Problems with CPU frequency scaling

Davor · 2012-06-10 18:27:40

Hello!
I'm having problems following this wiki page in order to set up frequency scaling. My CPU is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+, so I tried to load the powernow-k8 module. However, the device couldn't be found. Turning AMD Cool'n'Quiet fixed that, but soon after loading the module, my computer would crash. Changing CPU frequency profiles in BIOS only changed if my computer would crash immediately or a few seconds after loading the module. My motherboard is Asus M2N SLI.
Could someone help me fix this?

desaparecido · 2012-06-10 19:55:59

the module powernow-k8 load correctly? you can verify with command:

lsmod | grep powernow

with:

dmesg | grep powernow

and "grep AMD", "grep cpu", is possible to verify how the module is identified in the kernel. In my case I have AMD Athlon 64 X2 265 processor with powernow-k8 and

$ dmesg | grep power
[    5.824377] powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) II X2 265 Processor (2 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
[    5.861240] powernow-k8:    0 : pstate 0 (3300 MHz)
[    5.861242] powernow-k8:    1 : pstate 1 (2600 MHz)
[    5.861247] powernow-k8:    2 : pstate 2 (1900 MHz)
[    5.861248] powernow-k8:    3 : pstate 3 (800 MHz)

so if you can post the output of these commands is easier to help you. In my case I use cpupower daemons and works fine

Davor · 2012-06-10 20:29:07

Thanks for your reply!
Unfortunately, I can't seem to even do that. I just ran this after setting the BIOS profile to Auto:

sudo modprobe powernow-k8 && dmesg | grep powernow > dmesg.txt && lsmod | grep powernow > lsmod.txt

As soon as I pressed return, the command seemed to have executed successfully, basically this is what happened:

[davor@kompika ~]$ sudo modprobe powernow-k8 && dmesg | grep powernow > dmesg.txt && lsmod | grep powernow > lsmod.txt
[davor@kompika ~]$

And the system froze. Upon pressing the reset key and booting the system normally, a dmesg.txt file was indeed created in my home dir, but was empty. An lsmod.txt file was nowhere to be found.
I have tried the Standard and Manual (with settings set to defaults) profiles, and they resulted in immediate reboots. I will try a few more times, because I seem to remember the system being able to run at least a few seconds before finally crashing/freezing.

EDIT:
Did it! Since the command did, in fact, execute entirely, I figured the problem must've been the lack of a clean unmount. So I created a small ext4 partition and ran as root:

mkdir /root/logs
mount /dev/sda1 /root/logs
modprobe powernow-k8 && dmesg | grep powernow > /root/logs/dmesg.txt && lsmod | grep powernow > /root/logs/lsmod.txt && umount /dev/sda1

I realize this is bad practice, but I figured running commands directly as root instead of running them through sudo would maybe save a few milliseconds.
Regardless, it worked! Here is dmesg.txt:

[  327.826619] powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 5000+ (2 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
[  327.826948] powernow-k8: fid 0x12 (2600 MHz), vid 0xa
[  327.826950] powernow-k8: fid 0x10 (2400 MHz), vid 0xc
[  327.826952] powernow-k8: fid 0xe (2200 MHz), vid 0xe
[  327.826953] powernow-k8: fid 0xc (2000 MHz), vid 0x10
[  327.826955] powernow-k8: fid 0xa (1800 MHz), vid 0x10
[  327.826957] powernow-k8: fid 0x2 (1000 MHz), vid 0x12

And here is lsmod.txt:

powernow_k8            13360  1 
mperf                   1275  1 powernow_k8
processor              26144  1 powernow_k8

Last edited by Davor (2012-06-10 21:01:20)

desaparecido · 2012-07-09 10:10:42

hi @davor, I was "off-line" some weeks, load's job :s ... but , about your problem, it's solved? still crashing?

Davor · 2012-07-09 11:14:36

Hey mate. Yep, still crashing.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-06-10 18:27:40

Problems with CPU frequency scaling

#2 2012-06-10 19:55:59

Re: Problems with CPU frequency scaling

#3 2012-06-10 20:29:07

Re: Problems with CPU frequency scaling

#4 2012-07-09 10:10:42

Re: Problems with CPU frequency scaling

#5 2012-07-09 11:14:36

Re: Problems with CPU frequency scaling

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