Fan Speed Control on Manjaro Linux With nbfc

I have an Acer Nitro 5 notebook with two fans that I can’t control directly.

But sometimes I want to manually control the fan speed: set them up to 100% for a short time, or slow them down to avoid noise.

On Arch Linux (or Manjaro Linux) there are some tools that can help with that. (For more information, refer to the Arch Linux wiki.)

One of options for fan speed control is nbfc, a cross-platform service for notebooks.

I had some problems with getting the tool to work on Manjaro. This post shows my step-by-step process.

Install nbfc

Use the Arch Linux User repository to install nbfc or nbfc-git.

yay -S nbfc

(yay is an AUR helper written in Go.)

Delete conflicting files:

sudo mv /opt/nbfc/Plugins/StagWare.Plugins.ECSysLinux.dll /opt/nbfc/Plugins/StagWare.Plugins.ECSysLinux.dll.old

If you don’t delete this file, you’ll probably get the error File Descriptor does not support writing.

Now start the tool with systemd:

sudo systemctl enable nbfc --now

Find the recommended configuration:

nbfc config -r

For the Acer Nitro 5, there is no exact match. Use this one, as it’s similar to the Nitro 5:

nbfc config --apply "Acer Predator G3-572"

I have two functions for the Fish shell to control my fans.

function fanauto
    nbfc set -f 0 -a
    nbfc set -f 1 -a
end

The function sets the first fan (0) and second fan (1) to automatic mode (-a).

If you want to power up the fans to full speed, you can use the function fanfull:

function fanfull
    nbfc set -f 0 -s 100
    nbfc set -f 1 -s 100
end

Here we set the speed to 100% (-s 100).

Don’t forget to run funcsave fanauto and funcsave fanfull!

This article detailed how to install and configure fan speed control for Manjaro Linux for an Acer Nitro 5 notebook.

You can simply follow the Arch Linux Wiki. The wiki entry details common pitfalls and alternatives to nbfc.

My post also showed two examples of creating fish functions for convenience.