# Thinkfan

## gentian

Could someone help me out setting up Thinkfan? Unfortunately I was not able to find any info about thinkfan and Gentoo. While running thinkfan, nothing really happens..

----------

## albright

make sure the thinkfan process is running and

compare your temperatures with the /etc/thinkfan.conf

file

For comparison, here is the relevant part of mine (for thinkpad x300)

```

sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0,1,2)

(0,     0,      50)

(1,     48,     60)

(2,     52,     61)

(3,     54,     63)

(4,     56,     65)

(5,     59,     66)

(7,     63,     32767)

```

you can check the fan level at /proc/acpi/ibm/fan

thinkfan works perfectly for me; unless stressed I never

hear the fan on my x300 now

----------

## gentian

 *albright wrote:*   

> make sure the thinkfan process is running and
> 
> compare your temperatures with the /etc/thinkfan.conf
> 
> file
> ...

 

When I run thinkfan in the terminal, nothing happens.. There is no etc/thinkfan.conf file, only /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal which contains the following: 

```
emperatures:   68 0 68 0 0 0 35 0
```

----------

## albright

 *Quote:*   

> When I run thinkfan in the terminal, nothing happens.. There is no etc/thinkfan.conf file

 

thinkfan runs in the background but won't work without

the config file; something like thinkfan.conf.example 

(I can't remember exact name) should be lurking around

somewhere. 

It has to be configured as you wish ...

You should have more than thermal in /proc/acpi/ibm

more like this:

```
beep  cmos  driver  fan  hotkey  led  light  thermal  video  volume
```

this guide is OK

http://www.jakubkotowski.com/2011/06/thinkpad-t420-thinkfan-settings.html

----------

## gentian

 *albright wrote:*   

>  *Quote:*   When I run thinkfan in the terminal, nothing happens.. There is no etc/thinkfan.conf file 
> 
> thinkfan runs in the background but won't work without
> 
> the config file; something like thinkfan.conf.example 
> ...

 

I only have: 

```
beep  bluetooth  driver  fan  hotkey  led  thermal  volume
```

 Maybe I need to change something in my USE flags or something? Add thinkfan probably, or thinkpad acpi? There is no thinkfan.conf in /etc

----------

## albright

Here's my thinkfan.conf (note, it's for thinkfan 0.7 but it

should work for 0.8_alpha2 as well)

edit the sensors and temps as you like and stick this in /etc/, restart

thinkfan and see what happens  :Smile: 

```

######################################################################

# thinkfan 0.7 example config file

# ================================

#

# ATTENTION: There is only very basic sanity checking on the configuration.

# That means you can set your temperature limits as insane as you like. You

# can do anything stupid, e.g. turn off your fan when your CPU reaches 70Â°C.

#

# That's why this program is called THINKfan: You gotta think for yourself.

#

######################################################################

#

# IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (thinkpad_acpi, /proc/acpi/ibm)

# ====================================================

#

# IMPORTANT:

#

# To keep your HD from overheating, you have to specify a correction value for

# the sensor that has the HD's temperature. You need to do this because

# thinkfan uses only the highest temperature it can find in the system, and

# that'll most likely never be your HD, as most HDs are already out of spec

# when they reach 55 Â°C.

# Correction values are applied from left to right in the same order as the

# temperatures are read from the file.

#

# For example:

# sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 0, 10)

# will add a fixed value of 10 Â°C the 3rd value read from that file. Check out

# http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thermal_Sensors to find out how much you may

# want to add to certain temperatures.

#  Syntax:

#  (LEVEL, LOW, HIGH)

#  LEVEL is the fan level to use (0-7 with thinkpad_acpi)

#  LOW is the temperature at which to step down to the previous level

#  HIGH is the temperature at which to step up to the next level

#  All numbers are integers.

#

# I use this on my T61p:

sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0,1,2)

(0,     0,      50)

(1,     48,     60)

(2,     52,     61)

(3,     54,     63)

(4,     56,     65)

(5,     59,     66)

(7,     63,     32767)

```

----------

## albright

Here's my thinkfan.conf (note, it's for thinkfan 0.7 but it

should work for 0.8_alpha2 as well)

edit the sensors and temps as you like and stick this in /etc/, restart

thinkfan and see what happens  :Smile: 

```

######################################################################

# thinkfan 0.7 example config file

# ================================

#

# ATTENTION: There is only very basic sanity checking on the configuration.

# That means you can set your temperature limits as insane as you like. You

# can do anything stupid, e.g. turn off your fan when your CPU reaches 70Â°C.

#

# That's why this program is called THINKfan: You gotta think for yourself.

#

######################################################################

#

# IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (thinkpad_acpi, /proc/acpi/ibm)

# ====================================================

#

# IMPORTANT:

#

# To keep your HD from overheating, you have to specify a correction value for

# the sensor that has the HD's temperature. You need to do this because

# thinkfan uses only the highest temperature it can find in the system, and

# that'll most likely never be your HD, as most HDs are already out of spec

# when they reach 55 Â°C.

# Correction values are applied from left to right in the same order as the

# temperatures are read from the file.

#

# For example:

# sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 0, 10)

# will add a fixed value of 10 Â°C the 3rd value read from that file. Check out

# http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thermal_Sensors to find out how much you may

# want to add to certain temperatures.

#  Syntax:

#  (LEVEL, LOW, HIGH)

#  LEVEL is the fan level to use (0-7 with thinkpad_acpi)

#  LOW is the temperature at which to step down to the previous level

#  HIGH is the temperature at which to step up to the next level

#  All numbers are integers.

#

# I use this on my T61p:

sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0,1,2)

(0,     0,      50)

(1,     48,     60)

(2,     52,     61)

(3,     54,     63)

(4,     56,     65)

(5,     59,     66)

(7,     63,     32767)

```

----------

## albright

Here's my thinkfan.conf (note, it's for thinkfan 0.7 but it

should work for 0.8_alpha2 as well)

edit the sensors and temps as you like and stick this in /etc/, restart

thinkfan and see what happens  :Smile: 

```

######################################################################

# thinkfan 0.7 example config file

# ================================

#

# ATTENTION: There is only very basic sanity checking on the configuration.

# That means you can set your temperature limits as insane as you like. You

# can do anything stupid, e.g. turn off your fan when your CPU reaches 70Â°C.

#

# That's why this program is called THINKfan: You gotta think for yourself.

#

######################################################################

#

# IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (thinkpad_acpi, /proc/acpi/ibm)

# ====================================================

#

# IMPORTANT:

#

# To keep your HD from overheating, you have to specify a correction value for

# the sensor that has the HD's temperature. You need to do this because

# thinkfan uses only the highest temperature it can find in the system, and

# that'll most likely never be your HD, as most HDs are already out of spec

# when they reach 55 Â°C.

# Correction values are applied from left to right in the same order as the

# temperatures are read from the file.

#

# For example:

# sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 0, 10)

# will add a fixed value of 10 Â°C the 3rd value read from that file. Check out

# http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thermal_Sensors to find out how much you may

# want to add to certain temperatures.

#  Syntax:

#  (LEVEL, LOW, HIGH)

#  LEVEL is the fan level to use (0-7 with thinkpad_acpi)

#  LOW is the temperature at which to step down to the previous level

#  HIGH is the temperature at which to step up to the next level

#  All numbers are integers.

#

# I use this on my T61p:

sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0,1,2)

(0,     0,      50)

(1,     48,     60)

(2,     52,     61)

(3,     54,     63)

(4,     56,     65)

(5,     59,     66)

(7,     63,     32767)

```

----------

## albright

Here's my thinkfan.conf (note, it's for thinkfan 0.7 but it

should work for 0.8_alpha2 as well)

edit the sensors and temps as you like and stick this in /etc/, restart

thinkfan and see what happens  :Smile: 

```

######################################################################

# thinkfan 0.7 example config file

# ================================

#

# ATTENTION: There is only very basic sanity checking on the configuration.

# That means you can set your temperature limits as insane as you like. You

# can do anything stupid, e.g. turn off your fan when your CPU reaches 70Â°C.

#

# That's why this program is called THINKfan: You gotta think for yourself.

#

######################################################################

#

# IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (thinkpad_acpi, /proc/acpi/ibm)

# ====================================================

#

# IMPORTANT:

#

# To keep your HD from overheating, you have to specify a correction value for

# the sensor that has the HD's temperature. You need to do this because

# thinkfan uses only the highest temperature it can find in the system, and

# that'll most likely never be your HD, as most HDs are already out of spec

# when they reach 55 Â°C.

# Correction values are applied from left to right in the same order as the

# temperatures are read from the file.

#

# For example:

# sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 0, 10)

# will add a fixed value of 10 Â°C the 3rd value read from that file. Check out

# http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thermal_Sensors to find out how much you may

# want to add to certain temperatures.

#  Syntax:

#  (LEVEL, LOW, HIGH)

#  LEVEL is the fan level to use (0-7 with thinkpad_acpi)

#  LOW is the temperature at which to step down to the previous level

#  HIGH is the temperature at which to step up to the next level

#  All numbers are integers.

#

# I use this on my T61p:

sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0,1,2)

(0,     0,      50)

(1,     48,     60)

(2,     52,     61)

(3,     54,     63)

(4,     56,     65)

(5,     59,     66)

(7,     63,     32767)

```

----------

## albright

Here's my thinkfan.conf (note, it's for thinkfan 0.7 but it

should work for 0.8_alpha2 as well)

edit the sensors and temps as you like and stick this in /etc/, restart

thinkfan and see what happens  :Smile: 

```

######################################################################

# thinkfan 0.7 example config file

# ================================

#

# ATTENTION: There is only very basic sanity checking on the configuration.

# That means you can set your temperature limits as insane as you like. You

# can do anything stupid, e.g. turn off your fan when your CPU reaches 70Â°C.

#

# That's why this program is called THINKfan: You gotta think for yourself.

#

######################################################################

#

# IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (thinkpad_acpi, /proc/acpi/ibm)

# ====================================================

#

# IMPORTANT:

#

# To keep your HD from overheating, you have to specify a correction value for

# the sensor that has the HD's temperature. You need to do this because

# thinkfan uses only the highest temperature it can find in the system, and

# that'll most likely never be your HD, as most HDs are already out of spec

# when they reach 55 Â°C.

# Correction values are applied from left to right in the same order as the

# temperatures are read from the file.

#

# For example:

# sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0, 0, 10)

# will add a fixed value of 10 Â°C the 3rd value read from that file. Check out

# http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Thermal_Sensors to find out how much you may

# want to add to certain temperatures.

#  Syntax:

#  (LEVEL, LOW, HIGH)

#  LEVEL is the fan level to use (0-7 with thinkpad_acpi)

#  LOW is the temperature at which to step down to the previous level

#  HIGH is the temperature at which to step up to the next level

#  All numbers are integers.

#

# I use this on my T61p:

sensor /proc/acpi/ibm/thermal (0,1,2)

(0,     0,      50)

(1,     48,     60)

(2,     52,     61)

(3,     54,     63)

(4,     56,     65)

(5,     59,     66)

(7,     63,     32767)

```

----------

## albright

I installed thinkfan manually - maybe there is a problem

with the gentoo installer.

I suggest you download the package from 

http://thinkfan.sourceforge.net

and check out the readme; it wil also give you

the example thinkfan.conf file ...

----------

## albright

my apologies for the multiple messages;

I kept getting this 

```
Ran into problems sending Mail. Response: 502 5.5.2 Error: command not recognized
```

and thought nothing was getting through

----------

