Hi,
I recently upgraded to tumbleweed from Leap 15 to see if I could fix a problem with some erratic touchpad behavior. The upgrade seems to have fixed the touchpad problem but now the fan on my HP laptop is running all the time. With Leap this laptop was dead quiet–the fan hardly ever came on. Does anyone have any ideas about how I might identify the problem?
Thanks!
A possible graphics-related issue, so start with sharing the hardware/driver details perhaps…
/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard
inxi -Gxx
Thanks for your quick reply, Deano. Here’s the graphics card info:
/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard
21: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
[Created at pci.378]
Unique ID: _Znp.bF+hvnX9fE6
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
Hardware Class: graphics card
Device Name: "Onboard IGD"
Model: "Intel VGA compatible controller"
Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
Device: pci 0x5917
SubVendor: pci 0x103c "Hewlett-Packard Company"
SubDevice: pci 0x83b2
Revision: 0x07
Driver: "i915"
Driver Modules: "i915"
Memory Range: 0x1ff2000000-0x1ff2ffffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
I/O Ports: 0x3000-0x303f (rw)
Memory Range: 0x000c0000-0x000dffff (rw,non-prefetchable,disabled)
IRQ: 132 (51426 events)
Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00005917sv0000103Csd000083B2bc03sc00i00"
Driver Info #0:
Driver Status: i915 is active
Driver Activation Cmd: "modprobe i915"
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Primary display adapter: #21
and
inxi -Gxx
Graphics:
Card-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:5917
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.1 driver: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: intel compositor: kwin x11
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel UHD Graphics 620 (Kabylake GT2)
v: 4.5 Mesa 18.1.7 compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes
How old is the laptop? Checked for dust etc? Install sensors (if you haven’t done so already) and check that the internal temperatures are ok.
It’s a very new laptop, purchased just three months ago. It was very quiet on debian, and also very quiet on Leap 15, which I was running until this morning. No dust, but I blew some compressed air in the vents anyway. The fan stays quiet if I boot into TWM. So I’m pretty sure it’s something related to Plasma. The laptop’s bios is also up to date.
Here’s the output from sensors:
sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Package id 0: +62.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 0: +62.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1: +51.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 2: +50.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 3: +51.0°C (high = +100.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +30.0°C
temp2: +62.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
temp3: +0.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
temp4: +36.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
temp5: +35.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
temp6: +28.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
temp7: +38.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
temp8: +0.0°C (crit = +128.0°C)
iwlwifi-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +37.0°C
pch_skylake-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +43.5°C
Ok, thanks for the additional information - saves speculating. The temperature readings seem to be reasonable. Are you able to try another desktop environment, or perhaps switch to multi-user.target with
systemctl isolate multi-user.target
and change to a VT console (eg Ctrl-Alt-F2). Does the fan stay running?
BTW, which model HP laptop?
Did you try running the laptop from a TW live image?
How did you perform the upgrade to TW?
Any repos involved apart from the distribution ones?
Does the issue exist for a newly created user?
Just in case the following is useful here…
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fan_speed_control#Fancontrol_.28lm-sensors.29
systemctl isolate multi-user.target
The fan still ran; it also kept running after switching to a VT console.
The laptop is an HP 850 G5: https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c05903028
I created a new user but that didn’t help–fan was still running.
TW was installed automatically when I installed Leap; I don’t remember choosing it when I was installing opensuse–I selected the kde desktop. But TW is there as an option on the SDDM login page.
The repos are just the standard ones for tumbleweed.
Out of curiosity I installed gnome but that didn’t help either–the fan still runs under gnome X11 and gnome wayland.
Ok, but what if you boot to runlevel 3 by editing the grub boot entry temporarily as explained here…
https://doc.opensuse.org/documentation/leap/reference/html/book.opensuse.reference/cha.grub2.html#sec.grub2.menu_change
Add a ‘3’ to the end of the boot parameters…
Add space-separated parameters to the end of the line starting with linux or linuxefi to edit the kernel parameters.
I’m just trying to establish if it is only when a graphical environment starts that you observe this ‘full speed’ fan behaviour.
I’m just trying to establish if it is only when a graphical environment starts that you observe this ‘full speed’ fan behaviour.
I entered runlevel 3 as you suggested. The fan did not run. While I was in runlevel 3 I logged on, still no fan noise. Then I entered “startx” and the fan turned on again once the graphical interface started.
Ok, thanks for the update.
Does your EliteBook BIOS include an explicit option for fan control by chance?
FWIW, interesting discussion here on same topic for different model EliteBook
https://askubuntu.com/questions/774101/how-do-i-use-fancontrol-on-hp-elitebook-8560w
TW does not install when you install leap. SO tell use more like how installed and what reps your have.
I think the OP was referring to the TWM desktop.
Does your EliteBook BIOS include an explicit option for fan control by chance?
The BIOS does have an option called “Fan always on while on AC power” but it is unchecked.
I think the OP was referring to the TWM desktop.
That’s right–I was referring to TWM.
FWIW, interesting discussion here on same topic for different model EliteBook
Something clearly changed when I upgraded to Tumbleweed today. As I said, I had been running Leap 15 for a few weeks and I rarely heard the fan. So it seems unlikely that there’s anything wrong with the laptop. Is it possible to revert back to Leap? Failing that I’ll probably re-install Leap. The fan noise is annoying.
Ok, worth a shot.
Something clearly changed when I upgraded to Tumbleweed today. As I said, I had been running Leap 15 for a few weeks and I rarely heard the fan.
Likely kernel-related power management changes, but I’m not sure what further advice I could give here.
So it seems unlikely that there’s anything wrong with the laptop. Is it possible to revert back to Leap? Failing that I’ll probably re-install Leap. The fan noise is annoying.
Yes, it is possible. Just point at Leap 15 repos again (remove or disable an ythird party repos), and run ‘zypper dup’.
This may be of interest…
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-4.19-Power-Management
Likely kernel-related power management changes, but I’m not sure what further advice I could give here.
Thanks, Deano. I appreciate the time you’ve taken to look at this.
This may be of interest…
https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa…wer-Management
Maybe I should just wait for a kernel update then. I’m not sure which is more troublesome–the buggy touchpad in leap or the fan noise in tumbleweed. Probably the touchpad issue.