Control of fan-speed on Lenovo Thinkpads

[Jean Louis <bugs@gnu.support>]

Here is how I control Lenovo Thinkpad T410 (and others) fan speed. I
remember controlling it on different notebooks, I just forgot
which. You may find that you need to change variable
`my-fan-proc-file' to something else. Most of people do not need this,
it will be automatically controlled. But I need it sometimes to cool
down my fan and my palms.

(defun sudo (arguments)
  "Executes list ARGUMENTS with system command `sudo'."
  (let* ((command (format "sudo su -c -- root -c \"%s\"" (string-join (list arguments))))
	 (return (shell-command-to-string command)))
    return))

(defvar my-fan-proc-file "/proc/acpi/ibm/fan")

(defun fan-speed (arg)
  "Controls fan speed provided user has superuser rights and system
command `sudo' works without password. Function will mostly work
on Lenovo Thinkpad notebooks. Prefix argument ARG shall be
numbers from 1 to 9. Numbers from 1 to 7 determine the fan speed
level, number 8 represents auto fan speed level and number 9
represents full fan speed. Activate with `C-u NUMBER M-x
fan-speed'. If invoked without arguments it will show the
contents of the fan control file."
  (interactive "P")
  (when (and (file-exists-p my-fan-proc-file)
	     (rcd-which "sudo"))
    (if arg
	(cond ((= arg 7) (sudo (format "echo level %s >> %s" arg my-fan-proc-file)))
	      ((= arg 8) (sudo (format "echo level auto >> %s" my-fan-proc-file)))
	      ((= arg 9) (sudo (format "echo level full-speed >> %s" my-fan-proc-file)))
	      ((and (< arg 7) (> arg 0)) (if (y-or-n-p (format "Really set fan speed to %s?" arg))
					     (sudo (format "echo level %s >> %s" 7 my-fan-proc-file))))
	      (t (message "Supply better numeric argument to this function from 1 to 9.")))
      (message (file-to-string my-fan-proc-file)))))

Thanks,
Jean Louis

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