On 06/02/11 17:15, Chuck Munro wrote: > On Sun, 06 Feb 2011 12:09:12 +0000 Ned Slider wrote: >> >> On 06/02/11 07:00, Chuck Munro wrote: >>>> Hello folks, >>>> >>>> I'm having a difficult time trying to figure out why the CPU cooling >>>> fans run at full speed on my Supermicro X8DAL-3 motherboard. There >>>> doesn't seem to be any variable speed (the fans are PWM compatible) ... >>>> they either idle at almost nothing, or suddenly burst into a >>>> high-pitched scream that gets my ears bleeding after a few seconds. >>>> Once they jump to warp-10, they remain there. >>>> >>>> The "Super-I/O" chip on this board is a Winbond W83627DHG which does the >>>> temperature and voltage monitoring. >>>> >>>> Is anyone aware of which driver or kernel module I need for that chip in >>>> order to get control of the fans? The Supermicro web site and the >>>> board's manual aren't any help. Fresh installs of CentOS-5.5 and RHEL-6 >>>> don't exert any control by default. Installing the lm_sensors package >>>> and probing with the 'sensors' command didn't help either. >>>> >>>> Slowly going deaf ....... >>>> >>>> Chuck >> >> Hi Chuck, >> >> The correct kernel module for your chipset is w83627ehf.ko. I'm not sure >> the driver actually controls fan speed, I thought it was more for >> monitoring (fan speeds, temps, voltages) but I could be wrong. My >> current system (not a Supermicro) controls variable fan speed from >> options within the BIOS. I can enable/disable fan speed control and >> select either voltage or PWM based control. >> >> The stock w83627ehf driver in RHEL5.5 is oldish (they were updated in >> 5.5 I think but are still over a year old now). ELRepo.org have an >> updated driver available (kmod-w83627ehf) based on a backport from >> kernel-2.6.34. I've just checked upstream and a few more patches have >> been committed since kernel-2.6.34 and the current kernel-2.6.37 so I'll >> look at updating the elrepo driver with those latest patches. >> >> Hope that helps. >> >> > Thanks Ned! I did go through the board's BIOS menus several times and > could find only one fan control option, which ranges from always-fast > for maximum performance to almost-silent for workstation use. No matter > what the setting, the fans may start out slow but eventually jump to > high speed. Updating the BIOS to the latest version made no difference. > I also noticed that at all times the BIOS reports the CPU temperatures > as "Low" no matter what the fan speed. The coolers are always cold to > the touch. > > I sure hope I don't have a defective board ... it's a royal pain to have > to remove one from a large server. I booted Ubuntu but the live-CD > version doesn't have a working 'fancontrol' utility. I'd be tempted to > install Ubuntu Server but I much prefer staying with CentOS and KVM to > match all of the guest virtual machines it'll be running. > > Time to go through the mobo manual with a fine-tooth comb. :-) > > Chuck > You're welcome Chuck. Your question prompted me to update the elrepo kmod-w83627ehf driver package to the latest upstream source (kernel-2.6.37): http://lists.elrepo.org/pipermail/elrepo/2011-February/000488.html By all means give that package a try, but I'm not convinced it will address your problem in this case. Either way, it should be relatively quick and painless to test - updated packages should be available shortly. Maybe someone with more experience of this particular Supermicro M/B will pop up on the list :-) Regards, Ned