On Wed, Aug 06, 2003 at 09:56:36AM +0100, Keith Watson wrote:
From: Adam on Wednesday, August 06, 2003 9:30 AM
The main thing to remember if you do buy a Thinkpad is not to install lm-sensors or run sensors-detect until you are certain it will not kill the laptop instantly.
presumably lm-sensors/sensors-detect are some sort of software package? What are they designed to do and why/how do they kill a Thinkpad?
lm-sensors is a package that contains kernel modules and some utilities for monitoring fan speed/status and temperature using the sensors on your motherboard. Almost essential in this weather if you own an Athlon machine.
It kills a thinkpad by probing an area that is on the i2c bus but somehow confuses the sensor (apparently in violation of the specs) which will break the laptop. I was just reading that lm-sensors isn't useful on thinkpads anyway because it won't work due to IBM breaking things in a "special" way.
more at http://www.linux-thinkpad.org/ and http://secure.netroedge.com/~lm78/ oh and before thinkpad owners flame me with the exact details I know I havn't explained the full situation but then I don't own a thinkpad and I hope people would rather be safe than sorry.
Adam