Question : 2 Linux Machines, 2 setups, whats the difference?

Hi,

Relative Linux Nooby here but getting there ;-)

I have 2x IBM Intellistation M Pro machines. They are workstations with 2x Xeon 2ghz processors.

On one I did a minimal install of Fedora Core 8 (no office, development or server software), installed in text mode as basically I want this machine to be a process workhorse with little else running on it. I also removed unwanted services from running using ntsysv.

On the second, i did a desktop installation - office apps, development apps, some other base apps etc as I want to use this as a desktop machine, matched the services stopped as per above.

Both machines have 2 processor fans, a large case fan and a fan for the drive bay.

My problem is the one with the minimal install (during high processor load) has all fans off for 20 mins, then on on full blast for 45 seconds then off for 20mins etc (quite loud) etc

Whereas the one with more packages on is much better - fans run only when needed and only at the speed needed, so I hardly ever hear them. I even tested them under the same loads, absolutely perfect.

How to I determine what settings, packages or other are missing on the loud one for fan control? They are EXACTLY the same machines, even bios's have been brought up to the same / latest version.

I have seem some stuff on fan control scripts and acpi which didn't make a lot of sense to be honest! I would just like the 2 machines to be the same, even if I have to install the extra packages on the processing one, but I dont want a full install as I have done on the 2nd one if that makes sense...

Many thanks for you help - Have had some great Linux support from you guys already!

Answer : 2 Linux Machines, 2 setups, whats the difference?

Hi,

This turned out to be a hardware issue in the end :-(

The 2 machines contained 2 different fan controller chips, the one I was having problems with could only be on or off, whereas the one I wanted to emukale could be set to any speed.

Doh.