Linux 5.8 Will Finally Be Able To Control ThinkPad Laptops With Dual Fans

Long overdue but for Lenovo ThinkPad laptops sporting two fans, the Linux 5.8 kernel will see the ability to control both fans.

On the likes of the Lenovo ThinkPad P50, P51, P52, P70, P71, P72, P1 Gen1, P2 Gen2, X1 Extreme Gen1, and X1 Extreme Gen2 there are two fans that the Linux kernel's ThinkPad_ACPI driver will now be able to control.

However, with this driver improvement, while both fans can now be controlled they are being controlled in tandem. At this point it's not possible to independently manipulate the fan speeds but rather both are changed to the same threshold, which is at least better than having the secondary fan always spinning at its maximum speed.

This stems from requests for years about being able to handle multiple fan controls on ThinkPad laptops under Linux.

The support is now queued for the Linux 5.8 cycle as part of the x86 platform driver changes this summer.