edit: Doing some more reading and researching, I think that I need to get the package lm_sensors. Currently trying to figure out how to get this package installed under debian.

I'm new to using linux, I got interested because of MythTV, and just got Knoppmyth up. It seems to be running mostly out of box, and I'm really impressed with what I've seen so far, but I've run into a problem with my PSU fan.

Normally when running under windows, the CPU fan would start out at full speed on bootup, but quickly drop down to a lower speed where it was much less noticable. Now that I'm running the linux OS via Knoppmyth, the CPU fan won't slow down. Is there a way for me to control this function?

If it helps, I'm running a Mega 865 PC, chipset is Intel 865G + FW82801EB(Springdale G+ICH5)

I did search on the forums but couldn't find anything, I'm hoping that there is a solution. Any suggestions?

Edit * turns out it's the CPU fan that's the main culprit, not the PSU fan as I thought at first. I've read about xmbmon but am not sure if that can be used to actually control the speed.

Not sure, but I would think the fan speed has more to do with the BIOS rather than the OS.

Usually the BIOS is controlling the fan speed or there is a little sensor on the fan itself that does this automatically. Did you look in the BIOS?

Maybe you had some specific software for Windows installed previously that was controlling the fan speed?

Did you add some hardware (MPEG card, etc.) that is making it hotter in the case, thus requiring higher CPU fan speed?

Thanks for your response - right, from what I've read it actually has to do with both - the BIOS should hand off the control to the OS (which is OK, it doesn't bother me if it's just for those first 20 seconds, just need for Linux to take over and slow it down.)



Yes, but no luck. It tells me that the cpu fan is spinning at ~5.5k rpms, but no way to change the speed.



Tough to say ... MSI provides windows drivers for the chipset - perhaps this is what tells Windows to stop spinning the fans based on the temperature? However, I suspect that it was Windows that managed that function even before I added any drivers, will try to confirm.
*Confirmed - I popped in a windows 2000 cd as if to install the OS. After loading the install program from the CD, the noise from the fans has dropped significantly.



Same configuration as under windows, so no.

Hm. Doesn't sound good.

lm_sensors might do the trick. If you can get it to work.

http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/index.html

Apparently, it has a fan control script:

http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/man/fancontrol.html

Yea, that seems to be the trick ... doesn't look pretty, but I'll update with some more information if I can get it working. If anybody can provide specific information on how to get this going for Knoppmyth, it'd be greatly appreciated.

I've tried to setup lm_sensors on about a half dozen boxes now with very limited success. It's a very annoying package to get running and very intrusive. On one of my SFF boxes where the BIOS does a fine job of controlling the fans based on CPU and system temprature all by itself, running lm_sensors to get monitoring inevitably slams the fans to full "military emergency power". I've tried everything short of rewriting the code to prevent that without success.

Frankly I've mentally flagged lm_sensors as one of those packages that's just good enough to block the space and discourage someone from doing it right.

Thanks for the feedback - not sure by what you mean about "doing it right", I was under the impression that lm_sensors was the way to do it right, but trying to work through the installation instructions for this package is horrible, and I'm coming to the conclusion that I won't be able to figure it out with my current knowledge of linux. Glad to know it's not just me.

I've actually gone back to basics and am reading up about the debian core from scratch. I guess it's great that MythTV could get a linux agnostic like me to start learning more about it, but I can see how problems like this end up discouraging a lot of people (eg, everything works "out of box" under windows). Frusterated, but not giving up yet.