So, my CPU fan died on me today. Luckily I knew something was up as my computer sounded a little like a horny rhino and I’d been wondering why for quite awhile. So, I shut things down, consulted my knowledgeable buddy Brian about what could be the cause, and then went out and got a new one.

After I put the new fan in, I decided that it was about time I got a CPU temperature monitor applet set up in Gnome. I’ve always been concerned with the temperature inside my case, but I’ve never really gotten to the point where I’ve actually looked into it. I knew the sensors were there, because the BIOS has a hardware monitor page which displays all kinds of stuff. (And that is also where I noted that the CPU was reaching to and beyond 100 °F, which I considered a little high — and Bri agreed. And if Bri agrees, Truth hath been revealed.)

So I poked about a bit, and found lm-sensors. It was scary at first, and I thought I had to grok config files, but then I discovered the sensors-detect tool, which is kind of like a command-line guide that probes for various sensors and modifies the configuration file for you.

Joy and such. So I rebooted (due to modules being inserted and all that jazz) and then it all worked perfectly. The sensors-applet from apt showed my CPU temperature perfectly. It’s currently sitting at 29 °C which is miles better than the nearly 50 °C it was at before.