[Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

Unia · 2011-04-13 13:19:54

Hey all,

I just installed GNOME3 from testing and everything worked OOTB, but since I installed it my fans are constantly spinning. When I check the cpuspeed with cpufreq-info I get this output:

[jente@lappy ~]$ cpufreq-info | grep curren
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.27 GHz.
  current CPU frequency is 1.20 GHz.
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.27 GHz.
  current CPU frequency is 1.20 GHz.
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.27 GHz.
  current CPU frequency is 1.20 GHz.
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.27 GHz.
  current CPU frequency is 1.20 GHz.

So CPU is fine I guess. Also, when running acpi -t I get the following temperatures:

[jente@lappy ~]$ acpi -t
Thermal 0: ok, 35.0 degrees C
Thermal 1: ok, 53.0 degrees C

Nothing extraordinary I guess - but then why are my fans spinning? Could it be my videocard, since I'm currently using the xf86-video-ati driver instead of Catalyst which I used before? (did a clean install before installing GNOME3)

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Unia (2011-04-13 19:02:40)

wonder · 2011-04-13 13:24:21

maybe is the vga fan

Unia · 2011-04-13 13:25:54

And by that you mean I should try with the Catalyst driver? (that would be as simple as to boot into TTY and uninstall xf86-video-ati and then install Catalyst from AUR, right?)

Last edited by Unia (2011-04-13 13:28:29)

Unia · 2011-04-13 13:58:50

No luck with the Catalyst driver - it doesn't work with Xorg 1.10 or above.

Any fix? Can I somehow downgrade to Xorg<1.10?

anonymous_user · 2011-04-13 14:28:24

When using the testing repo, its recommended you use it all or nothing. So if you really want to try the Catalyst driver, disable the testing repo and run:

sudo pacman -Syuu

To downgrade.

Unia · 2011-04-13 14:43:11

Actually xorg-server 1.10 is in [extra] now:

[jente@lappy ~]$ pacman -Ss xorg-server
extra/xorg-server 1.10.0.902-1 (xorg) [installed]
    Xorg X server
extra/xorg-server-common 1.10.0.902-1 [installed]
    Xorg server common files

But if there's no (safe) way to downgrade or find a workaround, I guess I'll just wait for a newer Catalyst.

Vi0L0 · 2011-04-13 14:48:54

Yep, open source ati driver still lacks good power management, unfortunatelly. Last time i checked it even my desktop hd4850 fan was spinning too fast, even on medium profile (low profile wasn't usefull at all) - it also means that power consumption was high. And as i can see it's not fixed atm: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31000

Unia wrote:

No luck with the Catalyst driver - it doesn't work with Xorg 1.10 or above.

catalyst-test is working with xserver 1.10, although it lacks vaapi support.

Unia wrote:

Any fix? Can I somehow downgrade to Xorg<1.10?

You can use [xorg19] repo.

I wish you luck, cuz GNOME 3 isn't working well on catalyst.

Last edited by Vi0L0 (2011-04-13 14:50:51)

anonymous_user · 2011-04-13 14:49:25

Oops my bad.

Maybe you can try catalyst-test from AUR?

Unia · 2011-04-13 15:48:29

I'll try the [xorg19] repo first, cause I need the vaapi I guess. Is it just a matter of adding it to the pacman.conf file and then running pacman -Syuu?

Also, Vi0L0, could you elaborate why it isn't working well? What kind of issues are there?

wonder · 2011-04-13 15:49:17

too much hassle for a driver that doesn't run well gnome-shell

Unia · 2011-04-13 15:53:31

wonder wrote:

too much hassle for a driver that doesn't run well gnome-shell

And what is the added value this post brings?

Vi0L0 · 2011-04-13 16:27:30

Unia wrote:

I'll try the [xorg19] repo first, cause I need the vaapi I guess. Is it just a matter of adding it to the pacman.conf file and then running pacman -Syuu?

Yes, it should work. Only few packages should be downgraded, in my case xorg-server xorg-server-common and xf86-input-evdev

Unia wrote:

Also, Vi0L0, could you elaborate why it isn't working well? What kind of issues are there?

That depends on gfx you've got - from glitches when running kde apps, through some artifacts, into completelly screw up fonts in menus...
Although there is a chance that it will work just good, still not as good as it should (ie. slow windows movement is always present i guess).

Last edited by Vi0L0 (2011-04-13 16:29:53)

Unia · 2011-04-13 16:28:37

I just went ahead and added the [xorg19] repo, updated and installed the Catalyst driver. I now see what the issues are (slow effects and a rainbow-ish top bar). Wonder why this is happening though, as I used to run Compiz fine on this setup. Also I wonder if this is going to be fixed with the upcoming Catalyst release?

Vi0L0 · 2011-04-13 16:34:23

I believe that Martin’s Blog entry should bring some light why this is happening:
http://blog.martin-graesslin.com/blog/2 … ompositor/

Cosmin · 2011-04-13 16:50:03

I had the fan from the laptop spinning like crazy and i found that gnome-settings-daemon was eating a lot of cpu - you can check as root with "top" or with gnome-system-monitor - View - All processes

Unia · 2011-04-13 16:53:57

I had already checked htop and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I think it is indeed the video driver - installing catalyst-test now to see if it's any better with Gnome3.

EDIT: nope, still the rainbow bar and the slow effects. Guess I'll habe to use the opensource driver for now.

Two more questions: is this Arch specific, or does it apply for all distro's? And of course: will this get solved? (and if possible to answer: how soon aproximately?)

Thanks

Last edited by Unia (2011-04-13 16:56:28)

Vi0L0 · 2011-04-13 18:15:43

Unia wrote:

Two more questions: is this Arch specific, or does it apply for all distro's?

You mean catalyst support?
It's touching also other distros, ie OpenSuse: http://ati.cchtml.com/show_bug.cgi?id=99

Unia wrote:

And of course: will this get solved? (and if possible to answer: how soon aproximately?)

As for catalyst - it should be solved, although it's hard to tell when.
As for not-so-good power management of open source ati driver - it's even harder to tell, bug report is pretty old.

wonder · 2011-04-13 18:21:30

Unia wrote:

wonder wrote:
too much hassle for a driver that doesn't run well gnome-shell
And what is the added value this post brings?

now you know the true value.

I know from the beginning about the rainbow problem when using catalyst.

The forums are full of messages about that, but hell, you lost time instead of trusting me

Unia · 2011-04-13 18:30:04

Lost time? I learned a whole lot about using the not-standard repo's with Arch and a whole lot about the drivers and most of all, I had fun messing around with things once again.

Also:

Vi0L0 wrote:

Although there is a chance that it will work just good, still not as good as it should (ie. slow windows movement is always present i guess).

Vi0L0, thanks for your help! I'll wait for an updated version of Catalyst and in the meantime will keep with xf86-video-ati. I take it the xf86 ATi driver is the same for all distro's as well?

Vi0L0 · 2011-04-13 18:58:20

Unia wrote:

I take it the xf86 ATi driver is the same for all distro's as well?

Yes, it is. It's even better in Arch, where all packages are up to date. It's important because developement speed of open ATi driver is pretty fast.
Plus there is unofficial Perry3D's [radeon] repo with most fresh (git) open ati packages, you can find more info here.
Although you won't find any difference between packages from [extra] repo and [radeon] repo in a matter of power management.

Unia · 2011-04-13 19:01:37

Alright, thanks! Consider this solved

Arch Linux

#1 2011-04-13 13:19:54

[Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#2 2011-04-13 13:24:21

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#3 2011-04-13 13:25:54

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#4 2011-04-13 13:58:50

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#5 2011-04-13 14:28:24

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#6 2011-04-13 14:43:11

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#7 2011-04-13 14:48:54

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#8 2011-04-13 14:49:25

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#9 2011-04-13 15:48:29

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#10 2011-04-13 15:49:17

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#11 2011-04-13 15:53:31

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#12 2011-04-13 16:27:30

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#13 2011-04-13 16:28:37

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#14 2011-04-13 16:34:23

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#15 2011-04-13 16:50:03

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#16 2011-04-13 16:53:57

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#17 2011-04-13 18:15:43

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#18 2011-04-13 18:21:30

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#19 2011-04-13 18:30:04

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#20 2011-04-13 18:58:20

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

#21 2011-04-13 19:01:37

Re: [Solved] Fans constantly spinning with GNOME3

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