TempMon

Some quick scripting to help deal with running Ubuntu linux on a Mac Mini where the fan control is fubarred out of the box.

setup

Requires the applesmc kernel module to be activated and lm-sensors installed. Uses the sensors command. http://lm-sensors.org/wiki/man/sensors.

(from http://louwrentius.com/blog/2009/11/linux-mac-mini-temperature-monitoring-with-lm-sensors/) Using Debian Lenny, out of the box, lm-sensors is not working. No sensors can be found. This is how temperature monitoring and fan speed monitoring can be made to work:

modprobe applesmc

If you run "sensors-detect" after this, and do a:

modprobe coretemp

Then "sensors" will give you ouput like this:

➜  ~  sensors -u
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:
  temp1_input: 35.00
  temp1_crit: 100.00
  temp1_crit_alarm: 0.00

applesmc-isa-0300
Adapter: ISA adapter
Master :
  fan1_input: 2098.00
  fan1_min: 1500.00
TA0P:
  temp1_input: 128.00
TC0D:
  temp2_input: 45.00
TC0H:
  temp3_input: 38.75
TC0P:
  temp4_input: 44.00
TC1P:
  temp5_input: 45.50
TN0P:
  temp6_input: 42.75
TN1P:
  temp7_input: 43.50

There are other solutions available that are probably more widely used, tested and supported.

• http://stargate.solsys.org/mod.php?mod=faq&op=extlist&topicid=27&expand=yes#118
• http://mac.linux.be/content/fan-control-script-ubuntu-prevent-overheating

This is a problem with "old" hardware and I chose to hack together a fix myself. Use this software at your own risk.

bin

These scripts can be used to directly set the fan speed by writing values to the /sys fs.

TempMon2.rb

I run this via cron to check the various temprature sensors, squirt the temp readings into graphite, and if the temp passes certain thressholds, spin the fan faster or slower.

Tempmon.rb

Earlier simpler version of TempMon2.rb