Lenovo X1 Extreme with thunderbolt docking station causes overheat with concert of fans

Bug #1879484 reported by Raoul Scarazzini
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
xorg-server (Ubuntu)
Expired
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Hey everyone,
after resolving some of the problems I got after upgrading to 20.04 [1] I'm now using my Lenovo X1 Extreme Gen 2 with the thunderbolt docking station (and an HDMI monitor attached).
Everything worked out of the box, except for the increased general heat of the system (constantly over 70 °C) and the consequent concert of fans that makes working aside the (closed) laptop almost impossible.
It is really hard to understand if there's a specific process causing the CPU to be so constantly stressed, and what is more curious is that monitoring the general status of the system resources (CPU, Memory and so on) there are no peaks, it shows a normal usage, which is what I do: browser, mail, and some console. Something I would expect that with 16 cpu and 32 gigs of RAM should not be a concern.

Both thermald and tlp services are obviously installed and running.

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1876741

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: xorg 1:7.7+19ubuntu14
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 5.6.0-1008.8-oem 5.6.4
Uname: Linux 5.6.0-1008-oem x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia_modeset nvidia
.proc.driver.nvidia.gpus.0000.01.00.0: Error: [Errno 21] Is a directory: '/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0000:01:00.0'
.proc.driver.nvidia.registry: Binary: ""
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend: suspend hibernate resume
.proc.driver.nvidia.suspend_depth: default modeset uvm
.proc.driver.nvidia.version:
 NVRM version: NVIDIA UNIX x86_64 Kernel Module 440.64 Fri Feb 21 01:17:26 UTC 2020
 GCC version:
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu27
Architecture: amd64
BootLog:

CasperMD5CheckResult: skip
CompositorRunning: None
Date: Tue May 19 12:41:24 2020
DistUpgraded: 2020-04-28 11:09:59,157 DEBUG Running PostInstallScript: './xorg_fix_proprietary.py'
DistroCodename: focal
DistroVariant: ubuntu
DkmsStatus:
 backport-iwlwifi, 8324, 5.4.0-31-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia, 440.64, 5.4.0-31-generic, x86_64: installed
 nvidia, 440.64, 5.6.0-1008-oem, x86_64: installed (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!) (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!) (WARNING! Diff between built and installed module!)
ExtraDebuggingInterest: Yes, including running git bisection searches
GraphicsCard:
 Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Mobile) [8086:3e9b] (rev 02) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo UHD Graphics 630 (Mobile) [17aa:229f]
 NVIDIA Corporation TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q] [10de:1f91] (rev a1) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
   Subsystem: Lenovo TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Mobile / Max-Q] [17aa:229f]
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-12-10 (161 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 19.10 "Eoan Ermine" - Release amd64 (20191017)
MachineType: LENOVO 20QVCTO1WW
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.6.0-1008-oem root=UUID=c61df9cc-bd36-4ed2-8f52-de114bbf3fc3 ro rd.driver.blacklist=nouveau modprobe.blacklist=nouveau
SourcePackage: xorg
Symptom: display
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2020-04-28 (21 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 01/20/2020
dmi.bios.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.bios.version: N2OET42W (1.29 )
dmi.board.asset.tag: Not Available
dmi.board.name: 20QVCTO1WW
dmi.board.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.board.version: SDK0T08861 WIN
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: No Asset Information
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: LENOVO
dmi.chassis.version: None
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnLENOVO:bvrN2OET42W(1.29):bd01/20/2020:svnLENOVO:pn20QVCTO1WW:pvrThinkPadX1Extreme2nd:rvnLENOVO:rn20QVCTO1WW:rvrSDK0T08861WIN:cvnLENOVO:ct10:cvrNone:
dmi.product.family: ThinkPad X1 Extreme 2nd
dmi.product.name: 20QVCTO1WW
dmi.product.sku: LENOVO_MT_20QV_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad X1 Extreme 2nd
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X1 Extreme 2nd
dmi.sys.vendor: LENOVO
version.compiz: compiz N/A
version.libdrm2: libdrm2 2.4.101-2
version.libgl1-mesa-dri: libgl1-mesa-dri 20.0.4-2ubuntu1
version.libgl1-mesa-glx: libgl1-mesa-glx N/A
version.nvidia-graphics-drivers: nvidia-graphics-drivers-* N/A
version.xserver-xorg-core: xserver-xorg-core 2:1.20.8-2ubuntu2
version.xserver-xorg-input-evdev: xserver-xorg-input-evdev N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-ati: xserver-xorg-video-ati 1:19.1.0-1
version.xserver-xorg-video-intel: xserver-xorg-video-intel N/A
version.xserver-xorg-video-nouveau: xserver-xorg-video-nouveau 1:1.0.16-1

Revision history for this message
Raoul Scarazzini (rasca) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

The first problem I can see is that this machine is using the 'intel' graphics driver for the Intel GPU. That's a mistake as it's an old driver. The Intel GPU should be using the 'modeset' driver. Please remove the 'intel' driver from your Xorg config files and/or just uninstall the package 'xserver-xorg-video-intel' and reboot.

If the heat problem still persists then next please run 'top' to confirm which process is using the most CPU.

Changed in xorg (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
affects: xorg (Ubuntu) → xorg-server (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

Also if the problem persists after that then please run:

  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

and attach the resulting text file here.

Revision history for this message
Raoul Scarazzini (rasca) wrote :

Hi Daniel and thanks for your answer. First of all I removed the "xserver-xorg-video-intel" package, but I still need an /etc/X11/xorg.conf configured as described here [1] (replacing "intel" with "modeset") to make lightdm or gdm3 start a session. Without it, it simply don't start.
Is this expected or do I need to apply some sort of trick to make X start?

About the over heating, I installed CPUFreq [2] and things improved a lot, mainly under Gnome on which fans are silent the most of the time, Cinnamon still lacks somehow because of some sort of missing full integration. The journal.txt I've attached to this comment comes from a Cinnamon session, hope this helps somehow. I'm open for any kind of suggestions and tests.

Thanks!

[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1876741
[2] https://github.com/konkor/cpufreq

Revision history for this message
Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt) wrote :

If the heat problem still persists then next please run 'top' to confirm which process is using the most CPU.

Also, please run this again:

  journalctl -b0 > journal.txt

because the attachment in comment #4 looks like Xorg failed to start.

Revision history for this message
Raoul Scarazzini (rasca) wrote :

Ok, I'll check with Cinnamon, but with GNOME, using the CPUFreq applet as I wrote things are doing well, you can find attached the up-to-date journal1.txt.

What about the xorg.conf issue? Do you have any suggestion on that front?

Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for xorg-server (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in xorg-server (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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