Librem 14 fan noise?

haha!!!
there is a bug here.
i did reboted my l14 and now i have very interesting readings


note Liibrem_ec_acpi reports cpu at 100Deg and fan is at full power.
i am pretty sure that will go away on reboot/cold boot.
tried to get some debug but nor console nor matrix doesn’t show any usable information,
that will be witchhunt - i can’t reproduce it…
after cold boot all returned normal

1 Like

Any news about the official documentation about upgrading EC?

2 Likes

Under low load i can confirm what kate says, huge improvement. Still have to verify under heavier load like a large conference call.

After updating the ec firmware it was so quiet that I thought it broke.
Thank you very much for the update :slightly_smiling_face: :heart:

1 Like

Or when running Qubes OS.

I am running Qubes OS :slight_smile:

1 Like

I had an issue with high load / loud fans initially.

  • I have a Librem14, about a month old
  • Came with PureBoot firmware,
  • has 16gm ram, 1TB SSD (samsung980)

Resolution I installed MrChromeBox’s Coreboot/TianoCore UEFI firmware&payload.
AFAIK ALL of my issues have gone away, the system is smooth operating, quiet, has smooth video, etc.
Thanks @MrChromebox!
Does/Will Librem officially support a UEFI vs Bios firmware? Wasn’t sure if UEFI vs Bios is supported?

Best regards!
~G

you’re welcome, but you should really update the EC firmware to the latest for the proper fan fix (as well as power regulation ones)

Does/Will Librem officially support a UEFI vs Bios firmware? Wasn’t sure if UEFI vs Bios is supported?

Purism is working towards adding UEFI support in both the OS and firmware, and will get there eventually. But currently only supported options are coreboot w/SeaBIOS and Pureboot

1 Like

Excellent! Thanks for the info on future support f for UEFI!
Also I took your advice and have upgraded the EC firmware successfully,

Best regards!
~G

13 days since updating the EC Firmware.
L14 is buttery smooth! Zero issues. Loving it.

3 Likes

Does anybody know off a algorithm/mechanism/software that I could configure in a way so that

the CPU is slowed down as much as necessary to not start the fan at all?

That would be my absolute preferred mode of operation.

there is special command for that: sudo poweroff :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

1 Like

Maybe look at the existing thermal throttling mechanism.

Get a fanless device. :wink:

I’ve upgraded the latest EC firmware 2 months ago, and then the fan noise in my librem14 started…
Done a complete software re-install 1 month ago, and upgraded the latest EC firmware again, but it’s still there. Sounds like my laptop is going to fly. It happens when I run nothing but Gnomeweb or Thunderbird, or even nothing at all. My usage app shows no big cpu usage. Often the fan already starts making noise right after I pushed my power button, even before I type in my password to get into the system.
Yesterday I updated to the latest version of coreboot. Still the same. My 15 year old dinosaur laptop is even more silent…! Where is this coming from? The first months I had this laptop, everything was fine and after the EC firmware update it started…

the fan speed should directly correlate to the CPU temp as seen by the EC. What does ‘sensors’ report for the ACPI temp when the fan speed is higher than you’d expect given the CPU load?

I’ve been in contact with support. Probably need to RMA… Dunno what’s wrong in there :slight_smile: But thanks for the respons.

occasionally just after boot EC reports 100 deg on sensor CPU , fan spins 100%.
what is weird is a fact reboot does not help, only way to “reset” sensor, is to poweroff the system, disconnect powerbrick, then power on the system from battery then connect powerbrick back.
@MrChromebox @nicole.faerber is there any thing that i can do to help hunt this bug?
for the record i am running latest 1.7 EC firmware

Yes, sorry, we know about this and have an idea what the problem is… this problem started to occur when we introduced the PL4 (Intel CPU package energy limit) setting in the EC firmware to prevent the sudden power off situation. The PL4 settings are set in the Intel CPU package via the PECI interface - a serial interface directly from the EC to the Intel package. The same PECI is also used to read the package temperature information from the Intel package which the EC needs to change the fan speed. Right now we set the PL4 each time we detect a change in the power supply, i.e. with each transetion from battery to charger or vc.vs. or when waking up from suspend.

It seems that the Intel CPU package can become very confused if PECI access happens too early after resume. If this package then the PECI does not work at all anymore, which results also in the CPU temperature reading to fail and thus the fans start to spin in safety mode.

So much for the explanation.

We are working on finding a proper solution to it which a) is safe b) fast / early enough to prevent sudden power offs when resuming from suspend and of course c) does not confuse the PECI.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

As a tip for when this happens: What usually works for me is to suspend the laptop again, resume it again and then wait a few seconds. Usually everything is back to normal after this new suspend/resume cycle.

Cheers
nicole

5 Likes

I have upgraded from EC [version missing] dated 2021-09-02 (which was good) to EC 1.7 dated 2022-04-27 - and have noticed a significant fan improvement - I can not hear it at all! I really need to fire-up 7-8 VMs in Qubes OS with resources hungry Firefox browser windows to start hearing when fan kicks-in.

Well done @nicole.faerber and the team!

3 Likes