* Re: [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy
2014-10-10 14:08 [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy Felix Schulthess
@ 2014-10-10 14:53 ` Phil Pokorny
2014-10-12 16:12 ` Felix Schulthess
` (3 subsequent siblings)
4 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Phil Pokorny @ 2014-10-10 14:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: lm-sensors
On Friday, October 10, 2014, Felix Schulthess <fsch@truthbox.ch> wrote:
> Dear lm-sensors Team,
>
> on a 6027R TRF, I run the latest Debian Wheezy. I have a problem with
> the server, because I cannot control fan speed anymore.
Your system has an onboard management processor which supports IPMI. You
should not use lm-sensors. Install IPMITOOL or FreeIPMI and use those tools
( or super doctor ) to read sensors.
You cannot control the fan speeds. They are managed by the onboard
controller. You can choose one of several profiles in the bios but that is
it.
> My plan was to control the drive bay LEDs via software, so I installed
> i2c-tools and ledmon packages. While I was at it, I also installed
> fancontrol and lm-sensors. As I now know, this was a very bad idea.
>
> Then I ran the proprietar Superdoctor program (distributed on the
> Supermicro website) that prints information on fan speed, temperatures
> and system voltages. I ran it only once by executing the command "sdt"
> as root. After the command completed, the 3 system fans started spinning
> at max RPM. And this is extremely noisy! Note, that the program ran
> flawlessly before I installed the packages listed above.
>
> Since then I didn't manage to regain control of the fans. Even after a
> reboot the fans start to speed. Also, removing the installed packages
> again does not help.
>
>
You probably need to reset the management controller. The easiest way is to
shutdown the system and unplug it for several MINUTES to discharge all the
capacitors and insure everything resets. Then plug in and turn on again.
Best of luck,
Phil P.
--
Philip Pokorny, RHCE
Chief Technical Officer
PENGUIN COMPUTING, Inc
www.penguincomputing.com
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread* Re: [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy
2014-10-10 14:08 [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy Felix Schulthess
2014-10-10 14:53 ` Phil Pokorny
@ 2014-10-12 16:12 ` Felix Schulthess
2014-10-12 16:53 ` Felix Schulthess
` (2 subsequent siblings)
4 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Felix Schulthess @ 2014-10-12 16:12 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: lm-sensors
[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1872 bytes --]
Dear Phil,
thanks a lot for the quick reply! Great to see that this mailing list is
so active.
On 10/10/2014 04:53 PM, Phil Pokorny wrote:
>
> On Friday, October 10, 2014, Felix Schulthess <fsch@truthbox.ch
> <mailto:fsch@truthbox.ch>> wrote:
>
> Dear lm-sensors Team,
>
> on a 6027R TRF, I run the latest Debian Wheezy. I have a problem with
> the server, because I cannot control fan speed anymore.
>
>
> Your system has an onboard management processor which supports IPMI. You
> should not use lm-sensors. Install IPMITOOL or FreeIPMI and use those
> tools ( or super doctor ) to read sensors.
>
> You cannot control the fan speeds. They are managed by the onboard
> controller. You can choose one of several profiles in the bios but that
> is it.
That explains a lot. Thank you for your help, I am going to do some
further research in this direction and read up on FreeIPMI.
Still, if I can't control the fan speeds but they are instead controlled
by some onboard controller, then how could the installation on the
fancontrol and lm-sensors mess up the control loop so bad? This still
keeps me wondering.
Maybe, the sensors somehow blocked the CPU temperature readout. This
could have caused the superdoctor program to resort to some failsafe
behavior (i.e. spinning the fans up to max RPM). Just wondering.
> Since then I didn't manage to regain control of the fans. Even after a
> reboot the fans start to speed. Also, removing the installed packages
> again does not help.
>
>
> You probably need to reset the management controller. The easiest way is
> to shutdown the system and unplug it for several MINUTES to discharge
> all the capacitors and insure everything resets. Then plug in and turn
> on again.
Thank you, I already tried that -- without success.
Best, Felix
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread* Re: [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy
2014-10-10 14:08 [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy Felix Schulthess
2014-10-10 14:53 ` Phil Pokorny
2014-10-12 16:12 ` Felix Schulthess
@ 2014-10-12 16:53 ` Felix Schulthess
2014-10-12 17:15 ` Phil Pokorny
2014-10-12 17:20 ` Guenter Roeck
4 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Felix Schulthess @ 2014-10-12 16:53 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: lm-sensors
[-- Attachment #1.1: Type: text/plain, Size: 891 bytes --]
Dear List,
On 10/12/2014 06:12 PM, Felix Schulthess wrote:
>> You cannot control the fan speeds. They are managed by the onboard
>> controller. You can choose one of several profiles in the bios but that
>> is it.
>
> That explains a lot. Thank you for your help, I am going to do some
> further research in this direction and read up on FreeIPMI.
in the meantime, I managed to change the fan settings back to normal
(i.e. optimized) fan control. For some reason, they were set to full
speed. What I had to do is connect via a browser to the management LAN
port and log in.
There is a manual for the IPMI Chip on the 6027R TRF main board.
http://www.supermicro.com/manuals/other/SMT_IPMI_Manual.pdf
It explains the underlying hardware quite well. I am adding this here
for the sake of completeness. Maybe so. else will appreciate this solution.
Best Felix.
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread
* Re: [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy
2014-10-10 14:08 [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy Felix Schulthess
` (2 preceding siblings ...)
2014-10-12 16:53 ` Felix Schulthess
@ 2014-10-12 17:15 ` Phil Pokorny
2014-10-12 17:20 ` Guenter Roeck
4 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Phil Pokorny @ 2014-10-12 17:15 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: lm-sensors
On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 9:12 AM, Felix Schulthess <fsch@truthbox.ch> wrote:
> > You cannot control the fan speeds. They are managed by the onboard
> > controller. You can choose one of several profiles in the bios but that
> > is it.
>
> That explains a lot. Thank you for your help, I am going to do some
> further research in this direction and read up on FreeIPMI.
>
> Still, if I can't control the fan speeds but they are instead controlled
> by some onboard controller, then how could the installation on the
> fancontrol and lm-sensors mess up the control loop so bad? This still
> keeps me wondering.
>
You can't control the fan speeds because there is already another device on
the motherboard that is tasked with the job of controlling them. As you
found, you can poke the control chips, but that doesn't mean you can
control the speeds predictably. Imagine two cooks in a kitchen trying to
cook different meals with the same ingredients. They come and go in the
kitchen unaware of the others meddling and confused why things are changing
when they are away. You end up with no food. Only one cook in the kitchen.
It's also possible that when you ran SDT it's default config was to change
the BIOS/BMC setting on the fans speeds to full speed. As you found it was
a permanent change to the setting, not some strange interaction between
lm_sensors and sdt and the BMC.
> Maybe, the sensors somehow blocked the CPU temperature readout. This
> could have caused the superdoctor program to resort to some failsafe
> behavior (i.e. spinning the fans up to max RPM). Just wondering.
Also possible.
Glad you got your system back under control In addition to the web
interface, there is a BIOS screen where you can set the fan speed profile
as well.
Phil P.
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread* Re: [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy
2014-10-10 14:08 [lm-sensors] Fan Control on 6027R TRF running Debian Wheezy Felix Schulthess
` (3 preceding siblings ...)
2014-10-12 17:15 ` Phil Pokorny
@ 2014-10-12 17:20 ` Guenter Roeck
4 siblings, 0 replies; 6+ messages in thread
From: Guenter Roeck @ 2014-10-12 17:20 UTC (permalink / raw)
To: lm-sensors
On 10/12/2014 10:15 AM, Phil Pokorny wrote:
> On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 9:12 AM, Felix Schulthess <fsch@truthbox.ch> wrote:
>
>>> You cannot control the fan speeds. They are managed by the onboard
>>> controller. You can choose one of several profiles in the bios but that
>>> is it.
>>
>> That explains a lot. Thank you for your help, I am going to do some
>> further research in this direction and read up on FreeIPMI.
>>
>> Still, if I can't control the fan speeds but they are instead controlled
>> by some onboard controller, then how could the installation on the
>> fancontrol and lm-sensors mess up the control loop so bad? This still
>> keeps me wondering.
>>
>
> You can't control the fan speeds because there is already another device on
> the motherboard that is tasked with the job of controlling them. As you
> found, you can poke the control chips, but that doesn't mean you can
> control the speeds predictably. Imagine two cooks in a kitchen trying to
> cook different meals with the same ingredients. They come and go in the
> kitchen unaware of the others meddling and confused why things are changing
> when they are away. You end up with no food. Only one cook in the kitchen.
>
> It's also possible that when you ran SDT it's default config was to change
> the BIOS/BMC setting on the fans speeds to full speed. As you found it was
> a permanent change to the setting, not some strange interaction between
> lm_sensors and sdt and the BMC.
>
>
>> Maybe, the sensors somehow blocked the CPU temperature readout. This
>> could have caused the superdoctor program to resort to some failsafe
>> behavior (i.e. spinning the fans up to max RPM). Just wondering.
>
>
> Also possible.
>
No idea how that could happen, unless there is a means for an application
or kernel module to block access to specific CPU registers. That would be
news to me, though.
Guenter
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^ permalink raw reply [flat|nested] 6+ messages in thread