[SOLVED] Laptop Fan Runs Continuously - Video Driver

[salixious]

My laptop fan runs continuously when I run Salix. From past experience running other Linux distros, I'm 99.99% sure this has to do with the video driver being used and my ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 GPU. I've used other distros in the past (SolydXK and Antergos) where my laptop fan did not run continuously, so I'm assuming that those distros properly recognized my video card and correctly configured and used the open source ATI video drivers during installation; e.g. xf86-video-ati.

I've spent a good deal of time searching the 'Net, but haven't come up with anything of value as far as a concrete resolution to my issue. Following is the output when I run lspci | grep -i VGA:

02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV710 [Mobility Radeon HD 4500/5100 Series]

I also had a look under /etc/x11 and noticed a file named xorg.conf-vesa. I'm thinking this is evidence that my GPU was not properly recognized during the Salix 14.1 Openbox install. I'm thinking the file should be xorg.conf-ati or xorg.conf-radeon.

So, I've come here hoping someone can help me out. I'm using the Catalyst software under a Debian-based distro, but I want to see if I can get the GPU to work with the open source driver.

[gapan]

If it is indeed a video driver problem and you don't see it other distributions then I'm guessing the other distribution are using the proprietary driver by default. The open source driver is used in salix and that's what you're using now. The xorg.conf-vesa file is just a sample file that can be used as a template in case you actually want to have a xorg.conf file. It's not being used in any way by the system. But a xorg.conf file is rarely needed these days.

You could either try installing the proprietary driver or tweak the open source driver to allow power management which seems to be disabled by default.

[salixious]

@gapan: Thank you for your reply. You could be correct. I was assuming that most distros try to stay clear of proprietary drivers.

"...xorg.conf file is rarely needed..." that explains why X still functioned after I renamed the file.

I'm so tired of dealing with AMD GPU issues. I will try my best to steer clear of AMD and nVidia GPUs when making future purchases. I'm not a gamer and don't do any elaborate graphics or video work, so I think I'll do fine with an integrated Intel GPU.

[salixious]

If it is indeed a video driver problem and you don't see it other distributions then I'm guessing the other distribution are using the proprietary driver by default.

Could it also be that the two other distros that worked fine had power saving enabled for the open source driver?

[salixious]

Okay, I tried turning on power saving per the Arch Wiki instructions. I got the fan speed to go lower, but it still runs continuously.

Using the proprietary Catalyst driver for Salix 14.1 is a no go because of the kernel and Xorg server versions; 14.0.1 should work though, but I would prefer to use the newer release.

I also spent quite a bit of time researching the SolydXK and Antergos forums and checking the specs for the latest of each distro at DistroWatch. There's no way either distro could be installing the proprietary driver by default during distro installation because the kernel and Xorg versions will not work with the driver. Per what I've read in the forums for both distros, you have to install the proprietary driver yourself. The driver is not automatically installed.

So, I'm back to square one basically. I guess I have a bit more research to do. If the open source drivers worked for my GPU under SolydXK and Antergos, there should be a way to get things working under Salix. I could always re-install SolydXK and see how things are set up. However, that would mean wiping my current Salix install, which I'm hesitant to do as I'm close to getting it set up the way I want. I also spent about 3.5 hours compiling the Chromium browser and I don't want to go through that again.

[laprjns]

I also spent about 3.5 hours compiling the Chromium browser and I don't want to go through that again.

if you installed chromium using Sourcery / slapt-src, then there should be a package in /usr/src/slapt-src/network/chromium/ named chromium-31.0.1650.57-x86_64-1_SBo.txz (version numbers may be different). Just save it on a flash drive or something and after reinstalling Salix use spkg to install it.

Code: Select all

rich[~]$ spkg --install chromium-31.0.1650.57-x86_64-1_SBo.txz 

[mimosa]

And of course, you could install theother distro in a VM, if it is just a question of looking to see how it is set up.

The best way to isntall virtualbox in Salix is using VBox's own precomplied binaries. I think there is a post on the forum about this.

[sjox]

Hi!

try as root:
"echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/graphics/fb0/device/power_profile"

[salixious]

@laprjns: Thanks for the tip. I forgot about that, but also didn't know where those files were stored. Now I know.

@mimosa: VM...that wouldn't work as a VM would mimic another video card. I would need to install SolydXK in another partition so that it would detect the AMD GPU.

@sjox: I noticed something similar to that in the Arch Wiki link that gapan provided. I stayed away from it because if I remember correctly, there was a warning that it may cause issues on laptops, which is what I'm using. I'm going to give it a try though and see what happens.

[salixious]

@sjox: The following worked as root (from Arch Wiki):
echo profile > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

However, the instructions on the Arch Wiki for making the change persistent didn't work. From the Arch Wiki:

Create the file /etc/udev/rules.d/30-radeon-pm.rules with the following:
KERNEL=="dri/card0", SUBSYSTEM=="drm", DRIVERS=="radeon", ATTR{device/power_method}="profile", ATTR{device/power_profile}="low"

Arch Wiki also stated that if the above rule didn't work to try the rule with the dri/ prefix removed. I did that and the rule still didn't work. I have two other files in the directory that begin with 70-, so I renamed the file and that didn't work either.

Are you able to make the change on your end persistent or do you have to enter what you referenced every time you boot into Salix?