There is a program called i8kfan that can be used to control the fan in Linux. I use Debian on my old Dell laptop but a rpm version is available at:

http://speakeasy.rpmfind.net/linux/RPM/contrib/libc6/i386/i8kutils-1.17-2dv....

The project home page is at:

http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html

The Linux port tarballs are at:

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

On Monday 28 April 2003 07:14 pm, Landy wrote:

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does anyone know if the thermo cooling fan on the dell laptop works with linux?

i notice the laptop is not turning the thermo cooling fan

I have the opposite problem on an I8500 ( running 8.2 ) -- fan is on far too often. I dld i8kutils 1.8 but lack of knowledge has stumped me. Installed all the sources and headers that I can think of and tried to insert the module as per instructions (" By default the module compiles without symbol versions and can thus be loaded on any 2.4.x kernel with "insmod -f i8k.o".) but I still get error message : Warning: kernel-module version mismatch i8k.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.15 while this kernel is version 2.4.20-4GB Warning: loading i8k.o will taint the kernel: forced load See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules i8k.o: init_module: No such device Which leaves me back where I started. Does anyone have any suggestions? TIA Francesco

I have been to this url at the Suse Faq for the Numlock on: http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/leds.html It says "Question: How can the NumLock key be automatically set? From SuSE Linux 4.4 on there are two variables KBD_NUMLOCK and KBD_CAPSLOCK in the file /etc/rc.config (up to SuSE Linux version 7.3), which determine the configuration during the boot sequence. IF you use SuSE Linux from version 8.0 on please edit the file /etc/sysconfig/keyboard. " I did just as it says to do but when I boot 8.2 the numbers lock still doesn't default on. I never had this problem with 8.1. Does anyone else have any suggestions as why my numlock button won't stay on at bootup? Thanks, Roy

On Saturday 10 May 2003 12:57 pm, John Lamb wrote:

That's because it gets switched off again just before you started X. In your last version of KDE, there was an option to put NumLock on at KDE startup, but, no longer (why?). The solution is on http://sdb.suse.de/en/sdb/html/cg_x11numlock.html

It's a bit cryptic, but if you follow the instructions (and have X development libraries and gcc installed), you get a program called setnumlock. I suggest you do the following as root to activate it:

# mv setnumlock /usr/local/bin Then edite /usr/lib/X11/xdm/Xsetup : just before the line saying Only for display:0, I put:

/usr/local/bin/xinput

If you can't get setnumlock compiled, I'll send you a precompiled binary (assuming you trust me - this is going to be run as root!)

I ended up going to Control Panel, Peripherals, Keyboard. There is the option there to turn the numbers lock on. Thanks, Roy

Hi, Top posting I know -- I suspect that you are right -- having never had to compile a kernel it sounds as if it will have to wait for soem annual leave ( this machine is in use as a workhorse all day and every day and I cannot afford to have it off-line as it were ). Thanks for the advice -- I'll report back when have it all sorted. Cheers Francesco From: Paul Benjamin Subject: Re: [SLE] thermo cooling fan Date: Tue, 29 Apr 2003 07:51:01 -0500

Well the short answer is to live with it, but if you can't you are going to need to recompile at least the modules. Read chapter 10 of the SuSE Linux Administration Guide.

Install all the kernel source code su rootpassword make oldconfig make menuconfig

select the Dell laptop module option, it is on the same menu that you select the cpu type. If the existing kernel didn't have the module option already selected you are going to need to create a custom kernel. If it had the module option for Dell laptops then you just need to do a:

make modules make modules_install

But it is my guess that you will have to do a full custom kernel. Follow the procedure in the manual and be sure that you can go back to the SuSE kernel if things go wrong on boot.

Personally I would live with the fans if you have everything else setup the way you like. If you up for an adventure this one isn't really that hard if you follow the Administration Guide procedures.

pben

On Tuesday 29 April 2003 06:55 am, Francesco Scaglioni wrote:

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There is a program called i8kfan that can be used to control the fan in

I have the opposite problem on an I8500 ( running 8.2 ) -- fan is on far too often. I dld i8kutils 1.8 but lack of knowledge has stumped me. Installed all the sources and headers that I can think of and tried to insert the module as per instructions (" By default the module compiles without symbol versions and can thus be loaded on any 2.4.x kernel with "insmod -f i8k.o".) but I still get error message :

Warning: kernel-module version mismatch i8k.o was compiled for kernel version 2.4.15 while this kernel is version 2.4.20-4GB Warning: loading i8k.o will taint the kernel: forced load See http://www.tux.org/lkml/#export-tainted for information about tainted modules i8k.o: init_module: No such device

Which leaves me back where I started.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

TIA

Francesco

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http://www.diefer.de/i8kfan/index.html

The Linux port tarballs are at:

to all who inputed on this thank you, works like a dandy, i guess this was a known issue with the dell laptops.