Making a Dell computer running Linux silent (Dell Precision noise problem)

Faced with a noisy Dell Precision 490 computer running Ubuntu Karmic, I found an easy way to reduce the noise level to an acceptable threshold. (fancontrol did not help since it seems not to be compatible with the chipset used by Dell at least on this computer.)

Step 1, install i8kutils:

sudo apt-get install i8kutils

Step 2, add i8k to /etc/modules:

sudo sh -c 'echo i8k >> /etc/modules'

Step 3, edit /etc/default/i8kmon so that it looks like this:

# /etc/default/i8kmon



# Change to one enable i8kmon

ENABLED=1

I8KMON_ARGS="--daemon --nouserconfig --auto"

Step 4, reboot and enjoy!