WG x750e - automatic speed adjustment: mbmon going crazy
-
So, is auto fan speed control daemon showing up in the next release as an option click-to-enable?
-
This script is specifically for the Watchguard firebox X-e boxes so it's very unlikely to be in a pfSense realease. Even if it were more generic it probably wouldn't ever be included as more than a package. Any script that can control the fan speeds in a box has the potential to cause damage by overheating the CPU. Usually in something with thermal fan control, like a laptop, the control is handled directly by the SuperIO chip such that it will continue to cool correctly even if the OS crashes. Unfortunately the superio chip in the X-e box doesn't support this.
@bigramon
So reading the temperature with WGXepc gives the same value as mbmon. That implies the SuperIO chip is actually reporting the wrong value. Why could that be? It could be the temperature offset register has been set some how or that it's reading the wrong register for some reason. We could try investigating that but it will be quite involved. You could try using WGXepc in your script instead. Since it only reads one register (where as mbmon reads all registers everytime it's run) it may make a difference.Steve
-
Unfortunately, it did not work much better. After 2 weeks, I started getting temperatures of 255°C.
When I tried mbmon from the command line, it reported an error stating it could not access the hardware.
Everything went back to normal after a reboot.Damien
-
Ah, so what were you using in the script that didn't work? I forget where we left off. ::)
Steve
-
Something gets wrong after a short while:
- WGXepc does not properly set the fan speed anymore
- WGXepc does not report the proper temperature anymore
- mbmon does not execute properly anymore.
$ /usr/local/bin/WGXepc -f 50 Found Firebox X-E Fanspeed set to 50 $ /usr/local/bin/WGXepc -f Found Firebox X-E Fanspeed is ff $ /usr/local/bin/WGXepc -t Found Firebox X-E SuperIO sensor 2 reads: 255 $ /usr/local/bin/mbmon -I -i -c1 -T2 No ISA-IO HWM available!! InitMBInfo: Unknown error: 0At this stage, I guess the best option would be to modify the WGXepc source code to allow it to keep executing in the background and set the fan speed depending on the temperature that is read.
Damien
-
Ok, but was your script using mbmon or WGXepc to read the temperature? The difference between them is that mbmon reads reads a whole load of values every time it's run even if you only need one. To get all those values requires setting the SuperIO chip in various modes. It's possible that under certain conditions mbmon leaves the superio chip in some error state. It may be possible to determine what the error state is and recover from it or to avoid it in the first place.
Steve
-
My script was using only WGXepc.
Damien
-
Damn!
Well the only thing to do then is try to find out why the SuperIO chip is no longer responding usefully. Quite how to do that though…. ::)Steve
-
Did you guys ever resolve this? I have exactly the same problem. Running mbmon returns reasonable temps for a while and suddenly starts reporting this:
Temp.= 255.0, 0.0, 0.0; Rot.= 0, 0, 0
Vcore = 4.08, 4.08; Volt. = 4.08, 6.85, 15.50, 6.07, 5.11When I cancel mbmon and run it again, I get:
ioctl(smb0:open): No such file or directory
No Hardware Monitor found!!
InitMBInfo: Bad file descriptorWGXepc -t reports good temps and then nothing but 255.
Only way to fix this is to reboot.
I'm assuming the SuperIO chip got itself hosed somehow. Is there any way to reset or reboot the chip?This is on two X-Core 550e boxes and the default SL6N7 Banias chips have been replaced with SL7EP Dothan chips according to https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Further_Enhancements_3.
All dip switches set correctly. No other changes (powerd/speedstep) were made. -
No, or at least I haven't heard from anyone who did. However reading back through the data sheet there appear to be a number of possible things we could try. Since the chip is just giving results that are registers full of all 1s we don't know if it's actually returning anything or if we're even talking to it properly. Though it would seem likely we are because under mbmon the voltage readings continue to come back as reasonable numbers.
As a rather extreme option it looks like there is a register that can re-initialise the chip, back to it's power on defaults. However I've no way of knowing what registers are configured by the BIOS at boot so the results could be…. unpredictable. ;)Steve
-
Thanks for responding, Steve. I posted a new topic because this one was old and I wasn't sure it was still active. I'm happy to stay in this one.
This has happened on two boxes but I have another that works fine. I suppose it's possible that two of the Dothan chips I put in these boxes are creating this problem but it seem unlikely it would be two. I'm going to replace the replacement in one of them when another chip and wait for results.
Is the data sheet you spoke of available electronically? Where can I get it?
-
Yes, it's available in many places such as here.
Interacting with the chip manually for test purposes is a PITA. ::) It involves writing many individual registers to read one value. For example:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=43574.msg261279#msg261279
The reset register will not require so much though. It would be interesting to install superiotool to see what has stopped and what is still readable when the chip enters it's uncooperative state. We may get a clue.Steve
-
Thanks, Steve.
I replaced the chip and have been running and watching mbmon for an hour. No problems. I guess it's possible I had two bad chips with the same symptoms. If the problem shows up again, I'll try your idea with superiotool. Until then, I'm moving on.
Thanks, again. -
Hard to see how changing the CPU could make much difference. A change in the temperature sensor perhaps?
How that would affect the fan control though.Steve
-
Beats the crap out of me. Been watching mbmon for 2 1/2 hours and still working great.
I noticed that when I took out the other chip, I had smeared on a lot of paste (Arctic Silver). I was much more conservative with the new chip.
Could that have anything to do with this? -
Spoke too soon. It took 3 hours but mbmon started showing this:
Temp.= 255.0, 0.0, 0.0; Rot.= 0, 0, 0 Vcore = 4.08, 4.08; Volt. = 4.08, 6.85, 15.50, 6.07, 5.11I guess I'll look into resetting the chip as you suggested.
-
Are you running bios B8? If so you can also get the temperature via ACPI on the dashboard or sysctl. Does that fail also?
Steve
-
Looks like I'm running B6. Temps not available through ACPI.
The superio chip should be a Winbond, right? On other pictures of x550e boards, you can clearly see the Winbond logo. On this machine, the chip is covered with a Phoenix Technologies sticker. How can I determine what chip I have? -
This is what I get if I cancel mbmon and restart it:
[2.1.5-RELEASE]/root(50): mbmon -d -S SMBus[Intel8XX(ICH/ICH2/ICH3/ICH4/ICH5/ICH6)] found, but No HWM available on it!! InitMBInfo: Device not configured -
They all have the Phoenix sticker on the Winbond chip, nothing unusual there. Superiotool will identify the chip.
Steve
