[lm-sensors] lm_sensors on ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard using IT8705F/IT8712F/SiS 950

Hi Mark,

Post by Mark E. Hansen
I posted this question on Sept 16th, but didn't get any responses. The point
I don't understand about creating a 'sensors.conf' from scratch is how to
come up with the various multiplier/division factors that are needed to
get accurate voltages.

There are several ways, none of which is perfect:
* Ask your motherboard vendor or manufacturer about the factors.
Most of the time they will simply ignore you.
* Look at the voltage values displayed by your BIOS, and use factors
such that "sensors" will display the same values. Ordering is usually
the same as well.
* Look at the voltage values displayed by a Windows tool, and use
factors such that "sensors" will display the same values.
* Find working configuration files for boards similar to yours, they
might hold valuable hints.

This is tricky either way. It took me two years to be able to write
custom configuration files with good results, so I don't really expect
users to get it right at their first try.

Post by Mark E. Hansen
Can someone please have a look at this and let me know if I'm just missing
something?
Thanks
I'm running CentOS Linux 4.5 on a desktop machine using the
ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard and an AMD A64 X2 3800 (65watt) CPU.
The chipset is Northbridge NVIDIA GeForce 6150 GPU, Southbridge
NVIDIA nForce 430 MCP.
I'm running lm_sensors 2.8.7 (which is current for CentOS 4.5)

This is 3 years old, which probably explains why you did not get any
answer.

Post by Mark E. Hansen
From reading various archives of problems other people have had,
it seems those with the same board have the IT8716F chip, but
when I run sensors detect, it shows that I'm running the IT8705F/
IT8712F/SiS 950, which should be supported.

Your board really has an IT8716F, not one of the older variants. The
IT8716F is somewhat compatible, but not completely. One significant
difference is that the IT8716F supports two additional fans.

Post by Mark E. Hansen
When I use the sensors.conf that comes with the package, it seems
to not be showing the correct sensor data, as though it thought
it was a different chip.
Is sensors-detect wrong in saying that I'm running the IT8705F,
and that I'm really running the IT8716F?

Certainly. That's not very surprising if you ran a 3-year-old version
of sensors-detect to identify a device that did not even exist 3 years
ago. Just run a more recent version of sensors-detect and it'll tell
you the truth:
http://www.lm-sensors.org/browser/lm-sensors/trunk/prog/detect/sensors-detect?format=txt

Post by Mark E. Hansen
====================================================================
Now follows a summary of the probes I have just done.
* ISA bus address 0x0290 (Busdriver `i2c-isa')
Chip `ITE IT8705F / IT8712F / SiS 950' (confidence: 8)
====================================================================
(...)

--
Jean Delvare

Mark E. Hansen

2007-10-28 20:39:21 UTC

Post by Jean Delvare
Hi Mark,

* Ask your motherboard vendor or manufacturer about the factors.
Most of the time they will simply ignore you.

I guess I can try this.

Post by Jean Delvare
* Look at the voltage values displayed by your BIOS, and use factors
such that "sensors" will display the same values. Ordering is usually
the same as well.

This just seemed really hard based on the match I'd seen done in other
configurations. It didn't look like a simple "solve for X" solution.
However, I guess I can just do that and see how it comes out.

Post by Jean Delvare
* Look at the voltage values displayed by a Windows tool, and use
factors such that "sensors" will display the same values.

I'm not running Windows on this machine. I guess I could run a windows
simulator, but that seems like a long way to go...

Post by Jean Delvare
* Find working configuration files for boards similar to yours, they
might hold valuable hints.

But if I understand it correctly, it's not just that they use the same
chipset and sensor chips, but the resistors they use could easily be
different (even the type of heat sensor, for example), right?

Post by Jean Delvare
This is tricky either way. It took me two years to be able to write
custom configuration files with good results, so I don't really expect
users to get it right at their first try.

I can see why. Is it true that I'm the first person to try to get the
sensors package running on this particular mother board? When I chose
this board, I had lm-sensors in mind, but I guess I didn't do a good
enough job. I figured a popular manufacturer like ASUS would surely
be covered :-)

This is 3 years old, which probably explains why you did not get any
answer.

Ah... this could explain a lot. I hadn't considered getting a newer
version, and feel silly for that now. I will get the most current
version and start over.

Your board really has an IT8716F, not one of the older variants. The
IT8716F is somewhat compatible, but not completely. One significant
difference is that the IT8716F supports two additional fans.

If it really is using the IT8716F, then I think I read something somewhere
that this chip is not really supported yet, and a kernel patch was
required. Is that right?

Certainly. That's not very surprising if you ran a 3-year-old version
of sensors-detect to identify a device that did not even exist 3 years
ago. Just run a more recent version of sensors-detect and it'll tell
http://www.lm-sensors.org/browser/lm-sensors/trunk/prog/detect/sensors-detect?format=txt
* ISA bus, address 0x290 (Busdriver `i2c-isa')
Chip `ITE IT8716F Super IO Sensors' (confidence: 9)
* Chip `AMD K8 thermal sensors' (confidence: 9)

And, as expected, it finds the IT8716F chip.

Thanks so much for your help, Jean. I knew I must have been doing something
wrong.

I'll be back once I get the new version up and running and work through
getting a configuration file up and running.

Jean Delvare

2007-10-31 18:47:37 UTC

Hi Mark,

Post by Jean Delvare
* Find working configuration files for boards similar to yours, they
might hold valuable hints.

You are right. But manufacturers have their habits, so two motherboards
from a given manufacturer using the same monitoring chip are likely to
share some settings.

No, there have been several reports by other users about this
motherboard:
http://www.google.fr/search?q=site%3Alists.lm-sensors.org+M2NPV-VM

Post by Mark E. Hansen
(...)
If it really is using the IT8716F, then I think I read something somewhere
that this chip is not really supported yet, and a kernel patch was
required. Is that right?

Depends on what kernel version you're using. I added support for the
IT8716F in 2.6.19. For 2.6.17 and 2.6.18, there are kernel patches.

--
Jean Delvare

Mark E. Hansen

2007-10-31 19:20:24 UTC

Post by Jean Delvare
Hi Mark,

Post by Jean Delvare
* Find working configuration files for boards similar to yours, they
might hold valuable hints.

You are right. But manufacturers have their habits, so two motherboards
from a given manufacturer using the same monitoring chip are likely to
share some settings.

Okay, I see.

[ snip ]

Post by Mark E. Hansen
(...)
If it really is using the IT8716F, then I think I read something somewhere
that this chip is not really supported yet, and a kernel patch was
required. Is that right?

Depends on what kernel version you're using. I added support for the
IT8716F in 2.6.19. For 2.6.17 and 2.6.18, there are kernel patches.

Oh, this may be a problem. I'm running CentOS 4.5, which uses kernel 2.6.9.
I would imagine that it would take more than just building a new kernel to
get my machine up to that level (I'm assuming there would be a lot of
dependent packages that would need to be upgraded first, etc.).

Is there any way to apply this patch to a 2.6.9 kernel? (probably not...)

I guess I'll start looking into upgrading my machine to CentOS 5.0 (which
uses kernel 2.6.18, if I understand the site correctly).

Thanks for your help.

Jean Delvare

2007-11-02 10:17:58 UTC