Controlling fan speed on the PR2100 with Ubuntu Server

in western-digital, pr2100, nas, digital-freedom, right-to-repair, linux, ubuntu, power-management

Do this only if you know what you're doing, I'm not responsible for any damage to your device.

Even though this file suggests that it is possible to control the fan speed via config, the fan_speed_*-values will be absent from the file on your device and the actual scripts apparently never read the values from the file.

To set a lower idle fan speed, do the following:

ssh into your PR2100
run sudo nano /usr/local/lib/wdhwd/wdhwlib/fancontroller.py
hit ctrl+w, enter FAN_DEFAULT = 30, hit enter
change the value to something lower, e.g. FAN_DEFAULT = 20 but don't go lower than FAN_MIN
hit ctrl+o enter ctrl+x to save your file and exit the editor
run sudo systemctl restart wdhwd.service to restart the service and avoid having to reboot

I've set mine to 15% and it's working fine.

By looking at fancontroller.py I found out that the script assumes the normal temperature of the unit to be below 69°C. When I forced the temps to go over the 69°C the fan quickly spins up and cools (or attempts to cool) the unit down to 69°C again.

It's not quite a fan curve tool but you can basically can create by custom curves by modifying the script to your liking.

Be aware that the unit will turn off when the you set the fan speed to 0

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