speedstep-ich no longer loads with kernel 2.6.31 on a IBM Thinkpad T23

[Stefan Foerster]

I have an IBM Thinkpad T23 running Ubuntu 9.04 with my own vanilla kernels (no Ubuntu patches).

On all of my kernels up to 2.6.30.7 the Pentium-IIIm in my notebook speedsteps the frequency. Here is a part of the lsmod output (running kernel 2.6.30.7):

root@stefan2:/sys# lsmod
...
speedstep_ich 3108 0
speedstep_lib 4120 1 speedstep_ich
cpufreq_powersave 1300 0
cpufreq_stats 4084 0
cpufreq_performance 1332 0
cpufreq_ondemand 6760 1
cpufreq_conservative 6824 0
freq_table 4180 3 speedstep_ich,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
...

With exactly the same settings regarding cpu frequency scaling, the kernel 2.6.31 no longer seems to support speedstepping on my notebook. The module speedstep-ich does not load. I get the error "no such device".

I also tried to use acpi-cpufreq instead - I get the same "no such device" error.

Info about the CPU:

root@stefan2:/sys# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 11
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU 1133MHz
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 731.500
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 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 mmx fxsr sse
bogomips : 1465.22
clflush size : 32
power management:

Stefan Förster

[bjo (bjo81)]

Same problem on Toshiba Satellite Pro 4600 (P3 Coppermine) with 2.6.31 on 9.10.

[Stefan Foerster (mls-mnet-online)]

Update: Yesterday I have tried kernel 2.6.32-rc1. The module speedstep-ich still doesn't load. But acpi-cpufreq now works !

Stefan

[bjo (bjo81)]

Confusing:

Linux ostrea 2.6.31-12-generic #41-Ubuntu SMP Wed Oct 7 18:42:46 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

root@ostrea:/home/bjo# modprobe speedstep-ich
FATAL: Module speedstep_ich not found.

root@ostrea:/home/bjo# modprobe acpi-cpufreq
FATAL: Module acpi_cpufreq not found.

[Stefan Foerster (mls-mnet-online)]

Update: acpi-cpufreq does not work correctly, although the module gets loaded. No speedstepping and the to high CPU frequency of 9GHz gets detected ! speedstep-ich still does not work under the current kernels 2.6.31 and 2.6.32.

Stefan

[bjo (bjo81)]

Linux ostrea 2.6.31-15-generic #50-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 10 14:54:29 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

Just wondering how slow it runs:

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 8
model name : Pentium III (Coppermine)
stepping : 10
cpu MHz : 501.154
cache size : 256 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 pse36 mmx fxsr sse up
bogomips : 1002.30
clflush size : 32
power management:

Usually the cpu was speedstepping between 700MHz and 1GHz

[Stefan Foerster (mls-mnet-online)]

Yesterday I gave the new kernel 2.6.32 a try, that came out a few days ago - and it works. speedstep_ich loads and works. They must have corrected it, as the release candidates of 2.6.32 did not work.

lsmod:

speedstep_ich 1653 0
speedstep_lib 2683 1 speedstep_ich
cpufreq_powersave 622 0
cpufreq_performance 626 0
cpufreq_ondemand 6201 1
cpufreq_conservative 4564 0
freq_table 1963 2 speedstep_ich,cpufreq_ondemand

cpuinfo:

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 11
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) III Mobile CPU 1133MHz
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 731.500
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 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pse36 mmx fxsr sse
bogomips : 1465.14
clflush size : 32
cache_alignment : 32
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

/proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/power

active state: C0
max_cstate: C8
maximum allowed latency: 16000 usec
states:
    C1: type[C1] promotion[--] demotion[--] latency[000] usage[00238298] duration[00000000000000000000]
    C2: type[C2] promotion[--] demotion[--] latency[084] usage[00589272] duration[00000000014704623371]
    C3: type[C3] promotion[--] demotion[--] latency[120] usage[00000007] duration[00000000000000005037]

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Stefan,

This bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? Can you try with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/ .

If it remains an issue, could you run the following command from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux 434255

Also, if you could test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. 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. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Stefan Foerster (mls-mnet-online)]

Jeremy, please close this bug. The bug had been fixed in the speedstep module in one of the 2.6.32 kernel versions (see my above post, Dec 5th 2009).

Stefan