cpufreq buggy on thinkpad t42

[EricDHH]

Binary package hint: cpufreqd

Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10 i386

With karmic the cpufreq-utils did not work anymore. On power cord the cpu always stays fixed at max 1.8ghz, on battery at 1.4ghz. The governor settings are responded but ignored by the system. This was okay with 9.04 and before.

Battery:
  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.40 GHz und 1.40 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "performance" kann frei entscheiden,
                    welche Taktfrequenz innerhalb dieser Grenze verwendet wird.
  momentane Taktfrequenz ist 1.40 GHz (verifiziert durch Nachfrage bei der Hardware).

  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.40 GHz und 1.40 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "powersave" kann frei entscheiden,
                    welche Taktfrequenz innerhalb dieser Grenze verwendet wird.
  momentane Taktfrequenz ist 1.40 GHz (verifiziert durch Nachfrage bei der Hardware).

Powercord:
  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.80 GHz und 1.80 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "performance" kann frei entscheiden,
                    welche Taktfrequenz innerhalb dieser Grenze verwendet wird.
  momentane Taktfrequenz ist 1.80 GHz (verifiziert durch Nachfrage bei der Hardware).

  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.80 GHz und 1.80 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "performance" kann frei entscheiden,
                    welche Taktfrequenz innerhalb dieser Grenze verwendet wird.
  momentane Taktfrequenz ist 1.80 GHz (verifiziert durch Nachfrage bei der Hardware).

The cpuinfo did not know about speedstep, but the gnome applet shows all steps from 800 to 1800 well.

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.80GHz
stepping : 6
cpu MHz : 1800.000
cache size : 2048 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 mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe up bts est tm2
bogomips : 3597.18
clflush size : 64
power management:

Eric

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Sun Nov 8 10:51:39 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/yelp
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release Candidate i386 (20091020.3)
Package: yelp 2.28.0-0ubuntu2
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-genusername
SourcePackage: yelp
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1850): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:1850): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (nautilus:1954): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1993): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (gnome-panel:1953): Gdk-WARNING **: /build/buildd/gtk+2.0-2.18.3/gdk/x11/gdkdrawable-x11.c:952 drawable is not a pixmap or window

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Found a workaround from a similar older bug. This helps a bit, but where to place?

eric@calliope:~$ sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -d 600Mhz -u 1.80Ghz

Now the cpu scales faster like in jaunty before, but the default behaviour is a bug.

Eric

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

This bug seems to affect more hardware, must be kernel or software related.

eee901go, UNR 9.10, here the workaround does not help.

Powercord:
root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-set -c0 -g powersave
root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Bitte melden Sie Fehler an <email address hidden>.
analysiere CPU 0:
  Treiber: acpi-cpufreq
  Folgende CPUs können nur gleichzeitig ihre Frequenz variieren: 0
  Hardwarebedingte Grenzen der Taktfrequenz: 800 MHz - 1.60 GHz
  mögliche Taktfrequenzen: 1.60 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.07 GHz, 800 MHz
  mögliche Regler: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.60 GHz und 1.60 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "powersave" kann frei entscheiden,
                    welche Taktfrequenz innerhalb dieser Grenze verwendet wird.
  momentane Taktfrequenz ist 1.60 GHz (verifiziert durch Nachfrage bei der Hardware).

Means that powersave can switch between 1.60 and 1.60, full fan noise and much heat from the computer. So lets change the governor.

root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-set -c0 -g ondemand
root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Bitte melden Sie Fehler an <email address hidden>.
analysiere CPU 0:
  Treiber: acpi-cpufreq
  Folgende CPUs können nur gleichzeitig ihre Frequenz variieren: 0
  Hardwarebedingte Grenzen der Taktfrequenz: 800 MHz - 1.60 GHz
  mögliche Taktfrequenzen: 1.60 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.07 GHz, 800 MHz
  mögliche Regler: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.60 GHz und 1.60 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "ondemand" kann frei entscheiden,

Full power at all, no way to bring the computer down to save energy.

Battery with full reboot! Default behaviour
----
root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Bitte melden Sie Fehler an <email address hidden>.
analysiere CPU 0:
  Treiber: acpi-cpufreq
  Folgende CPUs können nur gleichzeitig ihre Frequenz variieren: 0
  Hardwarebedingte Grenzen der Taktfrequenz: 800 MHz - 1.60 GHz
  mögliche Taktfrequenzen: 1.60 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.07 GHz, 800 MHz
  mögliche Regler: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll innerhalb 1.33 GHz und 1.33 GHz.
                    liegen. Der Regler "performance" kann frei entscheiden,

Why the hell perfomance as default? How can we save energy when blowing with 1.33 or 1.33 scaling range? Lets change the governor.....
root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-set -c0 -g ondemand
root@scylla:/home/eric# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Bitte melden Sie Fehler an <email address hidden>.
analysiere CPU 0:
  Treiber: acpi-cpufreq
  Folgende CPUs können nur gleichzeitig ihre Frequenz variieren: 0
  Hardwarebedingte Grenzen der Taktfrequenz: 800 MHz - 1.60 GHz
  mögliche Taktfrequenzen: 1.60 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.07 GHz, 800 MHz
  mögliche Regler: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  momentane Taktik: die Frequenz soll ...

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Confirmed for amd64
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10

ii linux-image-2. 2.6.31-15.50

eric@charon:~$ cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Report errors and bugs to <email address hidden>, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0
  hardware limits: 1.20 GHz - 1.80 GHz
  available frequency steps: 1.80 GHz, 1.20 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 1.80 GHz and 1.80 GHz.
                  The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.

No powersaving at all, the cpu stay fixed at 1800 and wont come down. This machine was updated from jaunty to karmic so the working cpufreq was destroyed by kernel or cpufreq packages.

Please change the bug to "cpufreq" general cause not only the t42 was affected.

Eric

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

Reason for this bug is a missing default setting in karmic.

1. In user gconf the apps/gnome-power-manager/cpufreq tree is missing completely
2. sysfsutils are not installed by default
3. The gnome-cpu applet cannot save changes permanently

We have a undefined state after boot, the kernel dont know what to do and goes crazy.

If a userspace daemon like powernowd is installed or sysfsutils with following conf the situation can be cleared.

#
# /etc/sysfs.conf - Configuration file for setting sysfs attributes.
#
# The sysfs mount directory is automatically prepended to the attribute paths.
#
# Syntax:
# attribute = value
# mode attribute = 0600 # (any valid argument for chmod)
# owner attribute = root:wheel # (any valid argument for chown)
#
# Examples:
#
# Always use the powersave CPU frequency governor
# devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor = powersave
devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor = ondemand

This bug duplicates to: 460064, 475706, 434255

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

This seems to be fixed at 10.04lts and later, my t42 did not show the described problem anymore.