RockPro64 fan disabled

[Zeronaut]

Hi all, I enjoy Armbian overall and appreciate the support that goes into its upkeep.

 

I previously used the ayufan images but found that those were updated less frequently than I desired and I've wanted to run OpenMediaVault 5.x + and Python3.x+ which have major issues with the Debian 9/Stretch and Kernel 4.x and run better on kernel 5.x and newer.

 

After reinstalling Armbian on a new SD card and porting my old system over from that image, everything generally works well, however there have been some slow-downs. I have the NAS-style enclosure case and two 6 TB 3.5" HDDs. I have checked the thermals and the system runs at a around 60 - 68 degrees C. From what I read this is hot, but not critical. However I noticed the fan does not run at all. I've tried some of the related tips on the forums here about editing the dtb and using overlays but nothing seems to work so I figure I'm missing something. I think the slowing performance is due to the inability to dissipate heat since the fan is not running. I have confirmed that the fan itself is plugged into the SBC as it was previously when it did work with the ayufan image.

 

Anyone have any ideas?

 

System Specs:

 ____            _    ____               __   _  _   
|  _ \ ___   ___| | _|  _ \ _ __ ___    / /_ | || |  
| |_) / _ \ / __| |/ / |_) | '__/ _ \  | '_ \| || |_ 
|  _ < (_) | (__|   <|  __/| | | (_) | | (_) |__   _|
|_| \_\___/ \___|_|\_\_|   |_|  \___/   \___/   |_|  
                                                     
Welcome to Armbian 21.05.6 Buster with Linux 5.10.43-rockchip64

System load:   2%               Up time:       21:12
Memory usage:  31% of 3.77G     IP:            [...]
CPU temp:      65°C             Usage of /:    15% of 117G   
storage/:      13% of 5.5T      storage temp:  50°C 

                                 user@hostname
                                 ---------------- 
      █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █      OS: Armbian buster (21.05.6) aarch64 
     ███████████████████████     Host: Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1 
   ▄▄██                   ██▄▄   Kernel: 5.10.43-rockchip64 
   ▄▄██    ███████████    ██▄▄   Uptime: 21 hours, 13 mins 
   ▄▄██   ██         ██   ██▄▄   Packages: 728 (dpkg) 
   ▄▄██   ██         ██   ██▄▄   Shell: zsh 5.7.1 
   ▄▄██   ██         ██   ██▄▄   Terminal: /dev/pts/1 
   ▄▄██   █████████████   ██▄▄   CPU: (6) @ 1.416GHz 
   ▄▄██   ██         ██   ██▄▄   Memory: 1498MiB / 3863MiB 
   ▄▄██   ██         ██   ██▄▄
   ▄▄██   ██         ██   ██▄▄                           
   ▄▄██                   ██▄▄                           
     ███████████████████████
      █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █ █
      
 hostname:~:% sudo find /sys -name pwm
/sys/kernel/debug/tracing/events/pwm
/sys/kernel/debug/pwm
/sys/class/pwm
/sys/devices/platform/ff420020.pwm/pwm
/sys/devices/platform/ff420010.pwm/pwm
/sys/devices/platform/ff420000.pwm/pwm

# cat /proc/device-tree/model
Pine64 RockPro64 v2.1#

hostname:~:% sensors
cpu-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +61.9°C  (crit = +100.0°C)

tcpm_source_psy_4_0022-i2c-4-22
Adapter: rk3x-i2c
in0:          +0.00 V  (min =  +0.00 V, max =  +0.00 V)
curr1:        +0.00 A  (max =  +0.00 A)

gpu-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1:        +60.0°C  (crit = +95.0°C)

 

[Igor]

19 minutes ago, Zeronaut said:

I previously used the ayufan images but found that those were updated less frequently than I desired and I've wanted to run OpenMediaVault 5.x + and Python3.x+ which have major issues with the Debian 9/Stretch and Kernel 4.x and run better on kernel 5.x and newer.

 

Modern kernel luxury comes with a price:
https://docs.armbian.com/User-Guide_FAQ/#why-does-hardware-feature-xy-work-in-old-kernel-but-not-in-more-recent-one

 

19 minutes ago, Zeronaut said:

I have confirmed that the fan itself is plugged into the SBC as it was previously when it did work with the ayufan image.

If you want Armbian with the same functionality, but also no updates to the kernel, pick Armbian with a kernel 4.4.y which is still provided for this hardware.

 

Perhaps fan support works and just need enabling?

[Zeronaut]

Thanks for that quick response @Igor!

 

Since I’m new on this forum it took time to follow up. 
 

The documentation you linked about the modern kernels makes sense and it’s nice to see that the Armbian project still supports the same kernel that the hardware shipped with. 

23 hours ago, Igor said:

Perhaps fan support works and just need enabling?

I’d like to try this first, however after trying a few suggestions from related posts on here I realized I don’t know how to accomplish this. Any ideas?

 

For reference what I tried was installing the ats application from github and adding to the dts overlay the pwm fan which I think is supposed to be 0 unit 1. I’ve tried the rockchip-pwm-gpio overlay but no success yet. Clearly I’m missing something and I’m not sure how to edit the uboot loader if that is necessary. 

[Igor]

16 minutes ago, Zeronaut said:

Armbian project still supports the same kernel that the hardware shipped with. 

 

Perhaps we were not clear enough. We only ship that kernel, while I don't know many if any person that will be doing anything with it. Dealing with that dirty code is too big waste of our  precious time. We are already loosing 50-70 hours every day to provide you this. Remember you only notice what doesn't work ...

 

The easiest way - armbian-config -> system -> enable hardware (overlays that are prepared and tested) doesn't exists. I don't have any knowledge if pwm works or not - on this particular board / chip. Anything from here is research, where is a long long line ... I am pretty sure you don't need to poke around u-boot to get this working.

[Zeronaut]

Big thanks @Igor, I've marked your first post as a solution due to the information - however I'm going to share a bit about my scenario since the actual problem I had was the particular hardware and knowing what you said helped me narrow down to it. I also want to share this publicly to allow others on the forum to check for what went wrong with mine and as a vote of confidence in the Armbian system for having IMO the best most up to date OS images.

 

I checked the dtc overlays config first since software configs are often easier. I also have a fully installed ayufan image on an SD card, so I next checked if the fan worked when booting to it. Because it did not, I started narrowing this down to the hardware. I disassembled the NAS case that I have and discovered that the HDD SATA cables were in the way of the fan physically moving. I actually booted into the Armbian SD card with the case off and HDD enclosure aside from the board and fan. From there I could see that it does clearly work. Following that test I shut down and re-assembled the case with extra attention to the fan's movement and the HDD SATA cables. It works now. Also for reference for anyone else I have the fan cable plugged into the SBC RockPro64 board's "fan" labeled IO pins.

 

Thanks again @Igor as I don't expect hardware troubleshooting from the software forum, nor the timely accurate help you gave me from a free open source project, but it helped me in the right direction and I appreciate your time responding to my message.