# i8kutils for gentoo

## ragefan

Does anyone know where i can find the i8kutils for dell laptops, i tried searching emerge could not find it. Has anyone done an ebuild for this package?

TIA,

Ragefan

----------

## kybber

A quick search on google yields:

http://people.debian.org/~dz/i8k/

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## rfgarcia

Actually, there is no i8kutils ebuild. I actually use Massimo's i8kutils on my Gentoo 1.2 (2.4.19 with Dell Laptop SMM built-in driver on Inspiron 8200) and works out of the box, all features fully functional, including telling the fans at what speed they should run  :Smile: 

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## st_lim

I posted an ebuild for i8kutils at the bugs.gentoo.org.  That should work unless you find something wrong with it.

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## faz

I've just emerged i8kutils. It seems to miss i8kmon

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## rfgarcia

I'd rather use i8kutils alone instead, as i said, it works fully functional.

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## faz

but... inst't i8kmon part of i8kutils?   :Confused: 

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## El_Presidente_Pufferfish

i have i8kmon installed, it just doesn't work : -D

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## rfgarcia

 *Quote:*   

> but... inst't i8kmon part of i8kutils?

 

Yeah, sure it is, but for whatever prob is doesn't work, maybe ebuild error?

I read in the docs, that i8kmon may complain about tcltk not installed, try

```
 wish /usr/bin/i8kmon
```

(or the path you have it in)

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## faz

I mean i can't find the utility on my system.

qpkg -l i8kutils does not show a i8kmon util, but it does show a i8kmon.conf.gz

find -iname 'i8kmon*' from / doesn't find it either.

If i look in the package itself (in /usr/portage/distfiles) i can see a i8kmon and i8kmon.1 file.

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## rfgarcia

That's weird. Let me consult some docs ...

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## nitro322

This is in the .ebuild:

```
use tcltk && target="${target} i8kmon"
```

so perhaps you need to add tcltk to your USE flags.

By the way, I tried installing this on my laptop, but I got an error saying it's masked.  That's fine and dandy, but when I edited /usr/portage/profiles/package.mask to remove it, I saw that it's not there.  I've search every spot I can think to look, but I can't find use i8kutils mentioned anywhere, except for the ebuild files.  How do I remove the mask?  Thanks.

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## faz

Thanx!! it _was_ the tcltk missing in USE.  :Embarassed: 

For emerging i8kutils, enter this:

```
env ACCEPT_KEYWORDS='~x86' emerge i8kutils
```

Worked for me. And yes, I was also amazed why it did _not_ show up in packages.mask. I find the whole masked/unmasked vs. stable/unstable thing rather confusing.

But hey, maybe that's just me  :Wink: 

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## nitro322

glad that got it working for you.  And thanks for the tip to get it unmasked (well, sort of  :Smile: ).  I'm installing it now.

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## nitro322

hmm...  Any idea why I get this when I run i8kmon?

```
can't find package Tk

    while executing

"package require Tk"

    (procedure "make_ui" line 15)

    invoked from within

"make_ui"

    (procedure "main" line 4)

    invoked from within

"main"

    invoked from within

"if {$tcl_interactive == 0} {

    main

    vwait exit

}"

    (file "/usr/bin/i8kmon" line 670)
```

It says it can't find Tk, but Tk is definitely installed:

```
$ emerge search ^tk$

Searching...

[ Results for search key : ^tk$ ]

[ Applications found : 1 ]

*  dev-lang/tk

      Latest version available: 8.3.3-r3

      Latest version installed: 8.3.3-r3

      Size of downloaded files: 2,478 kB

      Homepage:    http://dev.scriptics.com/software/tcltk/

      Description: Tk Widget Set
```

Any idea what I might be missing?  Thanks.

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## faz

Yep, happened to me too. The README says it's basically because tk isn't installed the way it should be and includes both a workaround and a solution:

 *Quote:*   

> NOTE: it has been reported that on some Linux distributions i8kmon exits
> 
> with an error like this:
> 
>     can't find package Tk
> ...

 

What worries me is that the README advices to build and install the module that come's from the package instead of the module included with the kernel. Emerge doesn't do that, as far as I can tell.

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## dancin_homer

just wondering if there has been a fix for this yet, my fans don't want to kick in

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## dancin_homer

the temperature seems to be set high in the i8kmon too, like the fans won't kick in till it hits 60 degrees celcius, is that right?

i tried changing these values, so i could launch it in daemon mode, but i'm having problems with the version i saved, denying me access to the file.

i'm new to linux, so i'm not sure at all what i'm doing wrong, could be a million things, in fact i'm sure of it. 

also, the i8krellm utilty won't control my fans either.  weird.

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## Jimbow

I've been using i8krellm which is a gkrellm plugin.  It gives me a graph of the CPU temperature and gives me both automatic and manual control over the fans.  It shows the current fan speeds and has little spinning propellers to show that the fans are on.  Gkrellm has a lot of dependencies so it took a while to install but it was well worth it IMO.

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## dancin_homer

i tried i8krellm, it's nice because it tells me the speed of my fans and the temperature of my cpu.  

however, my friend and i both have inspiron 8200's, and neither of us can get i8krellm to change the fan speeds, either through changing the automatic settings or manally.

however, i've abandoned krell now that i figured out how to get my epplets working.

as for what i mentioned before, i changed the temperature thresholds in i8kmon, and just renamed it to i8kmon2.  turns out i had to change the permissions, my brother helped me with that.

works great, i have it set in my .xinitrc to load up as a daemon (-d), so now i have that monkey off my back.

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## Jimbow

 *dancin_homer wrote:*   

>  however, my friend and i both have inspiron 8200's, and neither of us can get i8krellm to change the fan speeds, either through changing the automatic settings or manally.

 

That's strange.  I am able to control my fans via i8krellm.  I already had i8kutils installed.  Perhaps this was the difference.

Well I'm glad you've found something that works for you.

BTW: I had nasty overheating problems on my i8200 when installing Gentoo and relying on the BIOS fan control.   I was able to install okay on ext2 but was unable to install on a reiserfs until I manually set the fans on high.

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## faz

Guys,

I saw this on apps.kde.com, a kde kind of applet to control the fans. Anyone tried it yet?

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## christsong84

hmmm...I get an error stating "can't open /proc/i8k: No such file or directory"

Any Ideas?  I compiled Dell Laptop Support onto the kernel as a Module. and Installed i8kutils.

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## bsolar

 *christsong84 wrote:*   

> hmmm...I get an error stating "can't open /proc/i8k: No such file or directory"
> 
> Any Ideas?  I compiled Dell Laptop Support onto the kernel as a Module. and Installed i8kutils.

 

Have you added 'i8k' to modules.autoload?

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## christsong84

that would explain it, will try it whe my ride home gets here...thx!

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## christsong84

Awesome...it works wonderfully, and now i8krellm works too.  THX!!!!!  :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy:   :Very Happy: 

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## swimgeek

This thread seems to have drifted from the original discussion so I don't know if people would be intereseted in answering this question, but still.

How do I start i8kmon automatically on boot? I tried adding it to local and it didnt seem to work, as it probably needs tcl/tk libraries which can only be loaded when the system is running X (correct me if I'm wrong). Any suggestions?

thanks!

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## BitJam

 *swimgeek wrote:*   

> How do I start i8kmon automatically on boot? 

 

Most window managers have a way of doing this.   I mostly use KDE and I can start things up automatically either as part of a saved session or via launch scripts in  ~/.kde3.1/Autostart/

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## swimgeek

I didn't see any launch scripts in the Autostart directory. How does a launch script look like?

Thanks!

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## BitJam

```
#!/bin/bash

i8kmon
```

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## mcpi

helo,

i also want to install the i8krellm package, but it is masked. does anybody knows why? i found no bug report or s.th.

should i use the sources?

thanx for help

pierre

Searching...

[ Results for search key : i8krellm ]

[ Applications found : 1 ]

*  x11-plugins/i8krellm [ Masked ]

      Latest version available: 2.3

      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]

      Size of downloaded files: 14 kB

      Homepage:    http://www.coding-zone.com/i8krellm.phtml

      Description: GKrellM2 Plugin for the Dell Inspiron and Latitude notebooks

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## BitJam

I had no problems with the i8krellm package on my Dell 8200.

I think it may have been marked unstabled because it relied on i8kutils which were marked unstable at one time.

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## mcpi

strange, I got only a problem with i8krellm not with i8kutils.

emerge -s i8k

Searching...

[ Results for search key : i8k ]

[ Applications found : 2 ]

*  sys-apps/i8kutils

      Latest version available: 1.17

      Latest version installed: 1.17

      Size of downloaded files: 36 kB

      Homepage:    http://people.debian.org/~dz/i8k/

      Description: Dell Inspiron and Latitude utilities

*  x11-plugins/i8krellm [ Masked ]

      Latest version available: 2.3

      Latest version installed: [ Not Installed ]

      Size of downloaded files: 14 kB

      Homepage:    http://www.coding-zone.com/i8krellm.phtml

      Description: GKrellM2 Plugin for the Dell Inspiron and Latitude notebooks

----------

## BitJam

 *mcpi wrote:*   

> strange, I got only a problem with i8krellm not with i8kutils.
> 
> 

 

Yes that it is the current situation but a few months ago i8kutils was masked too.   The problem with it then was that the tk interface wasn't working right out of the box.

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