thermald is a Linux daemon designed to prevent systems from overheating. It continuously monitors thermal sensors and applies appropriate cooling actions to maintain acceptable operating temperatures while preserving as much performance as possible.
Modern processors and other system components generate heat during operation. Excessive temperatures can trigger aggressive hardware throttling, reducing performance and potentially affecting system stability. thermald attempts to prevent these situations by responding to rising temperatures before more restrictive hardware protection mechanisms become necessary.
The daemon uses the Linux thermal subsystem to discover available temperature sensors and cooling devices. Depending on the hardware, it can adjust processor power limits and other supported thermal controls.
On compatible Intel systems, thermald can use firmware-provided thermal information, including ACPI thermal relationship tables, to identify appropriate cooling policies. It also supports custom XML configuration files for defining thermal zones, temperature trip points and cooling behaviour.
Recent development has expanded hardware support, including an ARM backend. However, thermald remains primarily focused on Intel platforms, and its capabilities depend heavily on the available kernel drivers and firmware interfaces.
The application runs as a background service and can operate automatically after configuration, making it useful for administrators seeking more effective thermal control.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Continuously monitor supported system temperature sensors.
- Automatically apply cooling actions when temperatures rise.
- Discover thermal zones and cooling devices through Linux kernel interfaces.
- Adjust supported processor and platform power limits.
- Use firmware thermal information on compatible hardware.
- Adaptive thermal management on supported Intel platforms.
- Custom XML configuration of thermal zones, trip points and cooling policies.
- Integration with Intel RAPL and supported Linux thermal drivers.
- D-Bus interface for supported management operations.
- Diagnostic facilities for investigating thermal behaviour.
- Background operation through systemd.
- ARM backend support on compatible platforms.
Website: github.com/intel/thermal_daemon
Support:
Developer: Intel and contributors
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
thermald is written in C++ and C. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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