Wierd cpufreqd behaviour in gnome

stardotstar · 09-12-2006, 03:40 AM

OK, I have ondemand set as my default governor and in Gnome with the monitors sitting in the panel when I mouse over I get a hover message saying that the governor is ondemand but the reported freq is 100% - ie 2.17ghz - when I check in /sys/devices... it is the same - but the machine is cooler than it would be at 100% all the time... (notebook you could cook breakfast on)

when I take the power off and run on batt the scaling shows properly in the panel so I am guessing that gnome panel applet does not read everything from the /sys info but makes data off the acpi status which is not clearly defined for on ac - ie in laptop-mode the status is well reflected but on power although it reports ondemand the freq is not scaling...

Any ideas where to start on this?

Will

eeades · 09-12-2006, 06:24 AM

If you cat '/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_cur_freq' it should tell you what your current frequency is.

Eric

stardotstar · 09-13-2006, 01:41 AM

Thank you, yes this is odd because:

1) icons in the panel show 2.17GHz 100% on both - on mouse over both say "Ondemand" - but the status never changes despite quite different loads. When I disconnect the ac power the system switches to laptop-mode and the governor selected is OnDemand - then both the monitors show 1GHz and appear to scale properly.

2) If I switch the governor to Conservative on the panel it shows Conservative as the governor but remains at 100%/2.17GHz which is not right... The second Core does not change gov when selected from the panel - stays at 100% and ondemand...

3) My sys devices output is (after switching to conservative:

CPU0

Code:

spitfire cpufreq # cat cpuinfo_cur_freq
2167000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_cur_freq
2167000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
conservative

Then on switching it back to OnDemand in Gnome:

Code:

spitfire cpufreq # cat cpuinfo_cur_freq
2167000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_cur_freq
2167000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
ondemand

so we can see that the governor is changed but there is no actual governing happening it seems...

Going through the same process for CPU1
CPU1

Code:

spitfire cpufreq # cat cpuinfo_cur_freq
2167000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_cur_freq
2167000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
ondemand

So we can see that CPU1 does not take governor changes in Gnome panel applet.

Hmmm....

It would seem that this is a problem with cpufreqd configuration or gnome applet:

Code:

spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
ondemand
spitfire cpufreq # ls
affected_cpus     cpuinfo_max_freq  ondemand                       scaling_available_governors  scaling_driver    scaling_max_freq  stats
cpuinfo_cur_freq  cpuinfo_min_freq  scaling_available_frequencies  scaling_cur_freq             scaling_governor  scaling_min_freq
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_driver
centrino
spitfire cpufreq # echo conservative > scaling_governor
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
conservative
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_cur_freq
2167000

Here I manually attempt to change the governor but although it changes there is no scaling in effect.

When I pull the ac power I get the following results:

First the icons in Gnome panel immediately reflect 1GHz and read OnDemand

Code:

spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_cur_freq
1000000
spitfire cpufreq # cat scaling_governor
ondemand
spitfire cpufreq # cat cpuinfo_cur_freq
1000000

When I try to change the governor mode - for example from OnDemand to Performance in the panel CPU0 will go to performance and jump up to 100%/2.17GHz *but* if I try the same on CPU1 it remains at 1GHz
and CPU0 jumps up!

Maybe this is faulty kernel configuration to do with the speedstep etc.

Here is my relevant stuff:

Code:

spitfire proc # cat cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 14
model name      : Genuine Intel(R) CPU           T2600  @ 2.16GHz
stepping        : 8
cpu MHz         : 1000.000
cache size      : 2048 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc pni monitor vmx est tm2 xtpr
bogomips        : 4332.49

processor       : 1
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 14
model name      : Genuine Intel(R) CPU           T2600  @ 2.16GHz
stepping        : 8
cpu MHz         : 1000.000
cache size      : 2048 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 1
cpu cores       : 2
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 10
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc pni monitor vmx est tm2 xtpr
bogomips        : 4326.95

Code:

#
# Processor type and features
#
CONFIG_SMP=y
CONFIG_X86_PC=y
# CONFIG_X86_ELAN is not set
# CONFIG_X86_VOYAGER is not set
# CONFIG_X86_NUMAQ is not set
# CONFIG_X86_SUMMIT is not set
# CONFIG_X86_BIGSMP is not set
# CONFIG_X86_VISWS is not set
# CONFIG_X86_GENERICARCH is not set
# CONFIG_X86_ES7000 is not set
# CONFIG_M386 is not set
# CONFIG_M486 is not set
# CONFIG_M586 is not set
# CONFIG_M586TSC is not set
# CONFIG_M586MMX is not set
# CONFIG_M686 is not set
# CONFIG_MPENTIUMII is not set
# CONFIG_MPENTIUMIII is not set
# CONFIG_MPENTIUMM is not set
CONFIG_MPENTIUM4=y
# CONFIG_MK6 is not set
# CONFIG_MK7 is not set
# CONFIG_MK8 is not set
# CONFIG_MCRUSOE is not set
# CONFIG_MEFFICEON is not set
# CONFIG_MWINCHIPC6 is not set
# CONFIG_MWINCHIP2 is not set
# CONFIG_MWINCHIP3D is not set
# CONFIG_MGEODEGX1 is not set
# CONFIG_MGEODE_LX is not set
# CONFIG_MCYRIXIII is not set
# CONFIG_MVIAC3_2 is not set
CONFIG_X86_GENERIC=y
CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG=y
CONFIG_X86_XADD=y
CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT=7
CONFIG_RWSEM_XCHGADD_ALGORITHM=y
CONFIG_GENERIC_CALIBRATE_DELAY=y
CONFIG_X86_WP_WORKS_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_INVLPG=y
CONFIG_X86_BSWAP=y
CONFIG_X86_POPAD_OK=y
CONFIG_X86_CMPXCHG64=y
CONFIG_X86_GOOD_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_INTEL_USERCOPY=y
CONFIG_X86_USE_PPRO_CHECKSUM=y
CONFIG_X86_TSC=y
# CONFIG_HPET_TIMER is not set
CONFIG_NR_CPUS=2
# CONFIG_SCHED_SMT is not set
CONFIG_SCHED_MC=y
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_NONE is not set
# CONFIG_PREEMPT_VOLUNTARY is not set
CONFIG_PREEMPT=y
CONFIG_PREEMPT_BKL=y
CONFIG_X86_LOCAL_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_IO_APIC=y
CONFIG_X86_MCE=y
CONFIG_X86_MCE_NONFATAL=y
# CONFIG_X86_MCE_P4THERMAL is not set
# CONFIG_TOSHIBA is not set
# CONFIG_I8K is not set
# CONFIG_X86_REBOOTFIXUPS is not set
# CONFIG_MICROCODE is not set
# CONFIG_X86_MSR is not set
# CONFIG_X86_CPUID is not set

#
# CPU Frequency scaling
#
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=y
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT=y
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS is not set
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_USERSPACE is not set
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=y

#
# CPUFreq processor drivers
#
CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=y
# CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K6 is not set
# CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K7 is not set
# CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8 is not set
# CONFIG_X86_GX_SUSPMOD is not set
CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO=y
CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO_ACPI=y
CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_CENTRINO_TABLE=y
CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_ICH=y
# CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_SMI is not set
# CONFIG_X86_P4_CLOCKMOD is not set
# CONFIG_X86_CPUFREQ_NFORCE2 is not set
# CONFIG_X86_LONGRUN is not set

#
# shared options
#
# CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ_PROC_INTF is not set
CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_LIB=y
# CONFIG_X86_SPEEDSTEP_RELAXED_CAP_CHECK is not set

any and all suggestions appreciated :-)

will

eeades · 09-13-2006, 11:11 PM

With the laptop plugged in, try the following as root:

echo "ondemand" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

echo "ondemand" > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor

It would be best to make a simple script to do it, as the last time I manually tried to use cpufreq with 2 (logical - read HT) processors, I got a kernel panic. (Couldn't get the second one typed in fast enough). If that works, then you will need to manually change your acpi settings.

Eric

stardotstar · 09-14-2006, 05:16 AM

thanks eric your encouraging input has been of great assistance. I have finally sorted this out by correctly configuring my profiles and rules in cpufreqd.conf - basically it was forcing to a state that was 100%...