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NAME

       fancontrol - automated software based fan speed regulation

SYNOPSIS

       fancontrol [configfile]

DESCRIPTION

       fancontrol  is  a  shell  script  for use with lm_sensors. It reads its
       configuration from a file, then calculates fan speeds from temperatures
       and sets the corresponding PWM outputs to the computed values.

WARNING

       Please  be  careful  when  using  the  fan  control  features  of  your
       mainboard, in addition to the risk  of  burning  your  CPU,  at  higher
       temperatures  there  will  be  a  higher wearout of your other hardware
       components, too. So if you plan to use these components  in  50  years,
       maybe  you  shouldn’t  use fancontrol at all.  Also please keep in mind
       most fans aren’t designed to be powered by a PWMed voltage.

       In practice it doesn’t seem to be a major  issue,  the  fans  will  get
       slightly  warmer,  just  be  sure  to  have  a temperature alarm and/or
       shutdown call, in case some fan fails, because you probably won’t  hear
       it anymore ;)

CONFIGURATION

       For  easy configuration, there’s a script named pwmconfig(8) which lets
       you  interactively  write  your  configuration  file  for   fancontrol.
       Alternatively  you  can  write this file yourself using the information
       from this manpage.

       Since most of you are going to use pwmconfig(8) script, the config file
       syntax  will be discussed last. First I’m going to describe the various
       variables available for changing fancontrol’s behaviour:

       INTERVAL
              This variable defines at which interval in seconds the main loop
              of fancontrol will be executed

       DEVPATH
              Maps   hwmon  class  devices  to  physical  devices.  This  lets
              fancontrol check that the configuration  file  is  still  up-to-
              date.

       DEVNAME
              Records  hwmon  class  device  names. This lets fancontrol check
              that the configuration file is still up-to-date.

       FCTEMPS
              Maps PWM outputs to  temperature  sensors  so  fancontrol  knows
              which  temperature sensors should be used for calculation of new
              values for the corresponding PWM outputs.

       FCFANS Records the association between a PWM output and  a  fan  input.
              Then  fancontrol  can  check  the fan speed and restart it if it
              stops unexpectedly.

       MINTEMP
              The temperature below which the fan  gets  switched  to  minimum
              speed.

       MAXTEMP
              The  temperature  over  which  the  fan gets switched to maximum
              speed.

       MINSTART
              Sets the minimum speed at which the  fan  begins  spinning.  You
              should  use  a safe value to be sure it works, even when the fan
              gets old.

       MINSTOP
              The minimum speed at which the fan still spins. Use a safe value
              here, too.

       MINPWM The  PWM  value  to  use  when the temperature is below MINTEMP.
              Typically, this will be either 0 if it is  OK  for  the  fan  to
              plain  stop,  or the same value as MINSTOP if you don’t want the
              fan to ever stop.  If this value isn’t defined, it defaults to 0
              (stopped fan).

       MAXPWM The  PWM  value to use when the temperature is over MAXTEMP.  If
              this value isn’t defined, it defaults to 255 (full speed).

       The configuration file format is a bit strange:

              VARIABLE=chip/pwmdev=value chip/pwmdev2=value2
              VARIABLE2=...

       Each variable has its own line. The variable name  is  followed  by  an
       equal sign and the device=value pairs. These consist of the path to the
       pwm output for which the value is valid, equal  sign  followed  by  the
       value  and  are  separated by a blank. Path can be absolute or relative
       (from /sys/bus/i2c/devices or /sys/class/hwmon depending on the  kernel
       version). Example:

              MINTEMP=hwmon0/device/pwm1=40 hwmon0/device/pwm2=54

       You  have  to  play with the temperature values a bit to get happy. For
       initial setup I recommend using the pwmconfig script. Small changes can
       be  made by editing the config file directly following the rules above.

       Upon starting, fancontrol will make sure that all referenced devices do
       exist  and  match  what  they  were at configuration time, and that all
       referenced sysfs files do exist. If not, it will quit immediately, upon
       the  assumption that the configuration file may be out-of-sync with the
       loaded kernel drivers.

THE ALGORITHM

       fancontrol first reads its configuration, writes it to arrays and loops
       its  main  function.  This function gets the temperatures and fanspeeds
       from kernel  driver  files  and  calculates  new  speeds  depending  on
       temperature  changes,  but  only  if  the  temp  is between MINTEMP and
       MAXTEMP. After that, the new values are written  to  the  PWM  outputs.
       Currently  the  speed  increases quadratically with rising temperature.
       This way you won’t hear your fans most of the time at best.

SEE ALSO

       pwmconfig(8), sensors(1).

AUTHOR

       Marius Reiner <marius.reiner@hdev.de>