Dell Inspiron 1420 without battery: processor.ignore_ppc does nothing

Bug #1029583 reported by David Nemeskey
8
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
linux (Ubuntu)
Expired
Medium
Unassigned

Bug Description

I have a Dell Insprion 1420 (Core 2 Duo @ 1.8GHz), and the battery has recently died. Because of this, the CPUs have been downclocked to the minimum frequency, 800 MHz.

I have tried the workaround described in bug #706089 (Frequency scaling doesn't work in current kernels) and on various pages around the web, namely, adding the processor.ignore_ppc=1 directive to grub. However, it does not have any effect: my CPUs are still running at 800 MHz. The bios limits (/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/bios_limit) are set to 1801000, so that should not be a problem.
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu11
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: savior 2055 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfe9fc000 irq 47'
   Mixer name : 'SigmaTel STAC9228'
   Components : 'HDA:83847616,102801f3,00100201 HDA:14f12c06,14f1000f,00100000'
   Controls : 27
   Simple ctrls : 18
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=28678d84-b482-4854-be94-d70d135f8e49
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
MachineType: Dell Inc. Inspiron 1420
Package: linux-image-3.2.0-27-generic 3.2.0-27.43
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcFB: 0 inteldrmfb
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.2.0-27-generic root=UUID=0d9644af-92d9-40d2-9bb7-c95186b58565 ro quiet splash processor.ignore_ppc=1 vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-27.43-generic 3.2.21
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.2.0-27-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.2.0-27-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.79
Tags: precise running-unity
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-27-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-05-03 (83 days ago)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 08/15/2007
dmi.bios.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A02
dmi.board.name: 0DT492
dmi.board.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.chassis.type: 8
dmi.chassis.vendor: Dell Inc.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnDellInc.:bvrA02:bd08/15/2007:svnDellInc.:pnInspiron1420:pvr:rvnDellInc.:rn0DT492:rvr:cvnDellInc.:ct8:cvr:
dmi.product.name: Inspiron 1420
dmi.sys.vendor: Dell Inc.

Revision history for this message
David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : AcpiTables.txt

apport information

tags: added: apport-collected precise running-unity
description: updated
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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : AlsaDevices.txt

apport information

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : AplayDevices.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : ArecordDevices.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : BootDmesg.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : CRDA.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : Card0.Amixer.values.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : Card0.Codecs.codec.0.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : Card0.Codecs.codec.1.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : CurrentDmesg.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : Dependencies.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : IwConfig.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : Lspci.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : Lsusb.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : PciMultimedia.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : ProcCpuinfo.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : ProcEnviron.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : ProcInterrupts.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : ProcModules.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : PulseList.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : RfKill.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : UdevDb.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : UdevLog.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote : WifiSyslog.txt

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David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote :

I forgot to add that I use 12.04 LTS.

Brad Figg (brad-figg)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury) wrote :

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.5kernel[0] (Not a kernel in the daily directory) and install both the linux-image and linux-image-extra .deb packages.

Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag(Only that one tag, please leave the other tags). This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.5-rc7-quantal/

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → Medium
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
tags: added: needs-upstream-testing
Revision history for this message
David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote :

Joseph: I don't need the headers? (I hope not, because I got the following error when I tried to install them:)

Errors were encountered while processing:
 linux-headers-3.5.0-030500rc7-generic

tags: added: kernel-bug-exists-upstream
removed: needs-upstream-testing
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
David Nemeskey (nemeskeyd) wrote :

I have tested the bug with the latest 3.5 kernel:

uname -a
Linux *** 3.5.0-030500rc7-generic #201207142035 SMP Sun Jul 15 00:42:54 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

Unfortunately the problem still persists.

Actually, I have forgot to add that I experimented with the cpufreq-* utilities and if I cpufreq-set the performance governor, the processors will run happily at 1.8 GHz. It's when I apply the ondemand (which, of course, is also the default) governor that I can get only 800 MHz. Running cpufreq-info at 1 second intervals one can see how the 1.8GHz percentage drops, regardless of CPU load:

  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.23%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.77% (3)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.22%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.78% (4)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.22%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.78% (3)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.21%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.79% (4)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.21%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.79% (3)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.19%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.80% (4)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.20%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.80% (3)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.18%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.81% (4)
  cpufreq stats: 1.80 GHz:10.18%, 1.80 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:89.81% (3)

Revision history for this message
penalvch (penalvch) wrote :

David Nemeskey, as per http://www.dell.com/support/troubleshooting/us/en/19/Product/inspiron-1420 an update is available for your BIOS (A10). If you update to this, does it change anything?

If not, could you please both specify what happened, and provide the output of the following terminal command:
sudo dmidecode -s bios-version && sudo dmidecode -s bios-release-date

Thank you for your understanding.

tags: added: bios-outdated-a10 needs-upstream-testing regression-potential
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Expired
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