Hi, I've been playing around with Linux and my iBook G4 lately to better adapt the first to the latter and now I have a question regarding the driver for the iBook CPU fan (the therm_adt746x module).
Without the module loaded the iBook is as quiet as it is when running Mac OS X, even under heavier load, i.e. when compiling a kernel. With the module loaded, every now and then the fan starts to get really noisy. I think it is switched to full speed or so. That never happens with OS X, even when running programs that are heavily using the CPU, like the [EMAIL PROTECTED] client for example. I still haven't got around to set up lmsensors to monitor CPU temperature under Linux (can anyone here give me a hint at how to do this with the 2.6 kernel?) but regarding my experiences with Mac OS X the temperature goes up to about 75 degree Celsius and then stays quite constant, even when running [EMAIL PROTECTED] for some hours, without any fan noise. So I don't think compiling a kernel produces more load for the machine which would justify running the fan at full speed. I've been running the iBook under Linux for some time now, without the therm_adt746x module, and I've compiled a new kernel quite often, but it never showed any signs of overheating. So my first question is: Is there any kind of hardware fan control built in to the iBook? Does one really need to use therm_adt746x or can one safely run the iBook without it? The second questing is: When using the module it provides some files in /sys/devices/temperatures to get information on things like temperature, fan speed and so on. When the iBook is all quiet, cpu_fan_speed reports 82, and when the fan gets nosiy, it reports some higher values. Does "82" actually mean "the fan runs at 82 rpm"? Or is it just some synonym for "the fan isn't active"? I hope someone here has a deep enough insight into this hardware/driver stuff to answer my questions. Bye, Michael -- Indifference will be the downfall of mankind, but who cares?
