Ubuntu
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How do I open a file for editing?

Asked by unintent

Okay I open terminal and enter

john@john-laptop:/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THR1$ gedit trip_points

then it says"john@john-laptop:/proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THR1/trip_points changed on disk"

it says "do you want to reload"

I say yes, and the document is blank. If i cut and past what I WANT:

"critical (S5): 120 C
passive: 50 C: tc1=2 tc2=3 tsp=50 devices=CPU0 CPU1 "

when I save it says:

The file /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THR1/trip_points has been modified since reading it
If you save it, all the external changes could be lost. Save it anyway

I choose save it anyway and I get:

Could not create a backup file while saving /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THR1/trip_points
gedit could not backup the old copy of the file before saving the new one. You can ignore this warning and save the file anyway, but if an error occurs while saving, you could lose the old copy of the file. Save anyway?

I choose save it anywy and I get:

The file /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THR1/trip_points has been modified since reading it
If you save it, all the external changes could be lost. Save it anyway

I choose save it anywy and I get:

Could not save the file /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THR1/trip_points.
Unexpected error: Invalid parameters

The reason I want to edit this file is because in Ubuntu my laptop gets very very very very hot and the internal fan almost never comes on. In XP the fan keeps it rrelatively cool. I believe this file controls when the fan comes on and in the data I want to change the file to, the 50C used to be 92C. The critical set point is 120C. Now you can imagine how how something to boil water gets when placed on your lap.

Do you have any ideas on how to edit this file or at least make the fan come on more or at least constantly?

I tried loading Ubuntu with the live disk and it won't open the file partition that this file is in on the hard drive. The situation described above in in an installed version on the hard drive.

thanks in advance for any help.

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unintent (john-smuda) said : 		#1

Ooops that first command I enter "sudo gedit trip_points", not what it says above.

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Léa GRIS (lea-gris) said : 		#2

Hello,

Unfertunately, You can't use a proc file this way.
It undergo perpetual update, that's why Gedit complain the file changed last time you opened it.

Furthermore, ACPI: thermal trip points are read-only:

http://git.kernel.org/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux-2.6.git;a=commitdiff;h=11ccc0f249cb01a129f54760b8ff087f242935d4

So you can't make changes in here. It was possible in earlier versions of the Kernel (Feisty) but accirding to Len Brown:
- in practice it is quite rare for the BIOS to support the optional _SCP, and it is even more rare for the BIOS to export an _SCP that actually changes the trip points. -

Regards,

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unintent (john-smuda) said : 		#3

Well I guess my overall question is how can i get my laptop to not run so hot? the fan rarely comes on and if I actually used it as it's named implied...in my lap, my lap would get extremely uncomfortable.

I am a brand new newbie and only installed Ubuntu two days ago and am learning as fast as I can. I can download and install apps, although for some reason some apps I download and install never show up anywhere?! But that is for another topic and perhaps will never get posted as it is probly my noobness that is causing it.

I have seen apps for toshiba to control fan speed but noghtin for Compaq Presiorio v6000t or anythign even close. I even tried some toshiba ones but they did not work. Nothing in my bios to change, but wouldn't windows use the same bios settings?

Windows seems to control temps OK, how can I get Ubuntu to control temp?

I will gladly supply more info if needed thanks.

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Adam Buchbinder (adam-buchbinder) said : 		#4

If you want your laptop not to run so hot, have you tried changing the CPU usage to on-demand? To find out if your system supports changing your CPU frequency, run "cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies" from the command line; if you get more than one number printing out, you can set your CPU to more than one clock rate. Right-click on your panel and add the "CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor"; you can read about how to use that to change your CPU frequency here: http://ubuntu.wordpress.com/2005/11/04/enabling-cpu-frequency-scaling/

Revision history for this message
Adam Buchbinder (adam-buchbinder) said : 		#5

Also, if you want to be able to control your fan directly, you might have some luck with installing the lm-sensors package and using pwmconfig and fancontrol to change the speed on your fan. (It doesn't work on my laptop; your mileage may vary.) Run sensors-detect to find whatever sensors your laptop has (which may include fan control sensors), run pwmconfig to write a configuration file for fancontrol, then run fancontrol itself. Again, this is less likely to work than changing your CPU speed is (CPU frequency support is more widespread than fan control support), but it may be worth a try.

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