Bug 114616 - cpu scaling doesn't work
Summary: cpu scaling doesn't work
Status: VERIFIED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: SUSE LINUX 10.0
Classification: openSUSE
Component: Basesystem (show other bugs)
Version: Beta 4
Hardware: Other All
: P5 - None : Normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x
QA Contact: E-mail List
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2005-08-31 23:08 UTC by Lars Müller
Modified: 2007-06-05 11:20 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

See Also:
Found By: Other
Services Priority:
Business Priority:
Blocker: ---
Marketing QA Status: ---
IT Deployment: ---


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Description Lars Müller 2005-08-31 23:08:40 UTC
lmuelle@gab:~> acpi
     Battery 1: discharging, 79%, 02:03:38 remaining
lmuelle@gab:~> grep MHz /proc/cpuinfo 
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU      1200MHz
cpu MHz         : 1196.188

With 9.3 powersaving throttles the CPU.
Comment 1 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-01 00:20:44 UTC
which module was used in 9.3? maybe you "tuned" speedstep-smi via
modprobe.conf.local?

There is a section in the powersave manual worth reading:
file:///usr/share/doc/packages/powersave/powersave_manual.html#Cpufreq
Comment 2 Lars Müller 2005-09-01 11:10:06 UTC
I didn't tune anything in modprobe.conf.local

And even nothing set in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/cpufreq

In the logs I see:
Sep  1 13:06:31 gab [powersave]: ERROR (CPUFreq_Kernel:21) Could not set
ondemand governor, seems as if the cpufreq_ondemand module is not loaded.
Sep  1 13:06:31 gab [powersave]: WARNING (setConfig:124) Problems with ondemand
governor, could not write up_threshold.
13:06:31 gab [powersave]: WARNING (setMode:143) Could not set on_demand
governor. Isthe module loaded?
Comment 3 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-01 11:52:28 UTC
ok. do you have a cpufreq driver loaded? look closely in lsmod, likely
candidates are:
seife@strolchi:~> find
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/ -type f
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/cpufreq-nforce2.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/acpi-cpufreq.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-centrino.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/gx-suspmod.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/longhaul.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/longrun.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/p4-clockmod.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k6.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k7.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/powernow-k8.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-ich.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-lib.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.13-3-default/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/cpu/cpufreq/speedstep-smi.ko

If yes, it might be that this driver is too slow and you might need to set the
configuration to "userspace" in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/cpufreq:
CPUFREQ_CONTROL="userspace"

Comment 4 Lars Müller 2005-09-01 12:11:09 UTC
This is a PIII laptop.

gab:~ # lsmod | grep speed
speedstep_ich           5004  0 
speedstep_lib           4228  1 speedstep_ich
freq_table              4612  1 speedstep_ich

The full hwinfo of this system is in bug #114511.
Comment 5 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-01 12:28:41 UTC
ok. Try "modprobe cpufreq_ondemand" and look in the logs. I fear the
speedstep-ich driver is too slow for the ondemand governor, but it should work
with "userspace"
Comment 6 Lars Müller 2005-09-01 12:34:47 UTC
modprobe cpufreq_ondemand -> nothing in syslog

One minute later again:
Sep  1 14:29:09 gab [powersave]: WARNING (setMode:143) Could not set on_demand
governor. Isthe module loaded?

I set CPUFREQ_CONTROL="userspace" and now it throttles to 797.438 MHz.
Comment 7 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-02 11:38:34 UTC
I submitted a improvement to CVS that rewords the initial error to:

ERROR: Can not set ondemand governor, maybe your cpufreq driver is too slow.
ERROR: Try CPUFREQ_CONTROL=userspace in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/cpufreq.

In the future, we might switch automatically to userspace in this case but this
is too dangerous right now.
Comment 8 Forgotten User ZhJd0F0L3x 2005-09-14 17:50:50 UTC
maybe not fixed, but worked around.