I8kutils includes the source of a program smm but the i8kutils package does not include the compiled binary. Also, all reports on trying this have indicated success in disabling the BIOS fan control. However, I've seen no user reports on this causing trouble. Warning: see the warning in top of smm.c. Luckily there is a way to disable BIOS fan control by writing to SMM registers. If it works, but somewthing else is fighting back on the setted speed (reported by many users on Dell Latitude laptops), this is due to scheduled SMM sessions setting the fan speed back. Install i8kutils: $ sudo apt-get install i8kutils You suffer from that as well according to a previous comment. Several users report success on their Dell Laitude laptops as well (I'm one of them, on a Dell Latitude E7440) - however, a trick is often needed to get rid of interfering BIOS fan control. However, there's a package called i8kutils that is written to control the fan on Dell Inspiron laptops through SMM BIOS.

as a consequence, the fancontrol/ pwmconfig program won't work.as a consequence, trying with ACPI boot parameters and the like will failĭell Latitude laptops, as far as I know, lack pwm controllable fans (*2).Two common and straight-forward means of controlling the fan on laptops are through ACPI and through PWM pins, however, unfortunately:ĭell laptops lacks ACPI fan control capability (*1) For completeness, I'll include some general notes on fan control on Dell laptops, and full instructions for i8kutils. You'll most likely be able to solve your problem with something else overriding your i8kctl fan commands by the method given in this answer.

Dell laptop fan speed control software