[SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

whscr · 2008-10-20 22:23:58

PROBLEMS: 1: Dual core not recognized; 2: Arch freezing (probably because of some graphics problem)

Hello!

I'm new to arch but I have used linux before. Last week I finally got my new PC and installed arch linux to it.
So, about the hardware:
As the subject says, it is intel's D945GCLF2
- CPU: Intel Atom 330 Dual Core 1.60Ghz
- Chipset: Intel i945GC / ICH7
- GPU: Intel GMA 950)

Seems that it's not that problematic as it firstly failed to boot the install from usb stick, no matter what.
So starting install from CD worked well but it would hang quite many times when loading ACPI so I disabled it.
I'm not so much into expensive computers so this is the first multicore processor that I've had so I have no previous experience about those on linux.
The thing is that Arch won't recognize but one core of my CPU and I have no idea what to do.

uname -a:

Linux blackhole 2.6.27-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Sun Oct 12 15:16:25 CEST 2008 i686 Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU 330 @ 1.60GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

cat /proc/cpuinfo:

processor    : 0
vendor_id    : GenuineIntel
cpu family    : 6
model        : 28
model name    : Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  330   @ 1.60GHz
stepping    : 2
cpu MHz        : 1596.081
cache size    : 512 KB
physical id    : 0
siblings    : 1
core id        : 0
cpu cores    : 1
apicid        : 0
initial apicid    : 0
fdiv_bug    : no
hlt_bug        : no
f00f_bug    : no
coma_bug    : no
fpu        : yes
fpu_exception    : yes
cpuid level    : 10
wp        : yes
flags        : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc up arch_perfmon pebs bts pni monitor ds_cpl tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr lahf_lm
bogomips    : 3193.16
clflush size    : 64
power management:

dmesg | grep cpu -i:

x86 PAT enabled: cpu 0, old 0x7040600070406, new 0x7010600070106
Processor #0 (Bootup-CPU)
SMP: Allowing 1 CPUs, 0 hotplug CPUs
PERCPU: Allocating 39324 bytes of per cpu data
NR_CPUS: 16, nr_cpu_ids: 1, nr_node_ids 1
Initializing CPU#0
SLUB: Genslabs=12, HWalign=64, Order=0-3, MinObjects=0, CPUs=1, Nodes=1
CPU: L1 I cache: 32K, L1 D cache: 24K
CPU: L2 cache: 512K
CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
CPU: Processor Core ID: 0
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU0: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  330   @ 1.60GHz stepping 02
Brought up 1 CPUs
cpuidle: using governor ladder
cpuidle: using governor menu
Switched to high resolution mode on CPU 0

Hmm, also seems that the system crashes or like once before (crash count now: 3, avg: 1/day), it started lagging more and more over the time unltil froze (Nothing responds, not even network connections).
In fact, it just froze about 5mins ago when I started conky (software) and started moving a window around on the desktop.
So that also makes me sure that somehow conky causes some conflicts or something, no idea.
Running XFCE4, composite enabled, driver: intel.

What to do?

Hope that you guys can help me out, I have no idea.
Also, this is my first post, haven't really had to post to anywhere in these affairs before so I hope it's good enough.

Thanks!

EDIT: Or should this be somewhere else like "kernel & hardware issues"?

LAST EDIT IN THIS THREAD: Marked thread as "solved"

Last edited by whscr (2008-10-29 14:13:36)

joe · 2008-10-22 02:21:00

Do you still have acpi turned off? You need it for your system to recognize both cores.

whscr · 2008-10-22 11:22:05

Yea, I was told that it is needed for multiple cores. However, with acpi turned on it wouldn't boot properly (don't know if it happens always) and conky doesn't seem to be responsible for the slowdown. So, I'm currently installing gentoo on the problematic PC for it might suite better. I liked arch, though, so I'm going to install it to my primary PC.

pyther · 2008-10-23 12:12:47

I have the first revision of the board (Atom w/ Hyperthreading; non-dual core), and everything runs fine. I couldn't get the usb stick to boot (IIRC) and the system freezes most of the time when you switch from Xorg to Console and back.

I am hoping the new xorg fixes the crashing issue. Also you might want to run a BIOS update if you haven't already, I know there were some major issues fixed in the first revision of the board (they probably use the same bios files).

whscr · 2008-10-27 18:08:57

Ok, so I'm back with a similar problem with gentoo . I'll post something to grab on for those who are also using the same board.
So, luckily I found a bugreport: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/254326

In some cases there seems to be a problem with the PCI-slot (I have another NIC in there), but it would prevent booting at all, so it doesn't fit for case.
There's also another case where things would freeze on CPU-lockup. Fits for me since monitoring software showed that first core #0 was at 100% and eventually another one, but temps weren't rising and no process using CPU.

So the answer for me probably is to disable "automatic fan speed control" or something like that and switch to constant speed (has worked fine so far).
On arch this probably was little different since I didn't have ACPI on so I had only one core. This board indeed has a sucky BIOS. I hope I have solved this for good.

Kthxbye

raven3x7 · 2008-11-08 12:42:49

Updating the bios fixes the problem with booting from USB sticks.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-20 22:23:58

[SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

#2 2008-10-22 02:21:00

Re: [SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

#3 2008-10-22 11:22:05

Re: [SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

#4 2008-10-23 12:12:47

Re: [SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

#5 2008-10-27 18:08:57

Re: [SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

#6 2008-11-08 12:42:49

Re: [SOLVED] Intel D945GCLF2 and Arch

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