Re: [Experimental PATCH] dell-smm-hwmon: Add support for disabling automatic BIOS fan control

From: Pali RohÃr
Date: Mon May 30 2016 - 05:32:14 EST


On Friday 27 May 2016 14:11:11 Gabriele Mazzotta wrote:
> On 22/05/2016 13:50, Pali RohÃr wrote:
> > This patch exports standard hwmon pwmX_enable sysfs attribute for enabling
> > or disabling automatic fan control by BIOS. Standard value "1" is for
> > disabling automatic BIOS fan control and value "2" for enabling.
> >
> > Currently there is no way to check if BIOS auto mode is enabled (at least
> > it is not know how to do it), so hwmon sysfs attribute is write-only.
> >
> > By default BIOS auto mode is enabled by laptop firmware.
> >
> > When BIOS auto mode is enabled, custom fan speed value (set via hwmon pwmX
> > sysfs attribute) is overwritten by SMM in few seconds and therefore any
> > custom settings are without effect. So this is reason why implementing
> > option for disabling BIOS auto mode is needed.
> >
> > So finally this patch allows kernel to set and control fan speed on
> > laptops, but it can be dangerous (like setting speed of other fans).
> >
> > This new feature is highly experimental, uses Dell SMM calls, so does not
> > have to be supported by all laptops BIOSes. It was tested on Dell Latitude
> > E6440 with BIOS A5.
>
> Tested on a Dell XPS13 9333. Changing the value of pwm1_enable appears
> to have no effect here.

Can you check what i8k_enable_fan_auto_mode() returns? Error code or not?

--
Pali RohÃr
pali.rohar@xxxxxxxxx