CPU power and FAN control: HOW? Intel server board / CentOS 6.5

Hello everyone! I'm tired. Very tired fighting this brand-new Linux installation. Initiatly everything was fine, then after few days I faced with kacpid, who wanted all available CPU time. Investigating this I discovered ACPI problems. Broken virtualization, shoestring /proc/acpi/. A lot of folders were empty.

So I made an upgrade. From BIOS'08 to 2010 (latest). Immediately after upgrading BMC firmware, internal fan went to 100% (4200 RPM). Sounds are terrible. Virtualization is fixed now, but /acpi/fan/ directory is empty and CPU power management+throttling control looks disabled.

This desperate situation led me to russian forums, to the Intel community (no success), and now I'm here Any ideas, friends????

# cat /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/info
processor id:            0
acpi id:                 1
bus mastering control:   no
power management:        no
throttling control:      no
limit interface:         no



# tree /proc/acpi/
.
├── ac_adapter
├── battery
├── button
│   ├── power
│   │   ├── PWRB
│   │   │   └── info
│   │   └── PWRF
│   │       └── info
│   └── sleep
│       └── SLPB
│           └── info
├── dsdt
├── embedded_controller
├── event
├── fadt
├── fan
├── info
├── power_resource
├── processor
│   ├── CPU0
│   │   ├── info
│   │   ├── limit
│   │   ├── power
│   │   └── throttling
│   └── CPU1
│       ├── info
│       ├── limit
│       ├── power
│       └── throttling
├── sleep
├── thermal_zone
└── wakeup
15 directories, 17 files



#ipmitool sensor
BB +1.8V SM      | 1.793      | Volts      | ok    | na        | 1.597     | 1.646     | 1.960     | 2.019     | na
BB +3.3V         | 3.302      | Volts      | ok    | na        | 2.876     | 2.970     | 3.618     | 3.729     | na
BB +3.3V STBY    | 3.239      | Volts      | ok    | na        | 2.876     | 2.970     | 3.618     | 3.729     | na
BB +5.0V         | 4.941      | Volts      | ok    | na        | 4.362     | 4.483     | 5.495     | 5.663     | na
Processor Vcc    | 1.264      | Volts      | ok    | na        | 0.774     | 0.804     | 1.460     | 1.509     | na
BB Ambient Temp  | 30.000     | degrees C  | ok    | na        | 5.000     | 10.000    | 61.000    | 66.000    | na
Chassis Fan 1    | 4200.000   | RPM        | ok    | na        | 630.000   | 770.000   | na        | na        | na
Chassis Fan 2    | 0.000      | RPM        | cr    | na        | 630.000   | 770.000   | na        | na        | na
Chassis Fan 4    | 0.000      | RPM        | cr    | na        | 630.000   | 770.000   | na        | na        | na
Chassis Fan 5    | 1960.000   | RPM        | ok    | na        | 630.000   | 770.000   | na        | na        | na
P1 Therm Margin  | -66.000    | degrees C  | ok    | na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
Power Unit       | 0x0        | discrete   | 0x0000| na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
IPMI Watchdog    | 0x0        | discrete   | 0x0000| na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na
Processor Status | 0x0        | discrete   | 0x0000| na        | na        | na        | na        | na        | na



# sensors
coretemp-isa-0000
Adapter: ISA adapter
Core 0:      +29.0°C  (high = +78.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)
Core 1:      +32.0°C  (high = +78.0°C, crit = +100.0°C)



# ipmitool> bmc info
Device ID                 : 33
Device Revision           : 1
Firmware Revision         : 0.40
IPMI Version              : 2.0
Manufacturer ID           : 343
Manufacturer Name         : Intel Corporation
Product ID                : 58 (0x003a)
Product Name              : Unknown (0x3A)
Device Available          : yes
Provides Device SDRs      : no
Additional Device Support :
    Sensor Device
    SDR Repository Device
    SEL Device
    FRU Inventory Device
    IPMB Event Receiver
    IPMB Event Generator
    Chassis Device
Aux Firmware Rev Info     :
    0x01
    0x09
    0x00
    0x43



# dmidecode  | more
# dmidecode 2.12
SMBIOS 2.5 present.
61 structures occupying 2438 bytes.
Table at 0x7FCFA000.

...

Handle 0x0003, DMI type 2, 16 bytes
Base Board Information
        Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
        Product Name: S3210SH
        Version: FRU Ver 0.05
        Features:
                Board is a hosting board
                Board is replaceable
        Location In Chassis: Not Specified
        Chassis Handle: 0x0000
        Type: Motherboard
        Contained Object Handles: 0

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 3, 22 bytes
Chassis Information
        Manufacturer: Not Specified
        Type: Main Server Chassis
        Lock: Not Present
        Version: 0000000000
        Serial Number: 000000000000
        Asset Tag: 00000000000000000000
        Boot-up State: Safe
        Power Supply State: Safe
        Thermal State: Safe
        Security Status: Unknown
        OEM Information: 0x81581CF8
        Height: 1 U
        Number Of Power Cords: 1
        Contained Elements: 0
        SKU Number: Not Specified

Handle 0x0005, DMI type 0, 24 bytes
BIOS Information
        Vendor: Intel Corporation
        Version: S3200X38.86B.00.00.0052.112920101508
        Release Date: 11/29/2010
        Address: 0xF0000
        Runtime Size: 64 kB
        ROM Size: 4032 kB
        Characteristics:
                PCI is supported
                PNP is supported
                BIOS is upgradeable
                BIOS shadowing is allowed
                Boot from CD is supported
                Selectable boot is supported
                EDD is supported
                3.5"/2.88 MB floppy services are supported (int 13h)
                Print screen service is supported (int 5h)
                8042 keyboard services are supported (int 9h)
                Serial services are supported (int 14h)
                CGA/mono video services are supported (int 10h)
                ACPI is supported
                USB legacy is supported
                LS-120 boot is supported
                ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
                BIOS boot specification is supported
                Function key-initiated network boot is supported
                Targeted content distribution is supported
        BIOS Revision: 0.0
        Firmware Revision: 0.0



# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 23
model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     E8400  @ 3.00GHz
stepping        : 10
cpu MHz         : 3000.000
cache size      : 6144 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
apicid          : 0
initial apicid  : 0
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 13
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 xsave lahf_lm dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority
bogomips        : 5985.42
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor       : 1
...



# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
coretemp                5697  0
power_meter             7124  0
acpi_cpufreq            6794  0
mperf                   1221  1 acpi_cpufreq
ipmi_devintf            4767  0
bluetooth              83558  2
rfkill                 14794  1 bluetooth
xt_multiport            2216  3
iptable_filter          2173  1
ip_tables               9567  1 iptable_filter
dahdi_echocan_oslec     1197  150
echo                    4203  1 dahdi_echocan_oslec
dahdi_tdmox_eth         3729  150
dahdi_tdmox            20940  151 dahdi_tdmox_eth
ipv6                  261089  39
dahdi                 208875  302 dahdi_echocan_oslec,dahdi_tdmox
crc_ccitt               1369  1 dahdi
iTCO_wdt                5915  0
iTCO_vendor_support     2376  1 iTCO_wdt
e1000                 149778  0
e100                   28768  0
mii                     4476  1 e100
serio_raw               3530  0
sg                     24038  0
lpc_ich                11199  0
mfd_core                1507  1 lpc_ich
i2c_i801                9627  0
i2c_core               25632  1 i2c_i801
i3200_edac              2814  0
edac_core              36657  2 i3200_edac
ext4                  335768  3
jbd2                   76054  1 ext4
mbcache                 6017  1 ext4
sd_mod                 34952  3
crc_t10dif              1217  1 sd_mod
ahci                   35529  2
dm_mirror              11969  0
dm_region_hash          9644  1 dm_mirror
dm_log                  8322  2 dm_mirror,dm_region_hash
dm_mod                 69971  11 dm_mirror,dm_log



# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.32-431.el6.i686 (mockbuild@c6b8.bsys.dev.centos.org) (gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-4) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Fri Nov 22 00:26:36 UTC 2013

[root@localhost]# dmesg | grep warn
[root@localhost]# dmesg | grep fan

That kernel looks super old for a new linux installation. Do you need that kernel for a specific purpose?
I would try something more recent.

cat /proc/version Linux version 2.6.32-431.el6.i686 (mockbuild@c6b8.bsys.dev.centos.org) (gcc version 4.4.7 20120313 (Red Hat 4.4.7-4) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Fri Nov 22 00:26:36 UTC 20

Originally Posted by Rinndalir That kernel looks super old for a new linux installation.

But it's not an ordinary kernel It's a RedHat's one. You can not find something more recent in CentOS-6 repos.

I've tried to build vanilla 4.2.1. Lamentable results:

[root@localhost acpi]# tree
.
 ac_adapter
 battery
 wakeup

2 directories, 1 file

Also some important 3'd-party drivers cannot find i387.h. To be honest I can not find it too in 4.2

Going back to 2.6 now

Ok, power issue is now solved workarounded by "processor.ignore_ppc=1" (then reboot, "modprobe acpi_cpufreq" and "cpufreq-set -g ondemand").

But with current +21*C I still have 4200 RPM on CPU fan. I'm worrying about fan's health.