laptop fan doesn't spin

[foxcar]

I just installed ubuntu 8.10 on my inspiron and it was getting pretty hot. I flipped it over and the cpu fan didn't appear to be spinning. Is there a way to control this?
also, under powermanagement there is no tab for battery power, just ac power and general. not sure why.

[rokytnji]

If you do acpi -V in a terminal you should get your CPU temp.

acpi can give you battery temp - man acpi for more info.

Got this post from a Ubuntu thread dealing with fan not coming on in Dell Computer.

Go to Synaptic Package Manager and search for i8kutils:

utilities for Dell Inspiron and Latitude laptops
This is a collection of utilities to control Dell Inspiron and Latitude
laptops. It includes programs to turn the fan on and off, to read fan
status, CPU temperature, BIOS version and to handle the volume buttons
and Fn-keys.

The package includes also a small Tk applet, designed to be swallowed in the
gnome panel, which monitors the CPU temperature and controls automatically
the fans accordingly to user defined thresholds.

The programs require the kernel module i8k.o which can be compiled from
the package sources or found in Linux kernel 2.4.14 and later versions.
The kernel module has been tested only on Inspiron 8000 laptops but it
should work on any Inspiron and Latitude laptops.

[rokytnji]

While in Synaptic Package Manager do a search also for gkrellm . Its another tool for controlling Fans, temps and such.

[foxcar]

awesome, thanks a lot.

[foxcar]

i finally got my wireless working and installed gkrellm. However, there doesn't appear to be any way to monitor fan speed. I checkout that dell link and i8kutils can't be found when i try to install it. Doesn't show up in the package manager and won't install from the command line either. My fan finally turned on after the temp got above 55-60, though.

One other issue i am having is that there are no "on battery power" options in power management. I just installed some updates hoping that would fix it but it's still not showing up. Any ideas?

[rokytnji]

No ideas yet. On My Laptops, whether Puppy Dingo,Ubuntu,or NimbleX, as soon as I unplug the AC Adapter, my battery icon shows up and gives me a percentage of battery charge left on the batteries. I didn't have to install or do anything. My Laptops are off the wall rare brands to. Amrel and Panasonic. Dell is a lot more prevelant laptop than what I use. I can't figure why you are having such a weird time with Ubuntu 8.10. It's supposed to be the bees knees when it comes to hardware detection. Maybe somebody with a Dell Inspiron will answer this question for you. You can help yourself out better by giving the exact make and model number of you Inspiron to make things easier.