Linux run hotter then windows or temperature reading is wrong?

Okay well on Vista my cores would run around ~50 C.

I just recently installed watermark screenlet. I installed im-sensors, which btw gave me some weird error when i tried to configure them, so i assume they are not working.

anyway, i configured one of the watermarks to show my cores temperature. It shows it around fluctuating around 60 C

Thats a 10 C difference...

So im wondering, does linux run hotter then windows or are the sensors messed up?

If so, any suggestions how to fix?

Thx

 

I'd say messed up sensor readings... There's no reason for Linux to run your CPU hotter, unless it's notputting it in a lower power state.

 

I have always found my laptops to run a little hotter in linux than in Windows, I don't the power management works quite right. 10C is quite a big difference, I normally only see 5C or so, maybe it's a mix of both error and actual.

 

In Ubuntu 8.04, I've noticed that no matter what I'm doing, or how long the laptop was on for, my fans would always be running. In Vista, not so much.

 

You need to setup power management. Probably for both your processor and graphics card.

 

You mean there's a external package outside of the default power management?

 

I'm not familiar with Ubuntu's default power management if it does have one. You may need to install additional software. Check to see if your processor is scaling the frequency and voltage to save power. If it isn't, you need to manually configure power management.

Also, most laptops use one heatsink- often cooling both the graphics card and processor. If your graphics card is putting out a lot of heat, it will raise the processor temperature. Make sure you have graphics drivers properly installed and make sure that the power saving features of your card have been enabled and are working properly.

 

See if you have the powernow or cpufreq packages installed. Try reinstalling them, as I have reinstalled powernow in the past with success.

 

lakjin@lakjin-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install powernow
[sudo] password for lakjin:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package powernow
lakjin@lakjin-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install cpufreq
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package cpufreq
lakjin@lakjin-laptop:~$

google doesnt seem to find anything for powernow, except for AMD related things
but i did find cpufreq
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cpufreqd
is this what you are talking about?

 

Sorry, the package is called powernow d.

sudo apt-get install powernowd

Try that.

 

oh okay.
ya i seem to already have that installed.
will reinstalling do anything in particular?

 

It will drink your milkshake and steal your girlfriend.

Seriously, reinstalling sometimes works around bugs. I am not aware of any bug in powernowd which will be solved by reinstalling but it does not hurt to try.

 

Lemur is wrong. It won't drink your milkshake; can't give you any guarantees on the girlfriend part. Try it.

 

well thx dood. it seems my cpu temps are back to normal =)

 

You should try this Ubuntu howto to correctly install lm-sensors.

Well considering that the watermark screenlet uses the sensors information from lm-sensors, I'd say that you don't have an accurate reading of your CPU temperature yet. I don't notice any difference in CPU, GPU, and HDD temperature, running under XP and running under Linux. You should try the howto on installing and configuring lm-sensors for Ubuntu, and then try monitoring your system temperatures again.

Having said that, to ensure optimal temperature and power usage, you should make sure that you have CPU Frequency Scaling correctly configured and installed, and that you are using an On Demand governor. There's an Ubuntu howto here, on how to enable the CPU Frequency Scaling. I think that the driver module for your CPU is acpi-cpufreq, but you want to check that. However, I would first check to make sure it's not already installed and configured, by simply adding the Gnome CPU Frequency Scaling applet to your desktop, (if you're using Gnome of course). Here's an Ubuntu howto on installing the applet. If it works, then you don't have to worry about the prior howto, you're good to go. Just make sure you use the On Demand governor, and you'll optimize the temperature (and power usage) of your CPU under Linux.

BTW, the powernowd is a CPU frequency scaling daemon for the AMD CPU architecture, which, if your laptop in your sig is the one you're using, won't work on your laptop, (it won't hurt anything either, just won't run).

Good Luck..