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Linux - Laptop and Netbook Having a problem installing or configuring Linux on your laptop? Need help running Linux on your netbook? This forum is for you. This forum is for any topics relating to Linux and either traditional laptops or netbooks (such as the Asus EEE PC, Everex CloudBook or MSI Wind).

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Old 07-24-2004, 10:03 PM   #1
Reefcrazed
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Half Speed ? How do i fix this ?


Laptop is running slow. This is a Dell Inspiron 8500. I am running Fedora Core 2. This is what i get from my /proc/cpuinfo file.


processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 2.20GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 1196.313
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 2
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid
bogomips : 2359.29
 
Old 07-24-2004, 10:22 PM   #2
win32sux
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[EDIT]

sorry, i just saw the low clock speed you were refering to...

are you sure your bios configuration is fine??

does this happen with another distro, like, if you boot a live linux cd??


Last edited by win32sux; 07-24-2004 at 10:26 PM.
 
Old 07-24-2004, 10:32 PM   #3
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Well it is fine under Win XP, i dual boot
 
Old 07-24-2004, 11:14 PM   #4
win32sux
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does this cpu have speedstep technology or something like that??

does this cpu frequency problem occur only when using battery power or is it also like that if you boot using the ac adapter??

i get the feeling the kernel might be running the cpu in "low-power" mode or something...


Last edited by win32sux; 07-24-2004 at 11:16 PM.
 
Old 07-25-2004, 12:09 PM   #5
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Yes it does have speed stepping and it is on AC power.
 
Old 07-25-2004, 04:57 PM   #6
rovitotv
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Load cpufreq in your kernel

Load (or compile in) cpufreq into your kernel (works best with 2.6.7). Then you can control the speed manully or with cpufreqd. The cpufreq support in 2.6.7 works great on my P3-M. The documentation can be found in the "Documentation\cpufreq" in the 2.6.7 kernel source. I think the information in /proc/cpuinfo is only checked at boot time, so it is possible your system is running at full speed but /proc/cpuinfo would not be updated. Again cpufreq has a utility to check the current CPU speed. Good luck.
 
Old 07-25-2004, 06:13 PM   #7
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Well let me tell you what i did and maybe you can give me a hand. Indeed that was not in the kernel so i compiled it in, and NOT as a module. After getting the machine back up and booting into the new kernel the speed still shows the same. When i try to run something "cpufreq" or "cpufreqd" - maybe this was a type from you. But anyway that will not run ?????
 
Old 07-25-2004, 06:53 PM   #8
rovitotv
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Read the Docs

You first want to read the docs that come with the kernel should be something like
usr/src/linux/Documentation/cpufreq. The docs are not bad and explain how cpufreq works. cpufreqd (not a typo) is a demon that monitors CPU load and issues commands to cpufreq in your kernel to switch speeds. The commands can be issued manually, get manual commands working first before you attempt cpufreqd. I would also use a 2.6.7 kernel if you can. I am not sure if cpufreq will even work on 2.4.x. For example I have two modes in my P3 M "powersave" and "performance", I use this command for powersave
echo 'powersave' > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

All the commands can be found in the documentation. Good luck.
 
Old 07-25-2004, 07:33 PM   #9
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It appears to be fixed so does the information in cpuinfo really show the currect speed ? To fix it i did a cat into the stepping file and set it that way like the docs said. Now when i check the cpuinfo file it shows right under 2.2 ghz
 
Old 07-26-2004, 11:57 AM   #10
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Ok i was wrong this issue is not resolved yet. The cpuinfo file reverted back to showing the minimum speed again. I have been doing alot of reading and people refer to setting the scaling_governor file by echoing into it. I su as root and do this, i even cat the file to make sure the changes are there. I then reboot and the file is set back to "userspace" and not as "performance" like i put in. I am at a loss.
 
Old 07-26-2004, 03:27 PM   #11
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maybe you should add the echo to your startup scripts?? like, your rc.local file or something??
 
  


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