fw-fanctrl

This is a simple Python service for Linux that drives Framework Laptop's fan(s) speed according to a configurable speed/temp curve. Its default configuration targets very silent fan operation, but it's easy to configure it for a different comfort/performance trade-off. Its possible to specify two separate fan curves depending on whether the Laptop is charging/discharging. Under the hood, it uses ectool to change parameters in Framework's embedded controller (EC).

It is compatible with all kinds of 13" and 16" models, both AMD/Intel CPUs, with or without a discrete GPU.

If the service is paused or stopped, the fans will revert to their default behaviour.

Install

Dependencies

To communicate with the embedded controller the ectool is required. You can either let the script download it from the gitlab repository artifacts, or disable its installation (--no-ectool) and install your own.

You also need to disable secure boot of your device for ectool to work (more details about why here)

Then run:

sudo ./install.sh

This bash script will to create and activate a service that runs this repo's main script, fanctrl.py. It will copy fanctrl.py (to an executable file fw-fanctrl), download the ectool to [dest-dir(/)]/bin and create a config file in [dest-dir(/)][sysconf-dir(/etc)]/fw-fanctrl/config.json

this script also includes options to:

• specify an installation destination directory (--dest-dir <installation destination directory (defaults to /)>).
• specify an installation prefix directory (--prefix-dir <installation prefix directory (defaults to /usr)>).
• specify a default configuration directory (--sysconf-dir <system configuration destination directory (defaults to /etc)>).
• disable ectool installation and service activation (--no-ectool)
• disable post-install process (--no-post-install)
• disable pre-uninstall process (--no-pre-uninstall)

Update

To install an update, you can pull the latest commit on the main branch of this repository, and run the install script again.

Uninstall

sudo ./install.sh --remove

Configuration

There is a single config.json file located at [dest-dir(/)][sysconf-dir(/etc)]/fw-fanctrl/config.json.

(You will need to reload the configuration with)

fw-fanctrl --reload

It contains different strategies, ranked from the most silent to the noisiest. It is possible to specify two different strategies for charging/discharging allowing for different optimization goals. On discharging one could have fan curve optimized for low fan speeds in order to save power while accepting a bit more heat. On charging one could have a fan curve that focuses on keeping the CPU from throttling and the system cool, at the expense of fan noise. You can add new strategies, and if you think you have one that deserves to be shared, feel free to make a PR to this repo :)

Strategies can be configured with the following parameters:

• SpeedCurve:

  This is the curve points for f(temperature) = fan speed

  fw-fanctrl measures the CPU temperature, compute a moving average of it, and then find an appropriate fan speed value by interpolation on the curve.

• FanSpeedUpdateFrequency:

  Time interval between every update to the fan's speed. fw-fanctrl measures temperature every second and add it to its moving average, but the actual update to fan speed is controlled using this configuration. This is for comfort, otherwise the speed is changed too often and it is noticeable and annoying, especially at low speed. For a more reactive fan, you can lower this setting. Defaults to 5 seconds.

• MovingAverageInterval:

  Number of seconds on which the moving average of temperature is computed. Increase it, and the fan speed will change more gradually. Lower it, and it will gain in reactivity. Defaults to 20 seconds.

Charging/Discharging strategies

The strategy active by default is the one specified in the defaultStrategy entry. Optionally a separate strategy only active during discharge can be defined, using the strategyOnDischarging entry. By default no extra strategy for discharging is provided, the default strategy is active during all times.

Commands

Option	Context	Description
<strategy>	run & configure	the name of the strategy to use
--run	run	run the service
--config	run	specify the configuration path
--no-log	run	disable state logging
--query, -q	configure	print the current strategy name
--list-strategies	configure	print the available strategies
--reload, -r	configure	reload the configuration file
--pause	configure	temporarily disable the service and reset the fans to their default behaviour
--resume	configure	resume the service
--hardware-controller, --hc	run	select the hardware controller. choices: ectool
--socket-controller, --sc	run & configure	select the socket controller. choices: unix