Kernel 5.15.5 broke fan control of Dell precision 7560

[drNoob13]

Hello PopOS developers,

Please let me bend your ears with an issue regarding the recent kernel 5.15.5 upgrade.

I have been using Pop!OS 20.04LTS peacefully. Everything had run perfectly until Pop Shop upgraded my system to kernel 5.15.5 a few hours ago. Since then, my laptop fans have been running non-stop even at no load, which had not occurred before. My laptop has been running pretty quietly with the previous kernel 5.13. I'm sensitive to fan noise, so the 5.15.5 kernel is disrupting my work a little bit.

My laptop: Dell Precision 7560, Intel i7-11800H (8 cores), nVidia RTX A4000, 32GB RAM.

I wanted to roll back to kernel 5.13. Unfortunately, I have accidentally hit the apt autoremove which removed the 5.13 and left me with no option for going back to where my system performed as I loved to.

Could you please let me know if there is any plan in place to address this issue?

Furthermore, is it possible to have an option to disable kernel upgrade in Pop Shop?

Thanks for the great OS. I hope my issue gets your attention.

$ uname -a
Linux precision 5.15.5-76051505-generic #202111250933~1638201579~20.04~09f1aa7-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 30 02: x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Distribution (run cat /etc/os-release):

$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Pop!_OS"
VERSION="20.04 LTS"
ID=pop
ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"
PRETTY_NAME="Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"
HOME_URL="https://pop.system76.com"
SUPPORT_URL="https://support.system76.com"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://system76.com/privacy"
VERSION_CODENAME=focal
UBUNTU_CODENAME=focal
LOGO=distributor-logo-pop-os

[youdontneedtoknow22]

afaik pop keeps a backup kernel even with autoremove.
Check this: https://support.system76.com/articles/pop-recovery/ and choose old kernel (not recovery)

[drNoob13]

Thanks for the reply. I have rolled back to kernel 5.13.0 by setting it as default in the Systemd boot menu. That solved the issue. However, the bigger problem is that Pop Shop upgraded the kernel as if it is a regular update. For users like me that use PopOS as their daily driver in a professional setting, such kinds of upgrades might break the users' workflow and leave them baffled for a good few hours or days, which is potentially dangerous esp when the users are preparing for their product release.

On a related note, I have been trying to advertise the use of Pop!OS in my company. I feel that the unsolicited upgrades would take many aback and thwart the adoption of Pop!OS in a serious/professional setting.

[youdontneedtoknow22]

I totally understand that. And by seeing all the bugs opened because of the new kernel, I understand why some people say that Pop_OS is for S76 hardware, not for all hardware.

[drNoob13]

One of the reasons I picked my Dell precision laptop was because of the great Linux support Dell has extended for the precision product line. Actually, I was indecisive between the Dell precision workstation and the Oryx Pro 8 as a replacement for my aging Oryx Pro 4. It was a shame that covid-19 and the chip shortage push back System76's laptop production for too long that I could not be able to wait and had to pull the trigger for the Dell.

Back to the issue, I think it would be great if System76 could hold off on upgrading new kernel on the Pop!OS LTS releases a little bit longer. On the experimenting/dot releases such as 20.10, 21.04 or 21.10 it makes sense to apply the latest major upgrades and test the water before adopting them to the next releases. But for those who use Pop!OS in a professional setting, we prefer stability to cutting-edge. It's the reason why we choose LTS instead of dot release in the first place anyway.