NVFD — NVIDIA Fan Daemon

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NVFD is an open-source NVIDIA GPU fan control daemon for Linux. It uses the NVML API directly, so it works on X11, Wayland, and headless systems — no nvidia-settings required.

Features

• Interactive TUI dashboard — run nvfd to launch a real-time GPU monitoring and control interface
• Interactive curve editor — visual ncurses fan curve editor with mouse support
• Custom fan curves with linear interpolation and real-time temperature tracking
• Fixed fan speed mode
• True auto mode (returns control to NVIDIA driver)
• Multi-GPU support with per-GPU or all-GPU control, adaptive full/tabbed display
• Per-GPU mode switching via CLI (nvfd 0 auto, nvfd 1 curve, etc.)
• Real-time temperature, utilization, memory, and power monitoring
• Systemd service with automatic fan reset on shutdown
• Config hot-reload via SIGHUP
• Auto-elevates to root (no need to type sudo)

TUI Dashboard

 NVFD v1.1 ─ GPU Fan Control                                    [q] Quit
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 GPU 0: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
   Temp      45°C   [##############·················]
   GPU Use   78%    [########################·······]
   Memory    12.3 / 24.0 GB
   Power     285 / 450 W

   Fan 0     52%    [################···············]
   Fan 1     53%    [################···············]

   Mode:   Auto   Manual   Curve
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 [Tab] GPU  [m] Mode  [M] All  [↑↓] Speed ±5  [e] Edit Curve  [q] Quit

Multi-GPU: When the terminal is large enough, all GPUs are shown at once. On smaller terminals, a tab bar lets you switch between GPUs.

Disclaimer

Use of NVFD is at your own risk. Improper fan speed settings may damage your GPU or other hardware. Infinirc is not responsible for any damage resulting from use of this software.

Recommendations:

1. Avoid setting fan speeds too low or too high.
2. Monitor GPU temperatures regularly.
3. If anything seems wrong, run nvfd auto to return to driver control.

System Requirements

• NVIDIA GPU with official NVIDIA drivers (not nouveau)
• Linux operating system
• libjansson-dev — JSON library
• libncursesw5-dev — ncurses wide-character support
• NVML headers (included with CUDA toolkit or nvidia-cuda-toolkit package)

Installation

From source (recommended)

git clone https://github.com/Infinirc/nvfd.git
cd nvfd
sudo scripts/install.sh

The install script will:

• Detect your OS and install build dependencies
• Build the binary
• Install to /usr/local/bin/nvfd
• Set up the systemd service
• Migrate any existing config from v1.x

Optional: Install with utility scripts:

sudo scripts/install.sh --with-utils

See Advanced Usage for details on utility scripts.

Manual build

make
sudo make install
sudo systemctl enable --now nvfd.service

Optional: Install utilities

sudo make install-utils
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable --now nvfd-fan-control.service

Uninstallation

Using uninstall script

Without utilities (default):

sudo scripts/uninstall.sh

With utilities:

sudo scripts/uninstall.sh --with-utils

Manual uninstallation

Without utilities:

sudo systemctl stop nvfd.service
sudo systemctl disable nvfd.service
sudo make uninstall

With utilities:

sudo systemctl stop nvfd.service
sudo systemctl disable nvfd.service
sudo systemctl stop nvfd-fan-control.service
sudo systemctl disable nvfd-fan-control.service
sudo make uninstall
sudo make uninstall-utils

Utilities only (keep nvfd):

sudo systemctl stop nvfd-fan-control.service
sudo systemctl disable nvfd-fan-control.service
sudo make uninstall-utils

Config files in /etc/nvfd/ are preserved. Remove manually if desired.

Usage

nvfd                           Interactive TUI dashboard (on TTY)
nvfd auto                      Return fan control to NVIDIA driver
nvfd curve                     Enable custom fan curve for all GPUs
nvfd curve <temp> <speed>      Edit fan curve point (e.g., nvfd curve 60 70)
nvfd curve show                Show current fan curve
nvfd curve edit                Interactive curve editor (ncurses)
nvfd curve reset               Reset fan curve to default
nvfd <speed>                   Set fixed fan speed for all GPUs (30-100)
nvfd <gpu_index> <speed>       Set fixed fan speed for specific GPU
nvfd <gpu_index> auto          Set specific GPU to auto mode
nvfd <gpu_index> curve         Set specific GPU to curve mode
nvfd <gpu_index> manual <sp>   Set specific GPU to fixed speed
nvfd list                      List all GPUs and their indices
nvfd status                    Show current status
nvfd -h                        Show help

When run with no arguments on a TTY, nvfd launches the interactive TUI dashboard. When started by systemd (non-TTY), it enters daemon mode automatically.

TUI Dashboard Keys

Key	Action
Tab / Shift-Tab	Switch GPU (multi-GPU)
a	Toggle sync control: single GPU ↔ all GPUs
m	Cycle mode: Auto → Manual → Curve → Auto (respects sync)
M	Cycle ALL GPUs mode (always, regardless of sync)
↑ / ↓	Adjust speed ±5% (manual mode)
PgUp / PgDn	Adjust speed ±10% (manual mode)
e	Open curve editor (curve mode)
q	Quit (prompts to save if settings were changed)

Curve Editor Keys

Key	Action
← / →	Adjust temperature ±5°C
↑ / ↓	Adjust fan speed ±5%
t	Set temperature by typing a number
f	Set fan speed by typing a number
a	Add a new point
d	Delete selected point
Tab	Select next point
s	Save and quit
r	Reset to default curve
q	Quit (prompts to save if modified)

Modes

Mode	Description
auto	Returns fan control to the NVIDIA driver. Fans are fully driver-managed.
curve	Controls fans using a custom temperature-to-speed curve.
manual	Fans are locked to a fixed percentage (set via nvfd <speed>).

Examples

# Launch interactive TUI dashboard
nvfd

# Set all fans to 80%
nvfd 80

# Set GPU 0 to 60%
nvfd 0 60

# Return all fans to driver control
nvfd auto

# Per-GPU mode control
nvfd 0 auto          # Set GPU 0 to auto mode
nvfd 1 curve         # Set GPU 1 to curve mode
nvfd 0 manual 70     # Set GPU 0 to manual mode at 70%

# Use custom fan curve
nvfd curve
nvfd curve show
nvfd curve 50 60    # At 50°C, run fans at 60%
nvfd curve edit     # Interactive curve editor
nvfd curve reset    # Restore default curve

# Check status
nvfd status
nvfd list

Configuration

Config files are stored in /etc/nvfd/:

File	Purpose
config.json	Per-GPU mode settings (auto / manual / curve)
curve.json	Fan curve points (temperature → speed %)

Fan Curve Format

{
    "30": 30,
    "40": 40,
    "50": 55,
    "60": 65,
    "70": 85,
    "80": 100
}

Systemd Service

sudo systemctl start nvfd      # Start the fan control daemon
sudo systemctl stop nvfd       # Stop (fans reset to auto)
sudo systemctl restart nvfd    # Restart
sudo systemctl reload nvfd     # Reload config (SIGHUP)
sudo systemctl status nvfd     # Check status

The daemon resets all fans to driver-controlled auto mode on shutdown.

Advanced Usage

Temperature-Aware Fan Control

The nvfd-fan-control.sh utility provides automatic per-GPU fan mode switching based on temperature thresholds with hysteresis:

# Run with default thresholds (up: 45°C, down: 35°C)
sudo nvfd-fan-control.sh

# Custom thresholds with hysteresis
sudo nvfd-fan-control.sh --threshold-up 50 --threshold-down 40

# Verbose logging
sudo nvfd-fan-control.sh -v

Hysteresis explained:

• --threshold-up 45: Switch to curve mode when temperature rises above 45°C
• --threshold-down 35: Switch to auto mode when temperature falls below 35°C
• Between 35-45°C: Keep current mode (prevents thrashing)

The script monitors GPU temperatures and automatically switches each GPU between:

• Auto mode (quiet) when temperature falls below threshold-down
• Curve mode (cooled) when temperature rises above threshold-up

Monitoring Mode Switches

You can monitor mode switches in real-time using the nvfd dashboard:

nvfd

The dashboard shows the current mode (Auto/Manual/Curve) for each GPU. When nvfd-fan-control.sh switches a GPU mode, the dashboard updates within 5 seconds.

Important notes:

• Polling interval: The script checks GPU temperatures every 10 seconds
• Mode change latency: A mode switch may take up to 10 seconds after temperature crosses the threshold
• Dashboard update: The nvfd daemon reads config every 5 seconds
• Total latency: 5-15 seconds from temperature crossing threshold to dashboard showing new mode

Systemd Service

When installed with --with-utils, the service unit is installed but not enabled by default. To enable:

sudo systemctl enable --now nvfd-fan-control.service

The service depends on nvfd.service and automatically detects config changes within 5 seconds.

Customizing thresholds: Edit /etc/systemd/system/nvfd-fan-control.service and modify the ExecStart line:

ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/nvfd-fan-control.sh --threshold-up 50 --threshold-down 40

Then reload and restart: sudo systemctl daemon-reload && sudo systemctl restart nvfd-fan-control.service

Dependencies

The utility script requires:

• nvidia-smi (included with NVIDIA drivers)
• nvfd binary (installed via this package)

No CUDA toolkit required for runtime.

Migration from v1.x

NVFD automatically migrates old configuration:

Old	New
/usr/local/bin/infinirc_gpu_fan_control	/usr/local/bin/nvfd
/etc/infinirc_gpu_fan_control.conf	/etc/nvfd/config.json
/etc/infinirc_gpu_fan_curve.json	/etc/nvfd/curve.json
infinirc-gpu-fan-control.service	nvfd.service

Support

If you encounter any problems, please open an issue.

License

MIT License — see LICENSE for details.