• Registered: 2011-05-02
  • Posts: 1,069

Topic: CPU appears stuck by The governor "performance"

I have been checking the CPU scaling feature on two different systems with cpufrequtils: The Intel Atom N270 (2.6.xx Kernel) responds to manual changes correctly

The Pentim 4 (Kernel 3.2) results below, do not respond to >> sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -g ondemand

Just shows:  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.

I have been searching some related topics and getting nowhere - using driver: p4-clockmod "ondemand" is listed as available for the Pentium 4, but will not show as active after enabled?

Got any ideas?...


cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: p4-clockmod
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 10.00 ms.
  hardware limits: 275 MHz - 2.20 GHz
  available frequency steps: 275 MHz, 550 MHz, 825 MHz, 1.10 GHz, 1.38 GHz, 1.65 GHz, 1.93 GHz, 2.20 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: powersave, conservative, userspace, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 275 MHz and 2.20 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.20 GHz.
  cpufreq stats: 275 MHz:0.00%, 550 MHz:0.00%, 825 MHz:0.00%, 1.10 GHz:0.00%, 1.38 GHz:0.00%, 1.65 GHz:0.00%, 1.93 GHz:0.00%, 2.20 GHz:100.00%

Vansgo's Website

  • fab
  • New member
  • Offline
  • From: wonderland
  • Registered: 2012-02-03
  • Posts: 8

Re: CPU appears stuck by The governor "performance"

Hello Vansgo,

When I first started with Crunchbang I had similar problems. I was able to solve them with a little shell script:

#!/bin/sh

echo ondemand | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo ondemand | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo ondemand | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_governor
echo ondemand | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_governor

This did the trick for me. Please note that this is for a cpu with four cores. If you have less, delete the corresponding lines. Maybe you can give it a try.


Regards
Fab

Last edited by fab (2012-02-09 08:49:55)

  • Registered: 2011-05-02
  • Posts: 1,069

Re: CPU appears stuck by The governor "performance"

Hi,

Thanks for the reply smile

Pentium 4 only has 1 core and no hyperthreding

so I have run that script before posting this topic (just tried again) with same result:

cpufreq-info shows still stuck?


j~$ echo ondemand | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
[sudo] password xxxxxx
ondemand
~$ cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  driver: p4-clockmod
  CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0
  CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
  maximum transition latency: 10.00 ms.
  hardware limits: 275 MHz - 2.20 GHz
  available frequency steps: 275 MHz, 550 MHz, 825 MHz, 1.10 GHz, 1.38 GHz, 1.65 GHz, 1.93 GHz, 2.20 GHz
  available cpufreq governors: powersave, conservative, userspace, ondemand, performance
  current policy: frequency should be within 275 MHz and 2.20 GHz.
                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
                  within this range.
  current CPU frequency is 2.20 GHz.
  cpufreq stats: 275 MHz:0.00%, 550 MHz:0.00%, 825 MHz:0.00%, 1.10 GHz:0.00%, 1.38 GHz:0.00%, 1.65 GHz:0.00%, 1.93 GHz:0.00%, 2.20 GHz:100.00%

Vansgo's Website

  • fab
  • New member
  • Offline
  • From: wonderland
  • Registered: 2012-02-03
  • Posts: 8

Re: CPU appears stuck by The governor "performance"

Hello again,

found an entry in the german ubuntu wiki, which states some kernel related problems. An english bug description can be seen here https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour … bug/432706
Could you please check whether you get something similar to this

I get the following warning in /var/log/syslog: "Sep 18 21:51:07 X24 kernel: [11130.102375] ondemand governor failed, too long transition latency of HW, fallback to performance governor"

while trying to change the governor?

Long story short I see three options:
1. Recompiling the p4-clockmod module with modified values
2. Patching the binary
3. Using powernowd

All three solutions are described in the first link. Hope this solves your speedstepping issue.

Regards
Fab

Last edited by fab (2012-02-09 17:50:39)

  • Registered: 2011-05-02
  • Posts: 1,069

Re: CPU appears stuck by The governor "performance"

Cool, thanks - I will look into this some more - have this other notion to remove dust from tower chassis and reset the CPU w/fresh thermal compound to help ensure ventilation and cooling are working properly - the P4' CPU will melt down if it just keeps cranking like that  smile I shut it down a couple of hours ago.

Vansgo's Website