Ubuntu should ship with a graphical fan speed control tool

[oss_test_launchpad]

Binary package hint: ubuntu-desktop

I have been trying to understand this bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/262550 for some time now. I believe that many users who work with systems which are not being perfectly supported by Ubuntu would wish to have a tool to easily manually set fan control speed to full power so that their hardware remains undamaged.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/MacBookPro#Temperatures%20&%20Fan%20Speed, Chapter "Manual fan control" shows you a way how to do it on the command line. However, what the average user needs is a simple GNOME applet to do that (by "simple" I mean something that works out of the box). Would it be legal and possible to implement this into Ubuntu 8.10? From a technical view, it can't be too difficult.

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

PS This would not only provide a temporary workaround for systems which tend to overheat but also for systems that might be damaged by other fan related reasons, eg https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/cpufrequtils/+bug/252683.

[MHB (mhb-monomania)]

I've read through the comment and post above. I agree that this is a rather serious issue for the MacBook owners, the second post shows that the fanspeed can be controlled by from the commandline. Question really is: do we need an applet to set this manually for all the users that are unaffected?
Perhaps an applet which allows you to choose between 'Let the kernel manage fan speed' or 'Set fan speed to $SOME_SANE_VALUE' would make it easier for people with problems to cope with them easily?

[oss_test_launchpad (oss-test-launchpad)]

Sounds like a good idea. IMHO present state is intolerable.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.