Ubuntu This forum is for the discussion of Ubuntu Linux. |
Notices |
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
Are you new to LinuxQuestions.org? Visit the following links:
Site Howto |
Site FAQ |
Sitemap |
Register Now
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
|
|
04-09-2007, 01:24 PM
|
#1
|
Member
Registered: Jul 2006
Location: Washington DC Metro Area
Distribution: Ubuntu 7.10 on a System 76 Pangolin Value laptop - sweeeet!
Posts: 41
Rep:
|
Recognized CPU less than advertised
This may just be a dumb question. I have a IBM T41 laptop that claims to have a 1.6 ghz processor. However, it seems to be running at 600Mhz, rather than 1.6Ghz.
I didn't notice this until I changed desktop to Kubuntu which defaults loading a CPU frequency applet on the panel.
When I run "cat /proc/cpuinfo" it indeed shows "Model name: Intel(R)Pentium (R) M processor 1600MHZ"; and then "cpu Mhz: 600.000"
My performance is actually quite good, better than when it was formerly operating under Windows (presumably operating at full 1.6 Ghz speed?).
Is there some glitch that is causing GNU/Linux (or Ubuntu 6.10) to cut the cpu speed, or is there something that I just don't understand?
Any insights would be appreciated.
|
|
|
04-09-2007, 01:51 PM
|
#2
|
Member
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Omaha, NE
Distribution: Ubuntu 7, Fedora Core 4
Posts: 192
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by cwej
When I run "cat /proc/cpuinfo" it indeed shows "Model name: Intel(R)Pentium (R) M processor 1600MHZ"; and then "cpu Mhz: 600.000"
|
I noticed the same thing when running Fedora Core 3 on my Compaq laptop. I believe this has to do with CPU performance scaling. Your laptop is running slower to save power when it is not under a heavy load. Try getting the CPU usage up and try again. Hopefully the CPU clock speed will be greater... or maybe not. I don't know that my clock speed ever increased according to /proc/cpuinfo but everything runs faster with FC3 than it did with Windows so I never worried about it too much.
-Brandon R
|
|
|
04-09-2007, 03:26 PM
|
#3
|
Member
Registered: Nov 2003
Distribution: Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD
Posts: 129
Rep:
|
I had the same issue with my laptop and found a nice app for controlling CPU speeds. It's called 'cpufrequtils' and it's available via apt-get.
The two commands you'll need that come with this package are called 'cpufreq-set' and 'cpufreq-info'.
Read the manpages for each. You can temporarily set the cpu frequency by issuing the following command:
> sudo cpufreq-set -f 1600000
Which would set the cpu to 1.6 GHz. Or you can set the governor or policy that controls performance to maximum; this way it will remain at the highest frequency (until reboot, that is).
> sudo cpufreq-set -g performance
Here's the site for cpufreq-utils:
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/util...frequtils.html
|
|
|
04-09-2007, 04:05 PM
|
#4
|
Member
Registered: Jun 2004
Location: Omaha, NE
Distribution: Ubuntu 7, Fedora Core 4
Posts: 192
Rep:
|
Quote:
Originally Posted by cseanburns
I had the same issue with my laptop and found a nice app for controlling CPU speeds. It's called 'cpufrequtils' and it's available via apt-get.
|
Sounds neat. But did it kill your battery life?
-Brandon
|
|
|
04-09-2007, 04:13 PM
|
#5
|
Member
Registered: Nov 2003
Distribution: Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD
Posts: 129
Rep:
|
Well, it's an older laptop and the battery charge is less than half its original potential so I don't use it on battery power much these days, but yeah, it will decrease your battery charge much more quickly than if not setting it. But if you're not getting the cpu power you need when you laptop is plugged in, it's definitely useful.
However, the cpufrequtils package lets you control everything, so if you wanted, you can set the governor (policy) to powersave rather than performance when you're running off battery power.
|
|
|
04-09-2007, 04:25 PM
|
#6
|
Member
Registered: Apr 2006
Posts: 280
Rep:
|
As others have said, linux is scaling down the cpu frequency to save your battery when it is under low load. Try compiling and running something simple like
Code:
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
int i;
while(1)
{
i++;
}
}
which will give the processor something to do. Now do 'cat /proc/cpuinfo' again (in another terminal), and see that it is now running at full speed. Cool eh? This will keep running until you stop it by doing ctrl+C.
|
|
|
04-09-2007, 05:08 PM
|
#7
|
Member
Registered: Feb 2005
Location: Denver, CO
Distribution: Slack 12, tweaked just so (though I'm also a fan of Ubuntu)
Posts: 198
Rep:
|
My HP zv5320us does something similar. It's an AMD CPU, and it's supposed to run at 1.6, but most of the time idles along at 800MHz. I put on gdesklets and put on a CPU monitor, and I can watch it jump to 1.6 when the need arsies.
What has me concerned about yours is that 600MHz is a really odd fraction of 1.6GHz...
|
|
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 03:28 AM.
|
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.
|
Latest Threads
LQ News
|
|