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alternatives to Powernow for AMD Athlon 1GHz?

Running Suse 10 on an AMD Athlon 1GHz / Abit Kv8.
This box is mostly used as a file server and is idle 70% of the time.
Runlevel 3 only.

I'd like to throttle down the CPU freq when it's idle. Unfortunately the CPU doesn't seem to support Powernow. What are the alternatives?

Here's what I get in dmesg:

Code:

powernow: No powernow capabilities detected

Note that I had to force cpufreq to use the powernow-k7 module as it defaulted to powernow-k8 otherwise. So in /etc/sysconfig/powersave/cpufreq I now have:

Code:

CPUFREQD_MODULE="powernow-k7"

(if I leave it empty I get a "kernel: powernow-k8: Processor cpuid 642 not supported", but my CPU is a K7).

Code:

# more /proc/cpuinfo

processor      : 0

vendor_id      : AuthenticAMD

cpu family      : 6

model          : 4

model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) processor

stepping        : 2

cpu MHz        : 1015.686

cache size      : 256 KB

fdiv_bug        : no

hlt_bug        : no

f00f_bug        : no

coma_bug        : no

fpu            : yes

fpu_exception  : yes

cpuid level    : 1

wp              : yes

flags          : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr syscall mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow

bogomips        : 2033.47

Many thanks in advance for your suggestions.

it might be that you don't have ACPI, or the powernow-K7 loaded in your kernel. Look at modconf, that will give you a meu list of all the modules in your kernel(I'm assuming you are using a stock kernel, from your distro)

Thanks for the reply. No modconf that I can find on Suse, but lsmod doesn't show any powernow (see below).

Aren't the error messages I get in dmesg an indication that powernow-k7 indeed loaded successfully (they seem to come from that module)?

Code:

# lsmod

Module                  Size  Used by

ipt_pkttype            1664  3

ipt_LOG                6912  18

ipt_limit              2304  18

speedstep_lib          4228  0

freq_table              4612  0

edd                    9824  0

w83627hf              28200  0

eeprom                  7184  0

i2c_sensor              3584  2 w83627hf,eeprom

i2c_isa                2176  0

button                  7056  0

battery                10244  0

ac                      5252  0

usblp                  12544  0

ip6t_REJECT            5504  3

ipt_REJECT              5632  3

ipt_state              1920  12

ehci_hcd              32136  0

iptable_mangle          2688  0

iptable_nat            22228  0

i2c_viapro              8080  0

i2c_core              20368  5 w83627hf,eeprom,i2c_sensor,i2c_isa,i2c_viapro

iptable_filter          2816  1

snd_via82xx            28096  0

via_rhine              22276  0

mii                    5504  1 via_rhine

gameport              14600  1 snd_via82xx

uhci_hcd              32016  0

snd_mpu401_uart        7296  1 snd_via82xx

ip6table_mangle        2304  0

usbcore              112640  4 usblp,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd

ip_conntrack          42168  2 ipt_state,iptable_nat

ip_tables              19456  8 ipt_pkttype,ipt_LOG,ipt_limit,ipt_REJECT,ipt_state,iptable_mangle,iptable_nat,iptable_filter

snd_emu10k1          111012  0

snd_rawmidi            24864  2 snd_mpu401_uart,snd_emu10k1

snd_seq_device          8588  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi

snd_ac97_codec        90876  2 snd_via82xx,snd_emu10k1

ohci1394              32820  0

ieee1394              97208  1 ohci1394

snd_pcm                93064  3 snd_via82xx,snd_emu10k1,snd_ac97_codec

snd_timer              24452  2 snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm

snd_ac97_bus            2432  1 snd_ac97_codec

via_agp                9472  1

agpgart                33096  1 via_agp

snd_page_alloc        10632  3 snd_via82xx,snd_emu10k1,snd_pcm

snd_util_mem            4992  1 snd_emu10k1

generic                4484  0 [permanent]

snd_hwdep              8992  1 snd_emu10k1

snd                    60420  10 snd_via82xx,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_emu10k1,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_util_mem,snd_hwdep

soundcore              9184  1 snd

pci_hotplug            26164  0

ip6table_filter        2688  1

ip6_tables            18176  3 ip6t_REJECT,ip6table_mangle,ip6table_filter

ipv6                  242752  24 ip6t_REJECT

parport_pc            38980  1

lp                    11460  0

parport                33864  2 parport_pc,lp

ext3                  130440  3

jbd                    59940  1 ext3

dm_mod                54972  0

reiserfs              250480  1

ide_cd                39684  0

cdrom                  36896  1 ide_cd

fan                    4996  0

thermal                14472  0

processor              24252  1 thermal

via82cxxx              13212  0 [permanent]

sata_via                8836  0

libata                48516  1 sata_via

sd_mod                18576  0

scsi_mod              131304  2 libata,sd_mod

ide_disk              17152  7

ide_core              122380  4 generic,ide_cd,via82cxxx,ide_disk

You can use mobile processor or Sempron in place with your processor. Abit does not have any models that states KV8 for K7 processors. They have KV7.

Quote:

Originally posted by Electro
You can use mobile processor or Sempron in place with your processor.

Electro: thanks for the reply. I'm afraid I'm a little slow and not quite following what you are suggesting. Do you suggest I declare my CPU as a Sempron in my config? If so, would you be kind enough to point me to the files I need to modify to do so? :confused:

Quote:

Originally posted by Electro
Abit does not have any models that states KV8 for K7 processors. They have KV7.

Good catch! Fat finger. Indeed, my MOBO is a KV7 - not a KV8. It's a socket A, VIA KT600.

Thanks!

Yes, the errors in dmesg are what make me thing that it's acpi. Modconf will list all the modules installed and not installed, I believe lsmod only list those that are installed

Quote:

Originally posted by demoman
Electro: thanks for the reply. I'm afraid I'm a little slow and not quite following what you are suggesting. Do you suggest I declare my CPU as a Sempron in my config? If so, would you be kind enough to point me to the files I need to modify to do so? :confused:

I mean is physically take out the processor and use either a mobile processor or Sempron processor. If you want me to simplify it even more, buy a new processor.

why does he need a new CPU? Is there something about the 1Ghz athlons that they don't support CPU frequency stepping?

Quote:

Originally posted by Electro
I mean is physically take out the processor and use either a mobile processor or Sempron processor. If you want me to simplify it even more, buy a new processor.

Duh. Buying a new processor?! Hmm. This whole server is made up of old parts. No plan to buy anything. If I can't get powersave to work I'll just let this CPU runs full-speed until it dies. Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

Quote:

Originally posted by microsoft/linux
why does he need a new CPU? Is there something about the 1Ghz athlons that they don't support CPU frequency stepping?

That's exactly what I am wondering. This is what the powernow messages seem to indicate. I googled and went to the AMD website but couldn't find any relevant information as to whether this CPU does or not support PowerNow!.

how about this:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Athlon-Powersaving-HOWTO/

yes i know this is no a cpu freq. scaling, but with this i can get my cpu 15 (fiveteen) degrees cooler

I didn't see anything on the AMD website to suggest that it supports PowerNow!. I know my Athlon XP-M supports it, and is also the K7 chipset. I thought the Athlon series had PowerNow!.

Quote:

Originally posted by rezzie
how about this:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Athlon-Powersaving-HOWTO/
yes i know this is no a cpu freq. scaling, but with this i can get my cpu 15 (fiveteen) degrees cooler

Rezzie - thank you very much. This looks like I needed. My reading of all this is that my Athlon Thunderbird doesn't support PowerNow! and that what you suggest is the only alternative. I'll update the thread once I get around following this how-to.

Quote:

Originally posted by microsoft/linux
I didn't see anything on the AMD website to suggest that it supports PowerNow!. I know my Athlon XP-M supports it, and is also the K7 chipset. I thought the Athlon series had PowerNow!.

Thanks for checking M/L. If anyone has a definite URL for checking what CPU supports PowerNow, please post it.

That's not to say that it said that it didn't support it, there was just nothing about the Athlon supporting PowerNow!.