acerhdf doesn't work on Acer Aspire One A150

[Alexander Kallenbach]

The acerhdf module doesn't work on my AAO A150 (fresh install) which makes it quite loud.

"dmesg|grep acerhdf" gives me:

[ 9.793209] acerhdf: Acer Aspire One Fan driver, v.0.5.16
[ 9.793222] acerhdf: Fan control off, to enable do:
[ 9.793229] acerhdf: echo -n "enabled" > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode

The suggested "echo -n "enabled" > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode" doesn't work even with sudo-rights (permission denied).

ProblemType: Bug
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: i386
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC268 Analog [ALC268 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: alex 1800 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0x58540000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC268'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0268,1025015b,00100101'
   Controls : 9
   Simple ctrls : 6
Date: Thu Oct 15 17:49:06 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=3ba52440-c533-4e55-af03-c0ade8b20e7a
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Alpha i386 (20091015)
MachineType: Acer AOA150
Package: linux-image-2.6.31-14-generic 2.6.31-14.47
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=UUID=f4b918ab-9a8e-4e24-b535-4d042c1824a2 ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.47-generic
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-backports-modules-2.6.31-14-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.23
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
SourcePackage: linux
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1816): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1816): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1915): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1935): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-panel:1909): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -1 and height 24
dmi.bios.date: 05/09/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: Acer
dmi.bios.version: v0.3305
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.vendor: Acer
dmi.board.version: Base Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacturer
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAcer:bvrv0.3305:bd05/09/2008:svnAcer:pnAOA150:pvr1:rvnAcer:rn:rvrBaseBoardVersion:cvnChassisManufacturer:ct1:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: AOA150
dmi.product.version: 1
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Stefan Haller (haliner)]

I can confirm this bug on my Acer Aspire One A150L. The system is up-to-date and dmesg says the same as above.

The following command enables the fan control temporarily:
echo -n "enabled" | sudo tee /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode

[Dan Smith (mrdanpsmith)]

I can confirm this one as well. Attempting to open the file in vi and change it to enabled and then save it results in an fsync error.

[Stefan Haller (haliner)]

This is not a real file, so you can't open it with vi.

A persistent solution is to insert
echo -n "enabled" > /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/mode
into a line above "exit 0" in /etc/rc.local

[Tony Houghton (h-realh)]

I've got an A150 Ab and I've just installed Karmic UNR on it. I get the message:

acerhdf: unknown (unsupported) BIOS version Acer/AOA150/v0.3301, please report, aborting!

at boot-up. I'm not sure whether there's anything actually wrong; I don't have a problem with the fan being too noisy, but perhaps I'm at risk of overheating?

The thermal_zone0 directory doesn't exist, but /sys/class/thermal does contain cooling_device symbolic links:

~$ ls -l /sys/class/thermal/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2009-11-11 22:57 cooling_device0 -> ../../devices/virtual/thermal/cooling_device0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 0 2009-11-11 22:57 cooling_device1 -> ../../devices/virtual/thermal/cooling_device1

[el es (el-es-poczta)]

On Acer Aspire One A150 Aw, karmic + backports + proposed,
after updating bios to 3309, (3304 was not recognized)
{{{
lukasz@workhorse:~$ sudo dmidecode
[sudo] password for lukasz:
# dmidecode 2.9
SMBIOS 2.4 present.
32 structures occupying 1595 bytes.
Table at 0x000E8E70.

Handle 0x0000, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
 Vendor: Acer
 Version: v0.3304
 Release Date: 05/09/2008
 ROM Size: 1024 kB
}}}

http://www.artiss.co.uk/2009/02/acer-aspire-one-bios

acerhdf works.

{{{
lukasz@workhorse:~$ uname -a
Linux workhorse 2.6.31-17-generic #54-Ubuntu SMP Thu Dec 10 16:20:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
}}}

The command given in dmesg needs to be executed as root (sudo su)
or add a file to /etc/modprobe.d :

{{{
lukasz@workhorse:~$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf
options acerhdf kernelmode=1 interval=15 fanon=60 fanoff=45
}}}

(max interval is 15, you might also add fanon=[high threshold] fanoff=[low threshold]

Read modinfo acerhdf.

[el es (el-es-poczta)]

Acerhdf's sensor, by the way, reports temperature in whole celsius, not in milicelsius,

so the gnome's sensors applet needs to be instructed to have the sensor value multiplier set to 1000, otherwise you will see zero all the time.

(GNOME Sensors Applet 2.2.3 right-click on the sensors applet, select Preferences, Sensors tab, expand libsensors tab, select "temp1", click Properties button, in Scaling Parameters, field "Sensor Value Multiplier, set to 1000 - and put sane values into Sensor Limits - mine are : minimum 45, maximum 60)

[el es (el-es-poczta)]

@Tony, update your bios to 3304 this worked for me

[el es (el-es-poczta)]

of course I meant 3309 not 3304!

[el es (el-es-poczta)]

And unetbootin is avaliable in synaptic (or Software Centre) so all you need is to download new bios, format a USB stick making FreeDOS bootable stick, extract the bios package contents to the usb stick (open the package, select all, drag over to the stick), unmount stick, reboot the netbook, boot it from USB (freedos); When booted it lands on a:, so change to c: (type c: ) and then if you have directly copied the bios files from the zip file to the usb drive, you will have a 3309.bat file in the root directory, which you run by typing 3309.bat. The update will go on.
Make sure your netbook is on mains power and nothing can interrupt the flashing process (they don't say it anywhere, but I suppose it may matter).
When finished, the netbook will reboot itself and now acerhdf worked for me (without failing with unrecognized bios).

(Be sure what you're doing, I accept no liabiliy etc.)

[el es (el-es-poczta)]

LKML seems to have some new info as well - this is for 2.6.32.2-stable:

http://news.gmane.org/find-root.php?message_id=%3c20091217035659.715358564%40mini.kroah.org%3e

[Stas Zytkiewicz (stas-zytkiewicz)]

I also have problems with the acerhdf module.
I'm running 10.04 with kernel 2.6.32-22 which packs acerhdf 0.5.20.
I have this entry in /etc/modprobe/acerhdf:
 options acerhdf interval=5 fanon=60000 fanoff=55000 kernelmode=1

The problem is that the fan switches on when the cpu temp goes above 55000 and switches of
when it's below 55000.

I have also compiled and installed acerhdf 0.54-pre but with the same result.

[Stas Zytkiewicz (stas-zytkiewicz)]

After contacting the acerhdf author a solution was found.

It looks like that on Ubuntu 10.4 the /etc/modprobe.d/acerhdf.conf is not correctly read when loading the acerhdf module.
When after booting the module is removed and reloaded with: modprobe acerhdf kernelmode=1 the module
works correctly *and* is using the fanon/off parameters given in the acerhdf.conf file.

[Stas Zytkiewicz (stas-zytkiewicz)]

In addition to my previous comment, only acerhdf 0.5.24-pre will work.
The module included in Ubuntu kernel 2.6.32-22, acerhdf 0.5.20, will not work properly and according to the acerhdf site one has to use 0.5.23 for kernels > 2.6.30.

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug was filed against a series that is no longer supported and so is being marked as Won't Fix. If this issue still exists in a supported series, please file a new bug.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.