Temperature problems on my laptop
Hello! I have switched from Ubuntu to Trisquel Gnu/Linux and I have a serious problem with my laptop temperature. After a while it gets very hot and don't know how to solve this on Trisquel Gnu/Linux. On ubuntu I didn't had this problem at all. The machine is a dual core with ati webcard(I don't use drivers for my card because I don't need acceleration and they are proprietary).
Could you help me out solve this problem?
If it helps, I installed xsensors and here are some temperatures after 10 minutes of uptime:
acpitz:58C
coretemp: 55C
coretemp: 52C
radeon: 68C
After a while it gets so hot, that when I touch the touchpad, it's like my hand is in boiling water.
I am a translator!
I think your Radeon gets so hot because the free drivers can't turn the fan on, or get false temperature readings.
Please post the exact specs of your laptop, otherwise all we can do is speculate.
My specs are:
dell inspiron 1545
4gb ram
intel t4300
ati hd4330
Cyberhawk the fans do turn on but not at full potential(they are working low,
strange because my machine is not idle). On ubuntu as i said, I didn't
installed proprietary drivers but had no problems with my temperatures.
Is there a way to fix this for Trisquel?
I am a translator!
Ubuntu still comes with a version of Linux that has certain firmware inside. Even if you use the open-source drivers in Ubuntu, it means that you are using the non-free firmware that is included in the kernel itself. That is of course missing in Trisquel. That reveals how some of the supposedly open-source drivers aren't so open-source after all.
I can't find any specific information about the hd4330, but I don't see reports on any hd4xxx being more or less fully reverse engineered. I'm afraid that the only way to prevent overheating your stuff is to use the proprietary driver (or Ubuntu, it has the firmware anyway).
The perfect solution would be to buy a laptop from a manufacturer who isn't lobbying for some operating system. ThinkPenguin has some really cool ones (don't be fooled by the low quality pictures there, the laptops look very good in real life as reviews have shown). Your favourite searchengine will find you a review of the PenguinAir, afaik it's the only review of a ThinkPenguin laptop so far.
Try using the Jupiter applet. This little "gold-nugget" app, written in Python, is intended to implement some power saving functionality under the Linux-kernel.
After the installation is done, run the app (from Gnome menu) and switch 'Performance' to 'Power Saving' mode (through the flash icon that appear on the right-side of the panel). Also do this when your laptop is (un)plugged into/from power source because Jupiter automatically changes the power plan depending on whether is your PC plugged in or not.
After that, your laptop should not be so hot anymore :)
I am a member!
Check the BIOS. Some systems have an option to control the fan from the BIOS.
That should solve the issue if it is an option.
The best solution is to avoid companies that are using these bad chipsets
though. Here is a short list of the bad chipsets: ATI & Nvidia graphics
chipsets. Go with Intel for graphics. For the wireless cards don't go with
anything other than Atheros. This is actually harder to do given more and
more vendors are locking out third party wireless cards. Definitely don't get
a Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, or HP laptop. I can confirm these companies are
using digital restrictions.
As Cyberhawk mentioned we (ThinkPenguin.com) do sell laptops and other
freedom friendly hardware. We have the largest catalog of GNU/Linux hardware
anywhere and most of it is now available from both the UK and the United
States. Everything should work with Trisquel. Trisquel also get 25% of the
profits. Just place your order through http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/ we also
sponsor other projects and percentage of our sales from elsewhere go to the
free software foundation.
"Here is a short list of the bad chipsets: ATI & Nvidia graphics
chipsets. Go with Intel for graphics."
Things work perfectly on both my desktop PC and laptop, both of which have nVidia graphics, using the free Nouveau drivers. I have had issues with ATI though.
"Definitely don't get
a Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, or HP laptop. I can confirm these companies are
using digital restrictions."
Alienware laptops, made by Dell, don't have restrictions on wireless chipsets used. I easily replaced the default Broadcom card with an Atheros one in mine and it didn't complain or anything.
I am a member!
It's not that you won't find some models that don't have these restrictions from the manufacturers above. The problem is more and more companies are implementing them. If you continue to purchase from these companies that take away your freedom don't be surprised when there is nobody left to get a laptop from without such restrictions.
Dell's Alienware line up may not have them yet... we know for a fact they are are starting to implement restrictions on the most recent models though. It very likely that it won't be long before all Dells have such restrictions.
Acer, Asus, and others at the moment have not implemented such restrictions.
As far as Nvidia goes the same is true. Nvidia has not shown a willingness to cooperate on a free driver. They are not releasing specifications and have explicitly stated they are not supporting the free software project which was started.
The reverse engineered driver is of limited usefulness. Even where companies are releasing some specifications full support for graphics chipsets have taken years. These chipsets still aren't free though. They are dependant on non-free components.
Intel is the only company which is currently cooperating in producing a free driver that isn't dependent on a non-free component.
There is another company which might be producing a 3d accelerated desktop graphics chipset with free drivers available. They have GPL licensed code although I'm not sure at the moment if it is similar to AMD's efforts in that you are still dependent on a non-free core or not.
But see, the current way of providing 3D support on the free Nouveau driver doesn't rely on anything proprietary. No proprietary firmware or any other binary blob. Performance is so much better than what I've used with Intel on GNU/Linux. If it were proprietary or had any binary blob, it wouldn't be in Parabola or Trisquel's repositories. There are few older cards that do require proprietary firmware, but most, if not all of the newer ones can run with the Nouveau DRI without any proprietary firmware.
Sure, nVidia may not be cooperating in producing a free driver, but the community is. There's nothing nVidia can do about it.
Back to the first issue, I strongly agree. Probably the only true strong way to fight vendor lock-in for things like wireless cards is to create a fully-free BIOS to replace the proprietary BIOS used in almost every computer. From what I can figure out, wireless chip lockout is an 'anti-feature' of the BIOS. Now of course, replacing the BIOS with a fully free one would be ridiculously difficult, especially considering all the different BIOSes out there for all the different types of motherboards out there.
-double post that shouldn't be here-
I am a member!
It's not that you won't find some models that don't have these restrictions
from the manufacturers above. The problem is more and more companies are
implementing them. If you continue purchase from companies that take away
your freedom don't be surprised when there is nobody left to get a laptop
from without such restrictions.
Dell's Alienware line up may not have them yet... we know for a fact they are
are starting to implement restrictions on the most recent models though. It
very likely won't be long before all Dells have such restrictions.
Acer, Asus, and others at the moment have not implemented such restrictions.
As far as Nvidia goes the same is true. Nvidia has not shown a willingness to
cooperate on a free driver. They are not releasing specifications and have
explicitly stated they are not supporting the free software project which was
started.
The reverse engineered driver is of limited usefulness. Even where companies
are releasing some specifications full support for graphics chipsets have
taken years. These chipsets still aren't free though. They are dependant on
non-free components.
Intel is the only company which is currently cooperating in producing a free
driver that isn't dependent on a non-free component.
There is another company which might be producing a 3d accelerated desktop
graphics chipset with free drivers available. They have GPL licensed code
although I'm not sure at the moment if it is similar to AMD's efforts in that
you are still dependent on a non-free core or not.
I am a member!
Dell just started implementing the digital restrictions. Chances are good you
simply haven't got a system with these restrictions. Lenovo has been
implementing them a lot longer. In fact I think they have had them the
longest of all. Toshiba is a newer one also. HP has been doing it for a few
years at least I believe.
My specs are:
dell inspiron 1545
4gb ram
intel t4300
ati hd4330
Cyberhawk the fans do turn on but not at full potential(they are working low, strange because my machine is not idle). On ubuntu as i said, I didn't installed proprietary drivers but had no problems with my temperatures.
Is there a way to fix this for Trisquel?
I am a translator!
Ubuntu still comes with a version of Linux that has certain firmware inside.
Even if you use the open-source drivers in Ubuntu, it means that you are
using the non-free firmware that is included in the kernel itself. That is of
course missing in Trisquel. That reveals how some of the supposedly
open-source drivers aren't so open-source after all.
I can't find any specific information about the hd4330, but I don't see
reports on any hd4xxx being more or less fully reverse engineered. I'm afraid
that the only way to prevent overheating your stuff is to use the proprietary
driver (or Ubuntu, it has the firmware anyway).
The perfect solution would be to buy a laptop from a manufacturer who isn't
lobbying for some operating system. ThinkPenguin has some really cool ones
(don't be fooled by the low quality pictures there, the laptops look very
good in real life as reviews have shown). Your favourite searchengine will
find you a review of the PenguinAir, afaik it's the only review of a
ThinkPenguin laptop so far.
Try using the Jupiter applet. This little "gold-nugget" app, written in
Python, is intended to implement some power saving functionality under the
Linux-kernel.
After the installation is done, run the app (from Gnome menu) and switch
'Performance' to 'Power Saving' mode (through the flash icon that appear on
the right-side of the panel). Also do this when your laptop is (un)plugged
into/from power source because Jupiter automatically changes the power plan
depending on whether is your PC plugged in or not.
After that, your laptop should not be so hot anymore :)
I am a member!
Check the BIOS. Some systems have an option to control the fan from the BIOS. That should solve the issue if it is an option.
The best solution is to avoid companies that are using these bad chipsets though. Here is a short list of the bad chipsets: ATI & Nvidia graphics chipsets. Go with Intel for graphics. For the wireless cards don't go with anything other than Atheros. This is actually harder to do given more and more vendors are locking out third party wireless cards. Definitely don't get a Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, or HP laptop. I can confirm these companies are using digital restrictions.
As Cyberhawk mentioned we (ThinkPenguin.com) do sell laptops and other freedom friendly hardware. We have the largest catalog of GNU/Linux hardware anywhere and most of it is now available from both the UK and the United States. Everything should work with Trisquel. Trisquel also get 25% of the profits. Just place your order through http://libre.thinkpenguin.com/ we also sponsor other projects and percentage of our sales from elsewhere go to the free software foundation.
"Here is a short list of the bad chipsets: ATI & Nvidia graphics
chipsets. Go with Intel for graphics."
Things work perfectly on both my desktop PC and laptop, both of which have
nVidia graphics, using the free Nouveau drivers. I have had issues with ATI
though.
"Definitely don't get
a Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, or HP laptop. I can confirm these companies are
using digital restrictions."
Alienware laptops, made by Dell, don't have restrictions on wireless chipsets
used. I easily replaced the default Broadcom card with an Atheros one in mine
and it didn't complain or anything.
I am a member!
Dell just started implementing the digital restrictions. Chances are good you simply haven't got a system with these restrictions. Lenovo has been implementing them a lot longer. In fact I think they have had them the longest of all. Toshiba is a newer one also. HP has been doing it for a few years at least I believe.