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 Incorrect temperature data

Nikita Ignatev's profile image
Nikita Ignatev posted Oct 08, 2025 11:06 AM

I have VMware Fusion 13.6.4. I installed ubuntu 24.04. When I start VM and login with help ssh - I get MOTD. And I can see incorrect data

Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.8.0-85-generic aarch64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/pro

 System information as of Wed Oct  8 04:59:01 PM CEST 2025

  System load:             0.09
  Usage of /:              41.7% of 55.75GB
  Memory usage:            89%
  Swap usage:              38%
  Temperature:             11758.9 C
  Processes:               251

How I can check work of temperature data for my VM? Maybe is it bug considering with Ubuntu?

Technogeezer's profile image
External Moderator Technogeezer

My initial thoughts: It's possible that since the virtual machine is running on a virtualized CPU, Apple's Hypervisor Framework might not be able to provide access to the low level hardware information needed to get the temperature information. It may not be relevant either, since a virtualized cpu runs on a user-mode thread, and macOS controls both the frequency of the core being used and the type of core. The guest has no control over either of those, and therefore has no way to modify its behavior to reduce its CPU thermal impact.

Some additional research says that thermal monitoring works very differently between Apple Silicon and Intel chips. SInce the guest isn't controlling temperature (or CPU frequency) for a virtual CPU, a better idea may be to monitor temperature from the host side. A utility that seems to be recommended by many in the research I've done is Hot (https://github.com/macmade/Hot). 

Nikita Ignatev's profile image
Nikita Ignatev

On previous versions of VMware Fusion and Ubuntu 24.04 temperature sensors were more correctly. Yes, of course I use Hot and for host system it works good, but for guest system I got strange data. It seems a bug, but I don't know how to determine the culprit.

Technogeezer's profile image
External Moderator Technogeezer

When you say it worked before, was that on Intel or ARM virtual machines?

Nikita Ignatev's profile image
Nikita Ignatev

Yes, I have only M1 laptop. And my previous installation also was on ARM Ubuntu.

Nikita Ignatev's profile image
Nikita Ignatev

It's working correctly after update to VMware to 25H2 version.

Welcome to Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (GNU/Linux 6.8.0-85-generic aarch64)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com
 * Management:     https://landscape.canonical.com
 * Support:        https://ubuntu.com/pro

 System information as of Wed Oct 15 07:57:00 PM CEST 2025

  System load:             0.72
  Usage of /:              41.9% of 55.75GB
  Memory usage:            25%
  Swap usage:              0%
  Temperature:             29.9 C

Technogeezer's profile image
External Moderator Technogeezer

I'm seeing that as well. However while the displayed value looks more reasonable, I don't believe that figure to be the true CPU temperature. The displayed value in the VM of 29.9 C doesn't track with what Hot is reporting from the host perspective. And I don't think the reported temperature in the VM changes.

From what I'm seeing, you may not want to rely on any temperature monitoring in the VM. Instead, use something like Hot in the host to more accurately monitor CPU temperature. But remember, the guest has ZERO control over CPU frequency, or the type of CPU (Performance/Efficiency) a virtual CPU is running on.  The only thing you have control over in the guest to reduce temperature in the VM is the percent of CPU utilization of the processes running in the guest.