alternatives to Powernow for AMD Athlon 1GHz?

demoman · 11-22-2005, 11:45 PM

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.

microsoft/linux · 11-23-2005, 12:03 AM

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)

demoman · 11-23-2005, 01:00 AM

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

Electro · 11-23-2005, 02:36 AM

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.

demoman · 11-23-2005, 11:30 AM

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?

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!

microsoft/linux · 11-23-2005, 06:46 PM

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

Electro · 11-23-2005, 09:55 PM

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?

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.

microsoft/linux · 11-23-2005, 10:56 PM

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

demoman · 11-23-2005, 11:31 PM

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.

demoman · 11-23-2005, 11:33 PM

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!.

rezzie · 11-24-2005, 06:12 AM

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

microsoft/linux · 11-24-2005, 10:11 AM

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!.

demoman · 11-24-2005, 02:31 PM

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.

demoman · 11-24-2005, 02:33 PM

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.

microsoft/linux · 11-24-2005, 02:50 PM

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