cpu frequency scaling not supported after upgrading to 9.04

[Mike Rose]

Using a Panasonic R3 laptop (Pentium M, intel chipset)
Just distupgraded from 8.10 to 9.04 via Update Manager
Upon reboot I got an error message 'CPU Frequency scaling not supported' or similar, as I had the gnome cpufreq applet in my panel

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 13
model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.10GHz
stepping : 6
cpu MHz : 1100.000
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 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe up bts est tm2
bogomips : 2194.48
clflush size : 64
power management:

If any further information is required, please don't hesitate to contact me.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

I can confirm this issue. I have Athlon X2 6000+ CPU and after upgrading to 9.04, the applet controling the frequency doesn't allow me to change the frequency and it stays in the maximum frequency setting of 3.0GHz. Because i also have cpu temperature applet, i can verify that the power management is not working since it will cause 45 degrees instead of 28 degrees CPU temp; and quite a difference in power consumption.

Please, give us something to analyse, report back information or fix this issue. Thanks!

[Michael Rooney (mrooney)]

I'll assign this to linux and confirm it, I wonder if there is a duplicate report for this.

[Fernando Miguel (fernandomiguel)]

@sub.mesa by default the applet does not allow the user to change the CPU speed.

[Michael Rooney (mrooney)]

I have confirmed that CPU scaling DOES work for me with a Core 2 Duo
8100 and another confirmation on IRC tells us that it also works on an
AMD64 x2, so it isn't everything at least.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

BUGabundo: it gives me a popup asking for my password, like any process that needs super-user privileges i guess. After that, it would allow me to change the frequency manually. Regardless of that, when my pc is idle it should throttle down to 1.0GHz which is did just this morning before i upgraded. After the upgrade, it would run on 3.0GHz and manual settings didn't work, so obviously the power saving features (Cool'N'Quiet) aren't in use.

What commands can i run to report more information about this issue?

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

For those who say this is working for them, did you actually upgrade from 8.10 or did you do a clean install? This may be a bug for people upgrading only, though that's just speculation. Also, Intel uses a different driver (EIST) than AMD (cool'n'quiet).

[James Westby (james-w)]

'CPU Frequency scaling not supported'

where do you get that message? The message is interesting, but
knowing what produces it will help a lot in tracking down where
the problem is.

Is it shown as you boot? Is it a dialog when you log in? Is it a tooltip
on the scaling applet? Is it in a log file somewhere?

Thanks,

James

[frozenskunk (frozenskunk)]

From this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7136069&posted=1#post7136069

I had the same issue, everything worked fine under 8.10, did an upgrade (from update manager) and scaling didn't work anymore.

Followed the instructions at the linked thread and added acpi-cpufreq to /etc/modules, rebooted, and everything is back to normal.

Hope this helps!

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

The message "CPU Frequency scaling not supported" appears when you hover over the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor (i have version 2.26.0) which is an applet you can add to the Panel. However, in my case it doesn't state that frequency is insupported, and the suggestion frozenskunk gave me (adding "acpi-cpufreq" to /etc/modules) also didn't fix the issue for me.

What should happen:
as soon as i log in, i should see the CPU frequency applet showing it downscales to 1.0GHz; temperatures should be low (20-30).

What actually happens:
as soon as i log in, i see the CPU frequency applet showing 3.0GHz frequency; the maximum setting. Even though its configured to downscale if the system is idle, which it was. Temperatures are also much higher, in the 45-48 range which is alot more power that's being consumed right now. Clearly, cool'n'quiet driver doesn't work. How can we investigate that? Do you need my dmesg? All i can see is:

powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Processor model unknown processors (2 cpu cores) (version 2.20.00)
powernow-k8: 0: fid 0x16 (3000 MHz), vid 0x6
... list goes on listing all available frequencies down to 1000MHz or 1.0GHz

That's it, so it appears to get loaded, but it doesn't work. any way to interface with the powernow-k8 driver?

[Michael Rooney (mrooney)]

This seems to be specific to upgrades based on the people experiencing vs not experiencing it, FWIW.

[James Westby (james-w)]

acpi-cpufreq is no longer a module in Jaunty, so if you are running the Jaunty
kernel adding this to /etc/modules won't help.

Could you please attach the output of

  find /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq

and

  cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
  cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver
  cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
  cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies

Thanks,

James

[frozenskunk (frozenskunk)]

It may not, but it did... ;-)

I had the same issue that I liked to earlier, when I ran modprobe (as detailed) it changed my frequency from 2.19 to 2.20. I rebooted, and was right back where I started from (i.e. scaling not working, cpu freq set at 2.19).
I did the modprobe again, and added the acpi-cpufreq, rebooted, and everything works correctly...

I attached the files you requested, let me know if you need anything else.

[frozenskunk (frozenskunk)]

Here is the other file

[akuzmin (andrey-v-kuzmin)]

It looks like powernowd package is not installed by default on upgrade to 9.04. At least this turned out to be my case: after installing the missing package manually, I've got freq-scaling back working (though somewhat less comfortable than in 8.10).

[James Westby (james-w)]

On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 20:54 +0000, akuzmin wrote:
> It looks like powernowd package is not installed by default on upgrade
> to 9.04. At least this turned out to be my case: after installing the
> missing package manually, I've got freq-scaling back working (though
> somewhat less comfortable than in 8.10).

That's intentional. It should be pretty much useless at this point
because the kernel can do this stuff itself, so the fact that you need
it installed is a bug.

Thanks,

James

[James Westby (james-w)]

On Fri, 2009-04-24 at 19:45 +0000, frozenskunk wrote:
> It may not, but it did... ;-)
>
> I had the same issue that I liked to earlier, when I ran modprobe (as detailed) it changed my frequency from 2.19 to 2.20. I rebooted, and was right back where I started from (i.e. scaling not working, cpu freq set at 2.19).
> I did the modprobe again, and added the acpi-cpufreq, rebooted, and everything works correctly...
>
> I attached the files you requested, let me know if you need anything
> else.

Thanks, but if it is working for you then those files aren't
that much use.

As I said, if you are running the Jaunty kernel then it shouldn't
even be possible to load that module, so something is odd.

Please provide the output of "modinfo acpi-cpufreq"

Thanks,

James

[Bartłomiej Żogała (nusch)]

root@novopad:~# lsmod
Module Size Used by
acpi_cpufreq 16528 0
cpufreq_stats 14468 0
cpufreq_powersave 10368 0
cpufreq_conservative 16392 0
cpufreq_userspace 12420 0
cpufreq_ondemand 16400 0
freq_table 13568 3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_stats,cpufreq_ondemand
tun 21124 1
aes_x86_64 16384 1
aes_generic 36392 1 aes_x86_64
af_packet 29824 4
nvidia 10174232 39
i2c_core 36128 1 nvidia
binfmt_misc 18700 1
ppdev 16904 0
rfcomm 50848 0
sco 20612 2
bridge 64544 0
stp 11268 1 bridge
bnep 23040 2
l2cap 33280 6 rfcomm,bnep
bluetooth 70820 6 rfcomm,sco,bnep,l2cap
vboxnetflt 111596 0
vboxdrv 1706156 1 vboxnetflt
ipv6 314568 16
pci_slot 13704 0
sbs 22288 0
sbshc 14592 1 sbs
container 12288 0
wmi 15808 0
ext2 81552 1
snd_hwdep 17160 0
sbp2 32652 0
lp 19588 0
parport 50096 2 ppdev,lp
snd_hda_codec_si3054 14208 1
snd_hda_codec_realtek 265604 1
snd_hda_intel 36968 5
arc4 10368 2
snd_hda_codec 78080 3 snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_codec_realtek,snd_hda_intel
ecb 11520 2
crypto_blkcipher 27780 1 ecb
snd_pcm_oss 52256 0
iwlagn 112900 0 ...

[Bartłomiej Żogała (nusch)]

I see now, after upgrade from 8.10 to 9.04 there is 2.6.28-11 kernel in /boot but the upgrade didn't change entries in grub menu

[dnh (dnh)]

After upgrade to 9.04 scaling does not work anymore (Intel Core 2 E8500).

It is running on the new kernel.

[dnh (dnh)]

Ad: When I check power management, it does report that scaling should be able - but it does not scale.

[Jon.Thacker (heliosphan10)]

For those having this issue what is your kernel version? I checked mine and noticed that it was pre-Jaunty. Turns out my menu.lst for grub had not updated and a simple update-grub cleared everything up.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

Using 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Jaunty upgrade worked fine on my other computer, using an Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 CPU. The computer i'm having problems with has an AMD X2 6000+ CPU, running at 3.0GHz but can downscale to 1.0GHz.

It appears power management is supported, since the CPU scaling applet doesn't lock me out and tell me Power Management isn't supported (like when using Ubuntu inside Virtualbox). Instead, it would allow me to change options, but no matter what i do it will only run at its maximum frequency: 3.0GHz.

Please tell me what command output you require to diagnose this further. Thank you.

[sub.mesa (sub-mesa)]

Addition: after installing powernowd package, which implied removing the cpufreqd package, CPU frequency scaling works again on my Athlon X2 6000+. So the problem seems to be related to cpufreqd.

[Christoph Dwertmann (cdwertmann)]

I've got three Intel CPU machines here, all running Jaunty with kernel 2.6.28-11-generic.

On the Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU 6400 @ 2.13GHz (Dual Core PC) I get:
 find /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq
find: `/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq': No such file or directory

On the Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N270 @ 1.60GHz (eeeBox) I get:
 find /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq
find: `/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq': No such file or directory

On the Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T7200 @ 2.00GHz (Dual Core Laptop) I get:
 find /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/affected_cpus
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/related_cpus
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver
... and so on, cpufreq works fine!

CPU frequency scaling only seems to be supported only on certain CPUs in jaunty.

[drPavos (dzueco)]

I had the same problem when i upgraded to Jaunty.
I found the solution in:
http://bogdan.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/debian-cpu-frequency-scaling.pdf
it worked for me.

[Christoph Dwertmann (cdwertmann)]

The modules mentioned in the PDF guide you posted are not available in Jaunty:

 sudo modprobe speedstep-centrino
FATAL: Module speedstep-centrino not found.

 sudo modprobe acpi-cpufreq
FATAL: Module acpi-cpufreq not found.

since they are built into the kernel.

I've tested a fourth machine, this time a Core 2 Quad desktop computer:

 find /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq
find: `/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq': No such file or directory

3 out of 4 Intel machines I've tested do not support cpufreq with kernel 2.6.28-11-generic. This has been working for ages on other kernels.

[drPavos (dzueco)]

Hi Cristoph,
In my case i didnt have the speedste-centrino neither, but i had the acpi-cpufreq.
thus, as i said, in my case the PDF guide worked fine for me.
I can not tell you nothing else, since im really a beginner with ubuntu. i just found this guide by "googling".

[Christoph Dwertmann (cdwertmann)]

If you can load acpi-cpufreq, you probably don't use the latest jaunty kernel. Check with "uname -a" if you run version 2.6.28-11-generic.

[Apteryx (maxco)]

I am also experiencing this with latest Ubuntu 9.04 amd64. My motherboard is P5W DH Deluxe, and I've tried various bios (enabling ACPI, EIST, CIE, etc...) and also factory defaults but the gnome applet frequency monitor will keep warning that the "frequency scaling is not supported for this processor". I have a modern Intel Quad Core Q6700, which should support this feature.

Kernel in use is : 2.6.28-11-generic

The various modules discussed here are all missing from my configuration, even with cpufreq and powernowd installed.

Some outputs :
find: "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq": Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
cat: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_drivercat: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver:
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
cat: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type
cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies
cat: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_frequencies: Aucun fichier ou dossier de ce type

Tt says (in french) that I have none of these files or folders on my machine.

[Apteryx (maxco)]

This bug is no more... for me nonetheless.

The issue was the bios for my P5W DH Deluxe. P5W DH Deluxe users beware : the bios v. 2801 will break EIST compatibility. I succeeded reverting to an older bios, v. 2504, and the frequency scaling worked after I removed cpufrequtils and other superfluous packages.

Linux developpers : keep up the spirit! / ASUS bios team : stop making cheezy bios, please.

[retief (retief)]

Upgraded from 8.10 to 9.04 with Upgrade-manager

After reading Nusch's message about Grub not updating, I had a look there

2.6.28-11-generic was in my '/boot' but not in 'menu.lst' - menu.lst still pointed to 8.10's last two images - the oldest wich did not exist anymore..... :o

sudo update-grub saw the new image in /boot but still did not update the menu.lst

I then manually changed the image names in menu.lst and did 'sudo update grub' - now I have the correct image loading and cpu-scaling-applet does not complain anymore
Now to change the profile - thanks Nusch for the pointer
Grub not updating alrady logged:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/grub/+bug/202009

[Mats (mp-eriksson)]

The bug still exists for me on my Dell Vostro 1700, and my computer only runs at 800MHz which makes it slow and unsuitable for watching HDTV movies.

I installed the cpufrequtils and ran cpufreq-info, se output below. The most interesting line is probably:
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.

Is this problem just about changing this policy? And how is that done?

Mats

-------------------------------

mats@core:~$ cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 004: 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: 800 MHz - 2.20 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.20 GHz, 2.20 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
                  The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 800 MHz.
  cpufreq stats: 2.20 GHz:0.00%, 2.20 GHz:0.00%, 1.60 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:0.02% (2933)
analyzing CPU 1:
  driver: acpi-cpufreq
  CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 1
  hardware limits: 800 MHz - 2.20 GHz
  available frequency steps: 2.20 GHz, 2.20 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, userspace, powersave, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 800 MHz.
                  The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 800 MHz.
  cpufreq stats: 2.20 GHz:0.00%, 2.20 GHz:0.00%, 1.60 GHz:0.00%, 1.20 GHz:0.00%, 800 MHz:0.02% (3013)

[Christoph Dwertmann (cdwertmann)]

Mats,

the bug you describe is a different one. This one is about frequency scaling being not supported, while your output states 5 supported frequency steps.

I've solved the problem on my Asus P5B-E motherboard but upgrading to the latest BIOS. It still persists with the Quadcore and Atom machines that I've tested.

Since quite a few people seem to be able to solve this via BIOS up- or downgrades, it seems Linux / Ubuntu is not the one to blame.

[Alan Franzoni (alanfranz)]

I'm experiencing the very same issue on Jaunty 64 bit on Athlon 64 x2.

What really seems to have happened is that some functionalities which were built as *modules* in the 2.6.27 kernel are now built right into the kernel:

64 bit config comparison (unset values removed):
config-2.6.27-11-generic:424:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y
config-2.6.27-11-generic:428:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
config-2.6.27-11-generic:431:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:432:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:433:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
config-2.6.27-11-generic:434:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:435:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:436:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:437:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS=y
config-2.6.27-11-generic:438:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:3392:CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:3420:CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8=m
config-2.6.27-11-generic:3421:CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8_ACPI=y

config-2.6.28-11-generic:429:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:433:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:436:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:437:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:438:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:439:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:440:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:441:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:442:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_STAT_DETAILS=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:443:CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_TABLE=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:3601:CONFIG_X86_ACPI_CPUFREQ=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:3630:CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8=y
config-2.6.28-11-generic:3631:CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8_ACPI=y

But probably something did not work with some modules / kernel parts. Maybe some functions were designed to work as modules only, and they simply can't work if builtin?

Experience with 3 Jaunty PCs:

1) HP Desktop with a Pentium E2160 CPU and Jaunty 32 bit -> cpufreq still available and working
2)Dell desktop with Core 2 Duo E6xxx CPU, Jaunty 32 bit -> cpufreq still available and working
3) Homebuilt Athlon 64 x2, Jaunty 64 bit -> cpufreq unavailable since Jaunty upgrade.

I'm attaching a tar.gz with the output from cpuinfo, uname -a and find for the three pcs.

[the-fallen (thefallen)]

During my work with linux-phc I noticed that some combinations of Intel Pentium M (centrino based) CPUs and BIOSes fail to work using acpi-cpufreq but working with speedstep-centrino.

The problem is somewhere within the ACPI subsystem that decides that the system lacks some needed functionality (-> SYSTEM_IO_CAPABLE instead of SYSTEM_MSR_CAPABLE).

Until 8.10 the speedstep-centrino did the work. Not that the Ubuntu devs decided to compile-in processor drivers speedstep-centrino can not work (because acpi-cpufreq blocks the device since it took over the functions).

The only way to those certain users will be to compile their own kernel and set acpi-cpufreq as module again (or completely remove it) to be able to use speedstep-centrino again.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Mike Rose, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. Jaunty reached EOL on October 23, 2010.
Please see this document for currently supported Ubuntu releases:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases

We were wondering if this is still an issue on a supported release? If so, 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 in a supported release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal). It will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report.

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

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.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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