laptop... now the Shift+Fn thing is not working, as soon as the temperature screen is on, the system freezes. Yey. This is so frustrating, because once I upgraded my BIOS to A16 the issue was gone, but surely I did something else and then reverted it, because the fan is back again...

RazZziel · 2011-04-24 17:37:02

Is i8k supposed to work with new XPS15s? I have a L502X (i5), and on Linux is loud as hell.

When I modprobe i8k and run i8kmon, with no configuration, it turns as quiet as on Windows, but then every 10 seconds everything stops for a fraction of a second, even the music if I'm playing something. I also have cpufreqd with the ondemand governor active. My system is totally up-to-date, and I'm using KDE4. Does anyone know why this may be happening?

firewalker · 2012-04-11 17:39:07

RazZziel wrote:

Is i8k supposed to work with new XPS15s? I have a L502X (i5), and on Linux is loud as hell.
When I modprobe i8k and run i8kmon, with no configuration, it turns as quiet as on Windows, but then every 10 seconds everything stops for a fraction of a second, even the music if I'm playing something. I also have cpufreqd with the ondemand governor active. My system is totally up-to-date, and I'm using KDE4. Does anyone know why this may be happening?

I have exactly the same issue on a Dell Inspiron N411Z. The problem occurs when accessing /proc/i8k file.

E.g. while [ 1 ]; do cat /proc/i8k; sleep 5; done will freeze the system for a fraction of a second every 5 seconds.

So the problem should be with i8k module. I will try to track down the process on the i8k.c file.

post-factum · 2013-01-15 09:52:56

firewalker wrote:

I have exactly the same issue on a Dell Inspiron N411Z. The problem occurs when accessing /proc/i8k file.
E.g. while [ 1 ]; do cat /proc/i8k; sleep 5; done will freeze the system for a fraction of a second every 5 seconds.
So the problem should be with i8k module. I will try to track down the process on the i8k.c file.

Any progress?

firewalker · 2013-01-15 10:36:40

No. I tried some things, but my knowledge is limited with kernel modules e.t.c.

luuuciano · 2013-09-07 14:22:22

kernel 3.10.10-1... any update?

I have a dell vostro 1710, at some point the fan started to NOT work atall... so I have 65c temperature doing regular stuff...

Never used i8kutils before... installed it, but I can not find a way to make it work...

luuuciano · 2013-09-08 23:26:58

It looks like fedora guys fixed it in two months (2010)? https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=647677
I wish that was made on linux kernel.org, not just fedora split one

Damn... I just downloaded linux kernel source files, chequed on drivers/char/i8k.c and it is already using "asm volatile"...
So, no idea why it is still showing unable to get SMM Dell signature...

Last edited by luuuciano (2013-09-09 00:08:13)

Fedes · 2013-09-13 15:44:14

My problem is a bit different. It's been happening since a while now, but I dind't bother until now. The problem is that when automatic fan is enabled, it will respect my temperature settings, but every 10 seconds or so, it will turn on the fan, full speed, and then shut it down after 5 seconds, and it stays in that loop as long as the i8k module is loaded and the i8kmon service is running. This started to happen some time ago after a kernel upgrade. I have a Dell Vostro 3400, and it seems to me it could be a fight between i8k and the BIOS thermal settings.

Arch Linux

#26 2010-11-26 02:18:43

Re: i8k gone crazy

#27 2010-12-09 23:48:40

Re: i8k gone crazy

#28 2010-12-10 00:46:37

Re: i8k gone crazy

#29 2010-12-10 03:08:15

Re: i8k gone crazy

#30 2010-12-10 03:59:12

Re: i8k gone crazy

#31 2010-12-10 06:13:11

Re: i8k gone crazy

#32 2010-12-11 18:26:03

Re: i8k gone crazy

#33 2010-12-14 03:49:34

Re: i8k gone crazy

#34 2010-12-14 04:47:54

Re: i8k gone crazy

#35 2011-04-09 19:11:37

Re: i8k gone crazy

#36 2011-04-09 20:25:06

Re: i8k gone crazy

#37 2011-04-18 08:48:31

Re: i8k gone crazy

#38 2011-04-19 22:30:24

Re: i8k gone crazy

#39 2011-04-24 17:37:02

Re: i8k gone crazy

#40 2012-04-11 17:39:07

Re: i8k gone crazy

#41 2013-01-15 09:52:56

Re: i8k gone crazy

#42 2013-01-15 10:36:40

Re: i8k gone crazy

#43 2013-09-07 14:22:22

Re: i8k gone crazy

#44 2013-09-08 23:26:58

Re: i8k gone crazy

#45 2013-09-13 15:44:14

Re: i8k gone crazy

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