Arch Linux

flammenwurfer

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 118

MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

I'm running Arch Linux with KDEMod KDE 4.2.2 and almost everything is working great.

CPU scaling is kind of working. At least now it says cpu scaling is working in power devil, but my only option is "performance".  How do you I get it to let me actually scale down the cpu?

When I push Fn+F10 to enable eco mode or whatever it's called, nothing happens.  If I have it plugged it the power button goes orange but when I check /proc/cpuinfo or hardinfo it says it's still running at 1.6 Ghz.

EVRAMP

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2008-10-03

Posts: 173

Website

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

Nothing happens because acpi scripts do not recognise this key, which is Msi Wind's speciality.
But you can install cpufrequtils package and bind this key with some script to lower your CPU freq.

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

it does depend on which Wind you have though, i have one with an Atom330 and that doesn't support Speedstep: http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35641

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flammenwurfer

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 118

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

Hmm....I think it is doing something when I have it plugged in and use Fn+F10 to overclock it.  I ran the CPU Blowfish benchmark that's in Hardinfo with the Wind unplugged and it finished in 32.3 seconds.  Then I ran it with the Wind plugged in and got 15.7 seconds.  Then I used Fn+F10 to make the power button turn orange and ran it, and I got 12.68.

EVRAMP

Member

From: Czech Republic

Registered: 2008-10-03

Posts: 173

Website

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

it does depend on which Wind you have though, i have one with an Atom330 and that doesn't support Speedstep: http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35641

Intel has forbidden selling Atom 330 in any laptop.

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

CPU scaling is kind of working. At least now it says cpu scaling is working in power devil, but my only option is "performance".  How do you I get it to let me actually scale down the cpu?

Make sure you have 'cpufreq_ondemand' kernel module loaded. You can find out about the scaling capabilities by looking at the contents of the /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq directory.

EDIT: or cpufreq_userspace or whatever you want to use.

Last edited by bender02 (2009-05-06 20:35:21)

litemotiv

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2008-08-01

Posts: 5,026

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

it does depend on which Wind you have though, i have one with an Atom330 and that doesn't support Speedstep: http://ark.intel.com/cpu.aspx?groupId=35641

Intel has forbidden selling Atom 330 in any laptop.

ah ok, i have a Wind nettop here

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ᶘ ᵒᴥᵒᶅ

flammenwurfer

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 118

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

Ok, I can get the different cpu scaling modes working if I load the cpufreq_ondemand..._conservative..._powersave etc...  So what is purpose of acpi-cpufreq then?  Do I even need to load that module?  Because it doesn't seem to do anything by itself.

bender02

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2007-02-04

Posts: 1,328

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

I think acpi_cpufreq allows cpu freq scaling in general via the acpi subsystem, and cpufreq_{whatever} are then governors, ie different algorithms how to scale. It used to be that instead of acpi_cpufreq you'd load a processor specific driver (eg p4-clockmod or such), but the support got better since then.

flammenwurfer

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 118

Re: MSI Wind cpu scaling & Fn key problem

ah.  At first I was under the impression that acpi_cpufreq was all I needed, which is why I thought it wasn't working right.   I have acpi_cpufreq and the other governor modules loaded now and it's working great. 

Overclocking also works great.  It doesn't seem to show the correct speed in any of the cpu reporting apps I've checked, but it definitely speeds the computer up.  I've checked a few different cpu benchmarks and there is a considerable increase in performance after I've turned on Turbo mode.