Hi Henrique,
On Mon, 26 Feb 2007 15:06:35 -0300, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:
> On Mon, 26 Feb 2007, Jean Delvare wrote:
> > Either way, I do not think that knowing the last measured speed is that
> > useful. Given that it may be completely unrelated with the current
>
> It is, actually, because it lets one mess with the embedded controller and
> completely override the fan control loop while not letting anyone else
> notice (i.e. without disturbing fan monitor applets, etc).
>
> Check http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/Embedded_Controller_Firmware and
> http://thinkwiki.org/wiki/ACPI_fan_control_script if you are
> curious about the whys for these weird things.
I don't really have time for such long reads, sorry. If there's
anything in particular you think I should know, just tell me.
> > value, I'd rather return -ENXIO or -ERETRY if there is a reasonable
> > chance to get a valid reading soon after. If applications wants to
>
> I will return the stale value or an error, then. Not returning the stale
> value actually requires that I implement some sort of back/white lists to
> differentiate models which don't have the stale tachometer bug from those
> that do... or I need to detect that the tachometer seems to be stuck.
I see. In that case I am fine with you returning the stale value. After
all, the driver is supposed to return the value as read from the
hardware.
> > pwm#_enable = 0 means fan# at full speed, _not_ fan# stopped. Fan# stopped
> > is pwm#_enable = 1 and pwm# = 0.
>
> The hwmon sysfs interface documentation is not clear on that. Turning PWM
> off might lock the hardware into 0% duty or 100% duty depending on how it
> was designed.
Feel free to submit a patch improving the documentation.
> Anyway, I can map it to:
> pwm_enable = 0: disengaged mode on
> 1: manual mode on
> 2+: EC auto mode on (default)
>
> no problem.
> (...)
> Ok. pwm = 0 in manual mode will stop fan, 1..255 will be mapped to 1..7 to
> select the thinkpad fan level, which the EC itself will map to (usually)
> three different speeds.
Yes, this looks good.
> BTW, ibm-acpi implements a "fan watchdog", to help fan-control userspace
> applications. It resets the fan to a safe "on" mode if nothing tries any
> control operation on the fans in a given time period.
>
> Is there any interest in trying for a fan-watchdog generic interface, or
> should I just implement that in sysfs as I see fit for ibm-acpi?
We don't have anything like that in the other drivers. I guess it only
applies to manual mode? The idea is interesting, I have to admit. I
don't have a particular opinion on how to implement that (specific vs
standard), do as you wish.
--
Jean Delvare
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