Stop using deprecated /proc/i8k interface

[Wer-Wolf]

The /proc/i8k interface is marked as deprecated since a long time. Also the new sysfs interface of dell_smm_hwmon offers multiple temperature sensors, multiple fan controls and the ability to disable automatic bios fan control.
Maybe i8kctl/i8kmon can be rewritten to support this interface?

I would gladly help with this.

[ThomasChevalier]

The default kernel build options in Arch Linux stopped to set CONFIG_I8K as of version 5.18. This means it's not possible to use the old /proc/i8k interface anymore with the default kernel shipped by the distribution.

It would be great if i8kutils supported the sysfs interface. @Wer-Wolf do you still have interest in this?

I would be glad to help too

[Wer-Wolf]

I am currently working on it.
Some features (ac status, fn status, machine id and bios version) are not exposed thru the sysfs interface. But since those features are either unused or can be retrieved from elsewhere, i think dropping them would be ok.

[Wer-Wolf]

However i8kutils cannot control the fans in form of fans states over the hwmon sysfs interface.
For that i8kutils needs the thermal interface of the dell_smm_hwmon driver, which is available with kernel 5.19.

[shawnk0723]

The default kernel build options in Arch Linux stopped to set CONFIG_I8K as of version 5.18. This means it's not possible to use the old /proc/i8k interface anymore with the default kernel shipped by the distribution.

It would be great if i8kutils supported the sysfs interface. @Wer-Wolf do you still have interest in this?

I would be glad to help too

My fan is running like crazy all of sudden. It started this afternoon. I'm keep getting this error whenever I manually try to restart the service:
"i8kmon.service - Dell laptop thermal monitoring
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/i8kmon.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Condition: start condition failed at Sun 2022-05-29 23:59:23 PDT; 16min ago
└─ ConditionPathExists=/proc/i8k was not met"

I know I can manually reset it and restart after every boot but how can i keep the service enabled permanently again. if this can't be fixed soon, is there any temp workaround for this? it's driving me nuts. :(

[shawnk0723]

However i8kutils cannot control the fans in form of fans states over the hwmon sysfs interface. For that i8kutils needs the thermal interface of the dell_smm_hwmon driver, which is available with kernel 5.19.

My fan is running like crazy all of sudden. It started this afternoon. I'm keep getting this error whenever I manually try to restart the service:
"i8kmon.service - Dell laptop thermal monitoring
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/i8kmon.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: inactive (dead)
Condition: start condition failed at Sun 2022-05-29 23:59:23 PDT; 16min ago
└─ ConditionPathExists=/proc/i8k was not met"

I know I can manually reset it and restart after every boot but how can i keep the service enabled permanently again. if this can't be fixed soon, is there any temp workaround for this? it's driving me nuts. :(

[Wer-Wolf]

Try fancontrol from the lm-sensors package.
If that does not work, revert to an older kernel.

[shawnk0723]

Try fancontrol from the lm-sensors package. If that does not work, revert to an older kernel.

Not sure how good lm-sensors is but I was really happy with i8kutils. I'll rather wait until it's fixed and revert to older kernel for now. Thank you.

[b-fg]

Hi, is there a plan to fix this any time soon or will it be something to be done in the long term?
Thanks for this great package anyhow :)

[Wer-Wolf]

I am currently working on it, but i got little time.
Also fan control without /proc/i8k will only be possible with kernel 5.19 and beyond.

[b-fg]

Noted, thank you very much!

[Wer-Wolf]

I got a prototype ready here.
Maybe someone can test it?

[subbeh]

@Wer-Wolf I installed the prototype and it seems to work at first glance, but the fan starts and stops every second. I might have to tweak the thresholds a bit, but I also noticed that having less than 5 threshold configs in the i8kmon.conf file causes additional (unwanted) thresholds to be added.

~ ≻ i8kmon -v
i8kmon
config(0)           = {0 0} -1 50 -1 50
config(1)           = {0 1} 45 55 45 55
config(2)           = {1 1} 50 65 50 65
config(3)           = {1 2} 60 70 60 70
config(4)           = {2 2} 65 128 65 128
config(acpi)        = acpi
config(num_configs) = 5
config(sysconfig)   = /etc/i8kmon.conf
config(timeout)     = 2
config(verbose)     = 1
status(ac)         = 0
status(acpi_timer) = 0
status(leftspeed)  = 0 2500 5000 5000
status(lspeed)     = 0
status(lstate)     = -2
status(lstuck)     = 0
status(nfans)      = 2
status(rightspeed) = 0 2500 5000 5000
status(rspeed)     = 0
status(rstate)     = -2
status(rstuck)     = 0
status(state)      = 0
status(t_high)     = 0
status(t_low)      = 0
status(temp)       = 0
1654819646 acpi: Battery 0: Full, 100%
Battery 1: Discharging, 0%, rate information unavailable
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 1 0
i8kfan - 0
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 0 0
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 1 0
i8kfan - 0
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 0 0
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 1 0
i8kfan - 0
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 0 0
temp, left fan state, right fan state, ac state: 49 0 1 0
i8kfan - 0
...

[Wer-Wolf]

Did you set config(num_configs)?