Dell Inspiron 8000 fan

In ubuntu the fan will never turn on on the Inspiron 8500 and possibly other 8000 series laptops as well. I got most of this information from here.

There are a few steps in this guide that might not be needed.

1. I didn't actually try to insert the i8k module without the force option so it might insert cleanly without it.
2. Adding --auto to I8KMON_ARGS in /etc/init.d/i8kmon might not be needed.

• It will help to have lm-sensors set up as well.
• Install the package i8kutils.

sudo apt-get install i8kutils

• Insert the i8k kernel module.

sudo modprobe i8k force=1

• Add i8k to /etc/modules so that it loads every boot.

sudo nano /etc/modules
i8k

• Add the force option to /etc/modprobe.d/i8k so that the module loads correctly.

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/i8k
options i8k force=1

• Enable the i8kmon daemon.

sudo nano /etc/default/i8kmon
ENABLE=1

• Configure the i8k daemon to turn the fan on at certain speeds depending on the cpu temp. Look at the i8kmon man page for some more information on how to configure it.

sudo nano /etc/i8kmon
set config(0) {{0 -} -1 50 -1 50}
set config(1) {{1 -} 50 65 50 65}
set config(2) {{2 -} 65 128 65 128}

• I'm not sure if this next bit is strictly necessary.
• Edit the init script for i8kmon

sudo nano /etc/init.d/i8kmon

change this

NAME=i8kmon
DAEMON=/usr/bin/i8kmon
PROC_I8K=/proc/i8k
DESC="Dell Inspiron fan/cpu-temperature monitor"
I8KMON_ARGS="--daemon --nouserconfig"
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
ENABLED=0

to this

NAME=i8kmon
DAEMON=/usr/bin/i8kmon
PROC_I8K=/proc/i8k
DESC="Dell Inspiron fan/cpu-temperature monitor"
I8KMON_ARGS="--daemon --nouserconfig --auto"
PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
ENABLED=1

• Restart the i8kmon daemon.

sudo invoke-rc.d i8kmon restart

• Run stress test and verify that the fan is running. Be careful with stress-test, if the fan isn't running properly you could overheat the laptop.

stress-test
oem@freekbox:~$i8kctl
1.0 A17 B5W123K 52 0 2 8040 6420 1 2

the fan is running on high speed

1.0 A17 B5W123K 52 0 0 8040 6420 1 2

the fan is not running at all

• Listen to that baby purr.