[clug] Monitoring CPU temperature in Dell laptops

[Pearl Louis]

I  have a Dell Inspiron 8600.  Does any know of a way to monitor CPU
temperature from Linux?  lm_sensors doesn't work because it can't
detect the sensors (using sensors-detect).  I know there are sensors
because in Windows you can monitor the CPU temperature using
I8kfanGUI, an open-source (but alas Windows only!) tool someone wrote
by reverse-engineering Dell diagnostic tests "because Dell was not
willing to publish information on how to get control over the fans to
prevent overheating. So this program uses undocumented Dell SMBIOS
functions to detect the temperature sensors and to control the fans." 
Which I guess explains why lm_sensors doesn't detect any
sensors...Does anyone know of a similar tool for Linux?  According to
the I8KfanGUI website, Dell laptops have an inbuilt temperature that
the fans turn on automatically so I don't think it'll burn out on me,
but it's pretty high (75-85 degrees).

Thanks!
Pearl