All fans spinning at maximum speed with Linux

Question

I installed Fedora 18 on my desktop computer and I've got an issue. All the fans are all the time spinning at maximum speed. Like, you know, when my computer boots they are too, which is normal because the operating system drivers are not yet loaded I assume. But as soon as Windows 7 is running, they all definitely spin a lot slower. That's not the case with Linux. I already tried Debian, openSUSE and now Fedora. It's the exact same problem each time. Even once Linux is loaded, they all carry on spinning at maximum speed as during the boot sequence.

I already searched a lot the Internet and it's supposed to be a very common problem. They all speak about installing graphic card drivers. I installed a bunch of them but it didn't solve the problem. In fact, the graphic card fan is not the only one spinning like crazy, all the others are too! The CPU fan, the computer case fan, and so on. All of them are.

Do you have any solution for me?

I've got a Q8200 and a GTS 250.

Solution

Fan speed control in most modern systems is done by the motherboard. There's usually some software to control this, and this isn't always set up in linux. You're basically going to end up using fancontrol - and pwmconfig is a good way to configure this interactively. There's a question on AU on this (check out the bountied answer rather than the 'correct' answer and tuxtweaks has a walkthrough on the process in ubuntu. You basically install lm-sensors and run sensors-detect to detect and add the modules. Then load the modules (by rebooting or using modprobe to run those modules).

This should allow pwmconfig to do its thing and set up your fan speeds.

Comments

[Deneuve]

Try with another distribution such as Debian or Ubuntu and see if the same problem occurs again.

[Thalys]

For a better answer, you might want to mention what your desktop is. I'm guessing that linux dosen't have fan speed controls for your desktop.

[user2282405]

I think you're probably right, but how can I solve the problem in your opinion? (And I added my configuration in the first message.)

[Thalys]

Assuming it works, yeah. You can tweak them however.