How do I know my fan is working in Ubuntu

Question

I just bought a brand new netbook and am worried the fan isn't working properly.

lm-sensors does not detect a fan, I can't hear a fan, and can't feel air blowing out of the fan area.

The netbook is a brand new Toshiba Satellite NB10-A. I'm worried that using Ubuntu will destroy my netbook. :(

The temperature continues to get hotter, but I can't hear a fan.

Here is my lm-sensors output:

acpitz-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +33.0°C  (crit = +78.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:       +48.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)
Core 1:       +48.0°C  (high = +105.0°C, crit = +105.0°C)

EDIT

Another reviewer of this exact model expressed concern over the fan not working as he couldn't detect a fan nor hear the fan:

http://mentalnirex.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/linux-and-the-toshiba-nb10/

Output from fwts fan:

Results generated by fwts: Version V14.03.01 (2014-03-27 02:14:17).

Some of this work - Copyright (c) 1999 - 2014, Intel Corp. All rights reserved.
Some of this work - Copyright (c) 2010 - 2014, Canonical.

This test run on 14/06/14 at 12:45:01 on host Linux juke
3.15.0-031500rc8-generic #201406012235 SMP Mon Jun 2 02:36:11 UTC 2014 x86_64.

Command: "fwts fan".
Running tests: fan.

fan: Simple fan tests.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test 1 of 2: Test fan status.
Test how many fans there are in the system. Check for the current status of the
fan(s).
PASSED: Test 1, Fan cooling_device0 of type Processor has max cooling state 10
and current cooling state 0.
PASSED: Test 1, Fan cooling_device1 of type Processor has max cooling state 10
and current cooling state 0.

Test 2 of 2: Load system, check CPU fan status.
Test how many fans there are in the system. Check for the current status of the
fan(s).
Loading CPUs for 20 seconds to try and get fan speeds to change.
Fan cooling_device0 current state did not change from value 0 while CPUs were
busy.
Fan cooling_device1 current state did not change from value 0 while CPUs were
busy.

ADVICE: Did not detect any change in the CPU related thermal cooling device
states. It could be that the devices are returning static information back to
the driver and/or the fan speed is automatically being controlled by firmware
using System Management Mode in which case the kernel interfaces being examined
may not work anyway.


================================================================================
2 passed, 0 failed, 0 warning, 0 aborted, 0 skipped, 0 info only.
================================================================================


2 passed, 0 failed, 0 warning, 0 aborted, 0 skipped, 0 info only.

Test Failure Summary
================================================================================

Critical failures: NONE

High failures: NONE

Medium failures: NONE

Low failures: NONE

Other failures: NONE

Test           |Pass |Fail |Abort|Warn |Skip |Info |
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
fan            |    2|     |     |     |     |     |
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+
Total:         |    2|    0|    0|    0|    0|    0|
---------------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+

Solution 1

Try using HardInfo which is very useful GUI application to know all information about system & hardware.

Install HardInfo by sudo apt-get install hardinfo

Here is screen-shot where fan info is displayed.

Hope this helps.

Solution 2

Use nbfc

My laptop is an Acer Aspire E5-573G and nothing else worked to control the CPU fan, but nbfc. I'm using Ubuntu 18.04. The exact profile for my model is missing, but nbfc worked fine with another similar profile (Acer Aspire E5-575G). If you don't know which profile to use, you can try: mono nbfc.exe config -r

You will need the latest mono version to build it on Ubuntu 18.04, so don't forget to read How to build NBFC on ubuntu.

Also I edit the default profile to turn the fan policy more agressive.

Build it on Ubuntu

You need the latest mono version, so update it, as required:

sudo apt remove mono-complete
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 3FA7E0328081BFF6A14DA29AA6A19B38D3D831EF
echo "deb https://download.mono-project.com/repo/ubuntu stable-bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mono-official-stable.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install mono-complete

Clone the git repository and build

# git is needed, so install it
sudo apt install git

# clone the repository into /tmp/nbfc
git clone https://github.com/hirschmann/nbfc.git /tmp/nbfc
cd /tmp/nbfc

# Build NBFC
./build.sh

After the build, "install" nbfc as properly

sudo mkdir /opt/nbfc
sudo cp -r /tmp/nbfc/Linux/bin/Release /opt/nbfc/
sudo cp /tmp/nbfc/Linux/{nbfc.service,nbfc-sleep.service} /etc/systemd/system/
sudo systemctl enable nbfc --now

Now you need to discover a profile for your machine and tell nbfc to use it

# All profiles are into /opt/nbfc/Configs as XML files
cd /opt/nbfc

# Run the following to discover a similar profile to your machine
mono nbfc.exe config -r

# Use one profile from the suggest list the previous command  
mono nbfc.exe config --apply "Config file name without extension"

# Now start the service
mono nbfc.exe start

# To show what is happen with your fan/machine, run
mono nbfc.exe status --all

The nbfc project wiki is very rich and well documented. Take a look if you have some doubt.

Solution 3

If You want to test your CPU fan. Then simply run this c programme:

#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
int count=0,found=0;
int a=2,current=2;
while(found<100000){
    while(a<current)
    {
        if(current%a==0){
            count=1;
        }
        a++;
    }
    if(count==0){
        printf("%d\n",current);
        found++;
    }
    current++;
    a=2;
    count=0;
}
}

and then give "sensors" command in terminal you will came to know about your fan speed. This programme is resource intensive and consume high CPU.

Comments

[thorstorm]

48°C is not hot for a computer and probably your fan is very quiet because it is running at a low speed. I wouldn't worry about these temperatures.

[user2734752]

I hope you're right. I'm just used to being able to feel the fan, even if it is on light.

[bain]

See this answer

[OverCoder]

As To Do Said, 48 is Cold for a CPU, and if you want know if your fans are working, the simplest way is to hear them, and also Try to make CPU 100% working and see when the Temp. Raises up, check if the FAN Speeds up

[user2734752]

I just pushed the both CPUs to 100% yet couldn't hear a fan and temp only reached 40 degrees Celsius. Although I did hear a processing sound, but it sounded more like clicks than a fan. Also, yesterday, after moderate use, the temp reached 60 degrees Celsius and I still couldn't hear a noise.

[user2734752]

One step ahead of you- I already installed it and my sensors tab comes up with nothing. :(

[Pandya]

@user2734752 Have you run sudo sensors-detect ?

[Thamer belfkih]

@Pandya i have the same problem here as wel, do you have any solution, please?

[geneorama]

My sensor info doesn't look like that. There are temps, but there are no categories and I don't recognize the temperature names.

[marciowb]

@Nmath, sorry, but the nbfc project on github is well documented, has a rich wiki and self explanatory. Also the tool isn't GNU and non packaged by Ubuntu, so I really don't know how to be more useful without copy and paste the wiki from the Nbfc project.. But I will think how to be more useful than it.

[testing_22]

This is so ingenuous..... that really works..... Thanks! I also ran watch sensors to monitor fan's progress.