ACPI thermal Issues

benguin · 01-11-2004, 01:59 AM

I know the Laptop forum discusses power issues a lot, but I run a desktop box, thats why I thought about posting here. Sorry if I've posted in the wrong place.

Hi there,
I run Vectorlinux 4.0 on an AMD AthlonXP 1600+ with 512 MB of DDR SDRAM. My box also has a 64MB GeForce MX2 400 AGP card and a Maxtor 80GB hard drive. I recently updated the kernel to 2.6.1, and have compiled ACPI support into the kernel itself (not as modules).

Now, when I try to get the CPU temperature information, I find that the directory /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/ is empty. The file /proc/acpi/processor/CPU1/info gave the following information:

Code:

processor id:            0
acpi id:                 1
bus mastering control:   yes
power management:        no
throttling control:      yes
performance management:  no
limit interface:         yes

So I see that I don't have power management. I wonder why that is. My machine dual boots into WindowsXP as well, and I've tried all sorts of power saving and monitoring stuff successfully under windows, giving me the impression that my CPU/motherboard combo does have support for power management stuff. So I did some goofing around

in the net, got the power button working nicely, but the temperature issue is still vague to me. I'd love to get the entire range of power management stuff working, specially thermal monitoring.

I'm pretty new to ACPI, so I apologize beforehand if I'm missing something obvious. The power management part of my kernel configuration file is as follows:

Code:

#
# ACPI (Advanced Configuration and Power Interface) Support
#
CONFIG_ACPI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BOOT=y
CONFIG_ACPI_INTERPRETER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SLEEP_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_AC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BATTERY=y
CONFIG_ACPI_BUTTON=y
CONFIG_ACPI_FAN=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PROCESSOR=y
CONFIG_ACPI_THERMAL=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_ASUS is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_TOSHIBA is not set
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_ACPI_BUS=y
CONFIG_ACPI_EC=y
CONFIG_ACPI_POWER=y
CONFIG_ACPI_PCI=y
CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM=y
# CONFIG_ACPI_RELAXED_AML is not set

Thanks.. and sorry for this rather large post.

benguin

Tinkster · 01-12-2004, 05:02 PM

I don't know your motherboard, but chances are
that in windows a proprietary driver handles CPU
temperature rather than a generic ACPI method.
Until IBM fixed the BIOS of my notebook (several
weeks after I bought it) I couldn't monitor my CPU
temperature either. I've had a similar case with a
Compugh EVO ...

Cheers,
Tink

benguin · 01-13-2004, 12:01 AM

Thanks Tinkster...
My motherboard has a VIA KT266 chipset (AMD AthlonXP 1600+), manufactured by Gigabyte. the model number is 7vtx, and yes its about three years old. I flashed the BIOS to the latest available update (which the Gigabyte site named version F8). If it is of any use, I used a diagnostic program called FreshDiagnose (for Windows) to check my BIOS capabilities, and it clearly states that ACPI is supported by my BIOS. Ah shucks... I guess my CPU temperature gdesklet has to wait a while

Benguin