ThinkUtils
A powerful, native desktop application that unlocks the full potential of your ThinkPad on Linux. Built with Tauri for blazing-fast performance, ThinkUtils gives you complete control over fan speeds, battery health, CPU performance, and system monitoring—all through a sleek, modern interface inspired by ThinkPad’s iconic design.
Screenshots
Home Dashboard
Fan Control
System Monitor
Battery
Security
AI Integration
Settings Sync
Installation
Ubuntu/Debian (APT)
echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://gh.vietanh.dev/ThinkUtils/apt ./" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/thinkutils.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt install thinkutils
Manual Download
Download the latest .deb, .rpm, or .AppImage from GitHub Releases.
# Debian/Ubuntu
sudo dpkg -i thinkutils_*.deb
# Fedora/RHEL
sudo rpm -i thinkutils-*.rpm
Features
🏠 Home Dashboard
Your command center for quick system adjustments. The home dashboard provides real-time monitoring and quick access to essential controls.
- System Overview: Real-time monitoring of CPU usage and temperature, memory usage, fan speed and mode, battery level and status
- Power Profile Control: Instantly switch between Power Saver, Balanced, and Performance modes to match your workflow
- CPU Governor: Quick access to change CPU frequency scaling policy (Powersave, Balanced, Performance)
- Turbo Boost Toggle: Enable or disable CPU turbo frequencies with a single click
- Battery Threshold Display: View current charge limit settings (e.g., 40%-80%) configured for battery longevity
🌀 Fan Control
Take control of your ThinkPad’s legendary cooling system. Whether you need whisper-quiet operation in a library or maximum cooling for intensive workloads, ThinkUtils gives you precise control.
- Real-time Monitoring: Watch CPU/GPU temperatures and fan RPM update live—know exactly what’s happening inside your machine
- Multiple Control Modes:
- Auto Mode: Let the system intelligently manage cooling based on temperature (recommended for most users)
- Manual Mode: Set precise fan speed levels from 0 (silent) to 7 (maximum)—perfect for finding the sweet spot between noise and cooling
- Maximum Mode: Run fans at full blast for intensive tasks like video rendering or gaming
- Fan Curve Editor: Draw custom temperature-to-speed curves for fully automated, fine-grained control
- Temperature Sensors: Monitor every thermal sensor in your system—CPU cores, GPU, battery, and more
- Permission Management: Secure, one-time elevated access using pkexec—no need to run the entire app as root
🔋 Battery Management
Extend your battery’s lifespan by years with intelligent charge management. ThinkUtils helps you implement the 40-80 rule that professionals use to maximize battery longevity.
- Multi-Battery Support: Monitor all installed batteries—perfect for ThinkPads with dual battery setups
- Charge Thresholds: Set custom start/stop charging limits (e.g., start at 40%, stop at 80%) to dramatically reduce battery wear and extend its useful life
- Battery Health: Track capacity degradation, health percentage, and total charge cycles—know when it’s time for a replacement
- Real-time Stats: Monitor current charge level, voltage, power draw, and estimated time remaining
Squeeze every drop of performance from your CPU or maximize battery life—your choice. Fine-tune how your ThinkPad manages processor power and frequency scaling.
- CPU Governor Control: Choose your scaling policy—performance for maximum speed, powersave for battery life, schedutil for intelligent scheduling, or ondemand for dynamic adjustment
- Power Profiles: System-wide power management profiles that coordinate CPU, GPU, and other components for optimal performance or efficiency
- Turbo Boost: Toggle Intel Turbo Boost on/off—disable it to reduce heat and power consumption, or enable it for burst performance
- Frequency Monitoring: Watch your CPU frequency scale in real-time and see min/max ranges for each core
📊 System Monitor
A comprehensive system dashboard that shows you everything happening on your ThinkPad. No need for multiple terminal windows—get all your metrics in one beautiful interface.
- CPU Usage: Per-core utilization with frequency display and 1/5/15 minute load averages—spot bottlenecks instantly
- Memory Stats: RAM and swap usage with detailed breakdowns of used, available, and total memory
- Disk Usage: Monitor space usage across all mounted filesystems with device names and mount points
- Network Activity: Total bytes and packets transmitted/received for each network interface
- Process Monitor: View top processes by CPU and memory consumption with PID, name, and status
Know your machine inside and out. Quick access to all your ThinkPad’s hardware specifications and system details.
- Hardware Details: Complete specs including ThinkPad model, CPU type, total memory, and operating system
- Kernel Version: Current Linux kernel version—useful for troubleshooting compatibility
- Hostname: System identification for network management
🛡️ Security
Built-in security scanning powered by ClamAV.
- Virus Scanning: Scan files and directories for threats
- Real-time Results: View scan progress and detected threats
🤖 AI Integration (MCP Server)
Built-in MCP (Model Context Protocol) server that exposes system controls to AI assistants like Claude.
- AI-Powered Control: Let AI assistants monitor and adjust your ThinkPad settings
- MCP Protocol: Standard protocol supported by Claude Code, Claude Desktop, and other AI tools
🔄 Google Drive Sync
Never lose your carefully tuned settings. Sync your ThinkUtils configuration to the cloud and restore it on any ThinkPad.
- Settings Backup: Sync your fan mode, battery thresholds, and application preferences to Google Drive
- Cross-Device: Switch between multiple ThinkPads? Keep your settings consistent across all your machines
- OAuth Integration: Secure authentication using Google’s OAuth—your credentials never touch ThinkUtils servers
- Note: Requires Google OAuth credentials to be configured (see docs/development/google-oauth.md)
How it Works
ThinkUtils combines the performance of Rust with the flexibility of web technologies to deliver a native desktop experience:
- Rust backend provides blazing-fast system access and direct hardware control with minimal overhead
- sensors command (lm-sensors) reads temperature data from all available thermal sensors
- /proc/acpi/ibm/fan interface gives direct access to ThinkPad’s fan controller via the thinkpad_acpi kernel module
- pkexec handles elevated permissions securely—only specific operations require root access, not the entire application
Prerequisites
Debian / Ubuntu
sudo apt install lm-sensors policykit-1
Fedora / RHEL
sudo dnf install lm_sensors polkit
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S lm_sensors polkit
Setup ThinkPad Fan Control
Before using ThinkUtils, you need to enable fan control:
- Create or edit the thinkpad_acpi configuration:
sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf
- Add this line:
options thinkpad_acpi fan_control=1
- Reboot your system or reload the module:
sudo modprobe -r thinkpad_acpi
sudo modprobe thinkpad_acpi
Development
Prerequisites
- Rust (1.70 or later)
- Node.js and npm
- Development dependencies for your distribution
Debian/Ubuntu:
sudo apt install build-essential \
cargo \
curl \
file \
git \
libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
librsvg2-dev \
libssl-dev \
libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
npm \
wget
Fedora:
sudo dnf install cargo \
curl \
file \
git \
libappindicator-gtk3-devel \
librsvg2-devel \
npm \
openssl-devel \
webkit2gtk4.1-devel \
wget
Getting Started
- Clone and install dependencies:
git clone https://github.com/vietanhdev/ThinkUtils.git
cd ThinkUtils
npm install
- Run in development mode:
npm run tauri dev
- Build for production:
npm run tauri build
The built packages will be in src-tauri/target/release/bundle/
Code Quality & Linting
ThinkUtils uses comprehensive linting and formatting tools:
- ESLint — JavaScript linting
- HTMLHint — HTML validation
- Stylelint — CSS linting
- Prettier — Code formatting
- Husky + lint-staged — Pre-commit hooks on staged files
npm run lint # Run all linters
npm run lint:fix # Auto-fix issues
npm run format # Format all files
npm run validate # Full validation (lint + format check)
Pre-commit hooks run automatically on git commit. If linting fails, fix with npm run lint:fix, re-stage, and commit again.
Project Structure
ThinkUtils/
├── src/ # Frontend (vanilla JS, no framework)
│ ├── index.html # Main UI
│ ├── styles.css # CSS entry point (imports modules)
│ ├── styles/ # Modular CSS (see docs/development/css.md)
│ ├── icons/ # SVG icons
│ ├── assets/ # Logo and static assets
│ └── js/ # JavaScript modules
│ ├── app.js # Initialization entry point
│ ├── state.js # Centralized state object
│ ├── dom.js # Cached DOM references
│ ├── navigation.js # View routing
│ ├── settingsManager.js # Settings load/save/apply
│ ├── fanCurve.js # Canvas-based curve editor
│ ├── titlebar.js # Custom window titlebar
│ ├── about.js # About dialog
│ ├── templateLoader.js # HTML template loading
│ ├── utils.js # Shared utilities
│ └── views/ # One JS file per feature
│ ├── home.js
│ ├── fan.js
│ ├── battery.js
│ ├── performance.js
│ ├── monitor.js
│ ├── system.js
│ ├── security.js
│ ├── sync.js
│ └── mcp.js
├── src-tauri/ # Backend (Rust)
│ ├── src/
│ │ ├── lib.rs # Tauri command registration
│ │ ├── fan_control.rs # Manual fan speed control
│ │ ├── fan_curve.rs # Auto fan curve (background task)
│ │ ├── battery.rs # Battery info and thresholds
│ │ ├── performance.rs # CPU governor, turbo, power profiles
│ │ ├── monitor.rs # System stats (CPU, memory, disk, net)
│ │ ├── permissions.rs # One-time permission setup
│ │ ├── security.rs # ClamAV integration
│ │ ├── sync.rs # Google OAuth + Drive sync
│ │ ├── settings.rs # Persistent storage
│ │ ├── system_info.rs # Hardware info
│ │ ├── auth.rs # OAuth helpers
│ │ └── mcp.rs # MCP server
│ ├── tauri.conf.json # Tauri configuration
│ └── icons/ # Generated app icons
├── docs/ # Documentation
├── scripts/ # Build and install scripts
├── polkit/ # Polkit policy files
└── screenshots/ # App screenshots
Documentation
Full documentation at thinkutils.nrl.ai, or browse the docs/ directory:
Usage
Running the Application
Launch ThinkUtils from your application menu or run:
thinkutils
Navigation
Use the left sidebar to navigate between features:
- Home — Quick settings and system overview
- Fan Control — Manage cooling and temperatures
- Battery — Battery health and charge thresholds
- Performance — CPU governor and power profiles
- Monitor — Real-time system resource monitoring
- System Info — Hardware and OS details
- Security — Virus scanning
- MCP — AI integration settings
- Sync — Google Drive settings backup
Compatibility
ThinkUtils is designed for IBM/Lenovo ThinkPad laptops running Linux.
Tested on:
- ThinkPad T480, T490, T14
- ThinkPad X1 Carbon (various generations)
- ThinkPad P-series workstations
Requirements:
- Linux kernel with thinkpad_acpi module
- /proc/acpi/ibm/fan interface available
Troubleshooting
Fan control not working
- Verify thinkpad_acpi is loaded:
lsmod | grep thinkpad_acpi
- Check if fan control is enabled:
cat /etc/modprobe.d/thinkpad_acpi.conf
- Verify the file exists:
ls -l /proc/acpi/ibm/fan
Permission errors
Click “Setup Permissions” in the app, or see Permissions.
No temperature data
Ensure lm-sensors is installed and configured:
sudo sensors-detect
sensors
Contributing
Contributions are welcome! Areas for improvement:
- Support for more ThinkPad models
- UI/UX enhancements
- Bug fixes and optimizations
License
ThinkUtils is dual-licensed:
- LGPL v3 — For open source projects
- Commercial License — For commercial/proprietary projects
For commercial licensing inquiries, please contact: https://www.vietanh.dev/contact
Credits
- Built with Tauri
- Icons from Lucide
Disclaimer
ThinkUtils modifies system fan controls. While generally safe, use at your own risk. The authors are not responsible for any hardware damage that may occur from improper use.
Always monitor temperatures when using manual fan control.
Made with ❤️ for ThinkPad enthusiasts
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