I have a Thinkpad x230t laptop. I have Psensor installed and I noticed the cpu temp get quite warm (45 -50c) just idling and the fan rpm is at zero? We’re in winter, room temp is around 20c so I didn’t it’s normal.
So first I had a look in the BIOS to see if there is a fan control - there is none.
I then decided to open the laptop, clean the fan and replace the thermal paste - this took a long time as I had to completely strip the computer to get to the fan! Anyway I put new thermal paste and put back together - all is working fine but the fan still does not spin and the temp is still high.
After a bit of googleling, I found and installed ‘ThinkFan-UI’ There I set the fan control to 2 and the fan works constantly at 3200 rpm the temp is now in the low thirties.
As ThinkFan needs ‘Root’ the problem I have now is to get the app to auto-start at boot and hold with the setting. I managed to get to start on boot by adding it to ‘Startup Applications’ but I still have to enter my password and the settings are back to zero. Hoe can I get ThinkFan-UI to load at boot with the settings and without having to enter my password? Thanks
Set up a systemd service for it in /etc/systemd/system. The easiest way to do this if you haven’t previously written service files would be to find one in /usr/lib/systemd/system which starts something else at startup, then use it as a template.
There’s some helpful info about service files here.
You’re entertaining the wrong logic. thinkfan-ui is — as its name suggests — a GUI application, as the front-end to thinkfan, which itself is a command-line tool. Presumably, thinkfan will have a man page and/or a built-in help function. See for yourself…
man thinkfan
thinkfan --help
The manual or help info should tell you how to make your settings permanent, and if doesn’t, then create a simple shell script — or better yet, a systemd service — which invokes thinkfan with the desired parameters.
Thanks all for your replies and sugestions
As per Aragorn suggestion, I installed ‘Thinkfan.git’ (I used the .git version because Yochanan link to the service is under the .git version).
I then run Aragorn command
But got an error
Blockquote
[jp@jpmanjarox230 ~]$ sudo systemctl enable --now thinkfan.service
[sudo] password for jp:
Job for thinkfan.service failed because the control process exited with error code.
See “systemctl status thinkfan.service” and “journalctl -xeu thinkfan.service” for details.
[jp@jpmanjarox230 ~]$
I then run “systemctl status thinkfan.service” and got the following details
Blockquote
thinkfan.service - thinkfan 2.0.0
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/thinkfan.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/thinkfan.service.d
└─override.conf
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2024-07-08 12:26:20 +08; 25min ago
Invocation: e3ec9bfbac524623976528c4dd20f678
Docs: man:thinkfan
Process: 2408 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/thinkfan $THINKFAN_ARGS (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: Starting thinkfan 2.0.0…
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 thinkfan[2408]: ERROR: /etc/thinkfan.conf: No such file or directory
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: thinkfan.service: Control process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: thinkfan.service: Failed with result ‘exit-code’.
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: Failed to start thinkfan 2.0.0.
I then run “journalctl -xeu thinkfan.service” and got the following details
Blockquote
[jp@jpmanjarox230 ~]$ journalctl -xeu thinkfan.service
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 thinkfan[2408]: ERROR: /etc/thinkfan.conf: No suc>
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: thinkfan.service: Control process exi>
░░ Subject: Unit process exited
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Support - Manjaro Linux Forum
░░
░░ An ExecStart= process belonging to unit thinkfan.service has exited.
░░
░░ The process’ exit code is ‘exited’ and its exit status is 1.
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: thinkfan.service: Failed with result >
░░ Subject: Unit failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Support - Manjaro Linux Forum
░░
░░ The unit thinkfan.service has entered the ‘failed’ state with result 'exit-c>
Jul 08 12:26:20 jpmanjarox230 systemd[1]: Failed to start thinkfan 2.0.0.
░░ Subject: A start job for unit thinkfan.service has failed
░░ Defined-By: systemd
░░ Support: Support - Manjaro Linux Forum
░░
░░ A start job for unit thinkfan.service has finished with a failure.
░░
░░ The job identifier is 2926 and the job result is failed.
Any suggestions?
I did not uninstall ‘ThinkFan-Ui’ should i have?
I noticed the the fan come on when I first start the laptop, but over about 1 minute or so the rpm gradually drop down to zero, so something is starting?
Yes obviously there should be a ‘thinkfan.conf’ file, but what’s not so obvious is why the app did not create one during instal?
I don’t have any scripting knowledge and i’m not sure how to create one. Also while reading various docs about thinkfan, I seem to remember that the main configuration file ended with a .yaml ?
Ok I edited my post - I actually did use Blockquotes in my post for the terminal outputs, but there was a line break in the second terminal output that exposed text outside the blockquote I corrected that and other small edits to make it clearer.
In your original post, when I click on the link I do get to a page with the heading
“AUR: Thinkfan.git” which was why I thought I had to use the .git version.
I thought I did the right thing by using Blockquote for terminal output, so how should I format terminal outputs? I’m also been told not to post pictures of text (screenshots) why is that? thanks
