Thinkfan NixOS
Info
Just gonna put here for future reference.
I have a Thinkpad P51 and T470 but noticed that it is always running hot even on a cold day or when it is at idle. The good things is there is a solution already by vmature/thinkfan. This is a lightweight fan control program that can be used to control the fan speed of your Thinkpad.
Table of Contents
Installation
Add thinkfan to packages.
1 environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
2 thinkfan
3 ];
Configuration
Verify the fan acpi module.
1~ cat /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
2status: enabled
3speed: 4291
4level: 5
5commands: level <level> (<level> is 0-7, auto, disengaged, full-speed)
6commands: enable, disable
7commands: watchdog <timeout> (<timeout> is 0 (off), 1-120 (seconds))
Find sensors, for my setup I only monitor the CPU temperature. It is usually the coretemp sensor.
1➜ ~ find /sys -name "temp*_input"
2find: ‘/sys/kernel/tracing’: Permission denied
3find: ‘/sys/kernel/debug’: Permission denied
4/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp6_input
5/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp3_input
6/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp7_input
7/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp4_input
8/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp8_input
9/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp1_input
10/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp5_input
11/sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_hwmon/hwmon/hwmon6/temp2_input
12/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp3_input
13/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp4_input
14/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp1_input
15/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp5_input
16/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp2_input
17/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/0000:02:00.0/nvme/nvme1/hwmon1/temp1_input
18/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/0000:3e:00.0/nvme/nvme0/hwmon0/temp1_input
19/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1d.0/0000:3e:00.0/nvme/nvme0/hwmon0/temp2_input
20/sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone0/hwmon2/temp1_input
21/sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone3/hwmon8/temp1_input
22/sys/devices/virtual/thermal/thermal_zone1/hwmon3/temp1_input
Identify the CPU sensor property, confirm the labels.
1~ for i in /sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp*_label; do
2 echo "$i: $(cat $i)"
3done
4/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp1_label: Package id 0
5/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp2_label: Core 0
6/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp3_label: Core 1
7/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp4_label: Core 2
8/sys/devices/platform/coretemp.0/hwmon/hwmon7/temp5_label: Core 3
The important one for thinkfan is usually:
1Package id 0
Service
Add service, test temperature increment and setting. I’ve use the default configuration, but you can change it to your liking.
1{
2 services.thinkfan = {
3 enable = true;
4
5 sensors = [
6 {
7 name = "cpu";
8 type = "hwmon";
9 query = "/sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*/temp1_input";
10 hwmonName = "coretemp";
11 }
12 ];
13
14 fans = [
15 {
16 type = "tpacpi";
17 query = "/proc/acpi/ibm/fan";
18 }
19 ];
20
21 levels = [
22 [0 0 45]
23 [1 43 50]
24 [2 48 55]
25 [3 53 60]
26 [4 58 65]
27 [5 63 70]
28 [7 68 80]
29 [127 75 32767]
30 ];
31 };
32}
If you want to add more sensor to monitor use this template.
1{
2 services.thinkfan = {
3 enable = true;
4
5 sensors = [
6 {
7 name = "cpu";
8 type = "hwmon";
9 query = "/sys/class/hwmon/hwmon*/temp1_input";
10 }
11
12 {
13 name = "nvme0";
14 type = "hwmon";
15 query = "/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/0000:02:00.0/nvme/nvme0/hwmon1/temp1_input";
16 }
17 ];
18
19 fans = [
20 {
21 type = "tpacpi";
22 query = "/proc/acpi/ibm/fan";
23 }
24 ];
25
26 levels = [
27 [0 0 45]
28 [1 43 50]
29 [2 48 55]
30 [3 53 60]
31 [4 58 65]
32 [5 63 70]
33 [7 68 80]
34 [127 75 32767]
35 ];
36 };
37}
Boot Parameter
1 boot.kernelModules = [ "thinkpad_acpi" ];
2
3 boot.extraModprobeConfig = ''
4 options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1
5 '';
Rebuild NixOS
Restart your laptop after rebuild.
1nixos-rebuild swithch
Monitoring and Testing
Verify if the service is running and if the fan setting is changing based on the temperature.
1~ journalctl -u thinkfan -b
2Mar 08 16:36:55 tags-p51 systemd[1]: Starting thinkfan 2.0.0...
3Mar 08 16:36:55 tags-p51 systemd[1]: Started thinkfan 2.0.0.
4Mar 08 16:36:55 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 76(0) -> Fans: level 7
5Mar 08 16:37:00 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 82(0) -> Fans: level 127
6Mar 08 16:37:02 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 56(0) -> Fans: level 3
7Mar 08 16:37:07 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 72(0) -> Fans: level 6
8Mar 08 16:37:09 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 64(0) -> Fans: level 5
9Mar 08 16:37:14 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 56(0) -> Fans: level 3
10Mar 08 16:37:34 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 67(0) -> Fans: level 5
11Mar 08 16:37:36 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 56(0) -> Fans: level 3
12Mar 08 16:39:06 tags-p51 thinkfan[1508]: Temperatures(bias): 72(0) -> Fans: level 6