lm-sensors can't get CPU/motherboard temperature/fan speed

Question

I've installed lm-sensors and ran sensors-detect successfully. It edited my /etc/modules so the needed modules (lm85, i2c-i801 and coretemp) would get loaded during startup.
I added also those nice applets to my upper Gnome panel.

But it couldn't get any info. Typing sensors at terminal simply gives me zeroed values, except for cpu0_vid (always +2.050V), and coretemp-isa-0000 and 0001 (always 42°C).

Those applets keep saying "Error updating sensor XXX", like "An error occurred while trying to update the value of the sensor CPU Fan located at sensor://lm85-i2c-3-2e/20", and sensor 'CPU' at sensor://lm82-i2c-3-2e/32.

What's happening? All modules are correctly loaded, I presume. And those sensors reported by the applets I choosed (and renamed, 'cos "CPU Fan" is better than "cpu_fan") by it's Preferences dialog.

[EDIT]

sensors output

lm85-i2c-0-2e
Adapter: SMBus I801 adapter at e000
V1.5: +0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +3.32 V)
VCore: +0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +2.99 V)
V3.3: +0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +4.38 V)
V5: +0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +6.64 V)
V12: +0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +15.94 V)
CPU_Fan: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM) ALARM
fan2: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM) ALARM
fan3: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM) ALARM
fan4: 0 RPM (min = 0 RPM) ALARM
CPU Temp: +0.0°C (low = -127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)
Board Temp: +0.0°C (low = -127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)
Remote Temp: +0.0°C (low = -127.0°C, high = +127.0°C)
cpu0_vid: +2.050 V

coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0: +42.0°C (high = +78.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

coretemp-isa-0001
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 1: +42.0°C (high = +78.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)

Answer 1

Right-click the sensor-applet and look at the Sensors tab. Not everything reported by the applet is provided by lm_sensors, so first ensure the problem is with a sensors output. In your case, I think it is.

If this is true, run the sensors command in the terminal to check if this works fine. If it successfully gives you sensor readings, I'd just reinstall sensors-applet.

sudo apt-get --purge remove sensors-applet
sudo apt-get install sensors-applet

If there's a problem getting the sensor values for the CPU fan and CPU, then you should check support for your particular device at the lm-sensors devices support page.

Note, lm-sensors project also provides a standalone script version of sensors-detect that is likely to be newer than the packaged version, and might better detect sensors on your machine. It only needs perl to work.

In case you're thinking of re-running sensors-detect, I'd first remove the /etc/modules entries added by the previous run. It should be present in a block with a comment at top that says the entry was added by sensors-detect:

# Generated by sensors-detect on xxxx

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Update:
It appears that you might not actually have an lm85 chip.

From reading reports of other users who reported similar errors, it appears that your chip is either being wrongly detected or is disabled. Look through this very similar bug report on the lm-sensors site. In fact, from your comment ("lm82 0-002e: Starting monitoring") it appears your system detected the lm82 chip at boot. This chip should use the lm83 driver module according to lm-sensors, not lm85.

At this point, I'm not sure if you can get any more meaningful help outside of the lm-sensors team. I'd suggest you check your system's hardware specs to determine the chip that's actually present, and separately open a ticket on the lm-sensors site detailing your problems. They are the experts, and they appear to be incredibly helpful.

Search for lm85-i2c-0-2e and you'll realise that you're not alone in facing this issue.

Answer 2

I stand corrected! The sensors-detect is a cleaner and more appropriate answer.
(+2 there).

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