[SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

stabele · 2010-04-21 20:29:49

I am using cpufrequtils at notebook Dell D630. I found out CPU scalling stopped to work. I am using 2.6.33.2-1 , but this problem is there already for some weeks or even maybe months. I found no relevant erro in dmesg or error log. What I tried:

1) cpufreq: I switched from ondemand to performance governor, but CPU is still at minimum frequency. I tried to comment-out min_freq/max_freq, same results. cpufreq-info says correctly that my hardware limit is 1.8GHz, but then for some unknown reason it decides " frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz".

2) than I uninstalled cpufrequtils and tried powernowd from AUR. This daemon reports that he is changing CPU freq., but in reality CPU frequency is still at minimum. Strange, no error reported.

3) at last resort I removed kernel module acpi_cpufreq and so disabled CPU scaling, but it is obviously desperate solution.

Any help or advice woule be very appreciated.

# cat /etc/conf.d/cpufreq
governor="performance"
min_freq="800MHz"
max_freq="1.8GHz"

# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.80 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.80 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).

# powernowd -d -vvv -u 50 -l 10
Using upper pct of 50%
Using lower pct of 10%
PowerNow Daemon v1.00, (c) 2003-2008 John Clemens
Settings:
verbosity: 3
mode: 1 (AGGRESSIVE)
step: 100 MHz (100000 kHz)
lowwater: 10 %
highwater: 50 %
poll interval: 1000 ms
about to return count = 1
Found 2 scalable units: -- 1 'CPU' per scalable unit
cpu0: 800Mhz - 1801Mhz (4 steps)
step1 : 1801Mhz
step2 : 1800Mhz
step3 : 1200Mhz
step4 : 800Mhz
cpu1: 800Mhz - 1801Mhz (4 steps)
step1 : 1801Mhz
step2 : 1800Mhz
step3 : 1200Mhz
step4 : 800Mhz
Setting speed to 1800000
Setting speed to 1800000
Setting speed to 1200000
Setting speed to 1200000
Setting speed to 800000
Setting speed to 800000
Setting speed to 1801000
Setting speed to 1801000

# watch grep \"cpu MHz\" /proc/cpuinfo
Every 2.0s: grep "cpu MHz" /proc/cpuinfo Wed Apr 21 22:09:09 2010
cpu MHz : 800.000
cpu MHz : 800.000

Last edited by stabele (2010-04-25 18:48:44)

PaulStogov · 2010-04-22 14:39:00

Do (did) you use omnibook package?

stabele · 2010-04-22 15:10:20

PaulStogov wrote:

Do (did) you use omnibook package?

No. AFAIK it is not to be used on Dell laptops. You are mentioning it as possible solution or possible source of problems?

PaulStogov · 2010-04-22 15:16:11

I asked because I have faced same problem on my notebook. And it seems to me that the issue came after I:
a) removed omnibook-svn;
b) installed 2.6.33 kernel.

I didn't try to find a solution yet. Maybe today will.

Leonid.I · 2010-04-22 16:49:33

I have Sempron 3000+ on a Compaq Presario and everything works as it should... with ondemand governor.

Does this governor work for you?

AFAIK, the performance governor is the kernel default (see the wiki), so just don't do anything if you want to use this mode (unload powernowd, etc...). If it does not give you the right clock freq., it's a kernel bug

stabele · 2010-04-22 17:16:44

Leonid.I wrote:

I have Sempron 3000+ on a Compaq Presario and everything works as it should... with ondemand governor.
Does this governor work for you?

No, I was successfuly using ondemand for some time but now it does not work anymore. Either with ondemand or with performance cpufreq-info shows this strange line:
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz
...despite it detects available frequencies - line:
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MH
I tried with min_freq/max_freq set in /etc/conf.d/cpufreq as well without them. I even tried do set both to 1.80GHz, but still no change.

Edit: typo

Last edited by stabele (2010-04-22 17:19:23)

Leonid.I · 2010-04-22 17:53:31

Output of lsmod | grep freq ?
Also, why do you have 1.8GHz twice in the frequency steps?

EDIT: BTW, what is the threshold?
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold

Last edited by Leonid.I (2010-04-22 18:00:49)

stabele · 2010-04-22 22:36:31

Well, problem was temporary gone. I installed back cpufrequtils (007-1, same version I removed before, I verified it in /var/log/pacman.log), I once more enabled in /etc/rc.conf modules acpi_cpufreq and cpufreq_ondemand + daemon cpufreq using the very same /etc/conf.d/cpufreq as before ... and now it worked flawlessly for some time:

Temporary working state:

# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.80 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.80 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 1.80 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.80 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.80 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 1.80 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).

but after while problem is back again, reboot doesn't solved it:

# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.80 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.80 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).

# lsmod | grep freq
cpufreq_ondemand 6749 2
acpi_cpufreq 5667 1
freq_table 1987 2 cpufreq_ondemand,acpi_cpufreq
processor 25831 3 acpi_cpufreq

# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/up_threshold
50

AD double 1.80 in cpufreq-info output - I have no idea, these are autodetected value.

Last edited by stabele (2010-04-23 01:39:06)

stabele · 2010-04-23 01:50:36

So once again as temporary (I still have hope;) solution I disabled modules acpi_cpufreq + cpufreq_ondemand and daemon cpufreq to get CPU speed back.

# grep "cpu MHz" /proc/cpuinfo
cpu MHz : 1795.657
cpu MHz : 1795.657

Leonid.I · 2010-04-23 17:58:31

stabele wrote:

So once again as temporary (I still have hope;) solution I disabled modules acpi_cpufreq + cpufreq_ondemand and daemon cpufreq to get CPU speed back.
# grep "cpu MHz" /proc/cpuinfo
cpu MHz : 1795.657
cpu MHz : 1795.657

I'm not sure it's temporary... Can you look at
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/18901
http://bugs.archlinux.org/task/17107

seem like your problem...

Last edited by Leonid.I (2010-04-23 17:59:02)

stabele · 2010-04-23 18:12:05

Thanks a lot for pointing to relevant bug report. Clumsy me I forgot to search bugreports too...

Edit: recently I found out that my laptop has problems with overheating. Therefore limiting maximum CPU frequncy in such a case is kernel or bios feature, not a bug.

Last edited by stabele (2010-04-25 18:48:25)

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-21 20:29:49

[SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#2 2010-04-22 14:39:00

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#3 2010-04-22 15:10:20

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#4 2010-04-22 15:16:11

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#5 2010-04-22 16:49:33

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#6 2010-04-22 17:16:44

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#7 2010-04-22 17:53:31

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#8 2010-04-22 22:36:31

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#9 2010-04-23 01:50:36

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#10 2010-04-23 17:58:31

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

#11 2010-04-23 18:12:05

Re: [SOLVED] CPU scaling does not work anymore (cpufreq,powernowd)

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