# CPU throttling

## TE

Hi !

I have a Acer Aspire Laptop and try to save enery  :Wink:  I read about autospeedstep, and installed it. It compiled well, and runs well, and /var/log/speedstep indicates that it changes between powersave and full power, but i don't quite trust it :

cat /proc/acpi/processor/CPU0/info

processor id:            0

acpi id:                 1

bus mastering control:   yes

power management:        yes

throttling control:      no

performance management:  no

limit interface:         no

Hmm, so what can I do to change this ?

The website says I need an ACPI-backport-patch, but when i tried to

apply it to my gentoo-sources kernel, it seemd to be already installed.

Thank you all

Tobias

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## mb

 *TE wrote:*   

> Hi !
> 
> /var/log/speedstep indicates that it changes between powersave and full power, but i don't quite trust it

 

hi....

i also tried speedstep and found out, that it does nothing else then writing the log   :Wink: 

my system is a dell d600 (centrino), vanilla kernel with latest acpi patch (btw: i'm not quite sure if gentoo-sources uses the latest acpi, maybe check version of acpi), but performance mgmt on centrinos is not (yet) supported....

#mb

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## TE

That's what i suppose, too.

But waht can i do to make my kernel support AMD PowerNow! ?

Regards

TE

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## mb

re,

imho you need latest acpi and cpufreq patch ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/cpufreq/.... 

#mb

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## TE

 *mb wrote:*   

> 
> 
> imho you need latest acpi and cpufreq patch ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/cpufreq/.... 
> 
> #mb

 

OK, i installed this (had to change 2 files by hand because ofoher patches in gentoo-sources) but it says:

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k6.o: init_module: No such device

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k6.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k6.o failed

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k6.o: insmod powernow-k6 failed

 :Sad: 

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## Odin

powernow-k6 is definately the wrong module anyway, since you've got an athlon (k7)

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## karl420

APM should add this feature for you if configured correctly in the kernel config (AFAIK). I have this working with an Athlon.

Karl

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## paranode

 *karl420 wrote:*   

> APM should add this feature for you if configured correctly in the kernel config (AFAIK). I have this working with an Athlon.
> 
> Karl

 

Hmm, I'd be interested in doing this on my Athlon XP laptop.  You just enable APM in the kernel?  What after that, is there a control program or you do it through a window manager?

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## TE

 *karl420 wrote:*   

> APM should add this feature for you if configured correctly in the kernel config (AFAIK). I have this working with an Athlon.
> 
> Karl

 

So what is correctly ?

i turned ACPI off and APM on, emerged apmd, but all i see under /proc is apm , which contains som cryptic signs  :Sad: 

What can i do to 

a) know how full my battery is

b) save battery power

regards

TE

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## dmind

i use gs-sources and autospeedstep and it seems to be working... on a inspiron 8200

it switches between 1,2 and 1,6ghz.

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## JensZ

First off all you need powernow-k7 since.

Currently this is only avaible in latest ac kernels, or by patching.

But due to a buggy Bios by Acer you also need a special patch witch

Hardcodes requencys and Voltages (without patching my Acer Aspire

1304lc only got 2 speed adjustements 500Mhz and 600mhz with the same

voltage. so without patch cpufreq is nonfunctional).

The driver automaticly switches between full power and powersave by

detecting ac adapter state. The other possibility is a so called userspace

frequence govenor (cpufreqd) witch can be configured for special

programms to run a fullpower...

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## TE

 *JensZ wrote:*   

> First off all you need powernow-k7 since.
> 
> Currently this is only avaible in latest ac kernels, or by patching.
> 
> But due to a buggy Bios by Acer you also need a special patch ...

 

Where can i get these patches ? I applied  ftp://ftp.linux.org.uk/pub/linux/cpufreq/cpufreq-LINUX_2_4-20030711.tar.gz

to my gentoo-sources kernel, and it only provides the k6 module.

Now i cheked again, and it has a k7 module source file, but the patch for the kernel doesn't add a posibility to select it. So I changed some lines in

linux/arch/i386/config.in and in linux/arch/i386/kernel/Makefile, from k6 to k7 and now i have k7 module. But now:

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k7.o: unresolved symbol cpufreq_init_R4d505b6b

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k7.o: insmod /lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k7.o failed

/lib/modules/2.4.20-gentoo-r5/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/powernow-k7.o: insmod powernow-k7 failed

So where did you get those patches (esp. the Acer one) from ?

I'll emerge ac-sources next week when i visit my brother, because i only have a modem here.

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## JensZ

currently i'm using 2.4.74 with the newest cpufreqd patch.

My last experince was one moth ago.

Never the less here's the 

http://www.linux.org.uk/mailman/private/cpufreq/ Mailinglist,

where you will find the patch which hardcodes frequencies and Voltages.

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## TE

Now I emerged ac-sources, and it really works after I added the patch to hardcode the voltages. I found this nice script:

http://mopoinfo.informatik.uni-freiburg.de/downloads/cpufreq

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## JensZ

You got a correct PST table?

Try dmesg and look if there are correct voltages and freuqnec scales

shown if i doubt

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## TE

powernow: AMD K7 CPU detected.

powernow: PowerNOW! Technology present. Can scale: frequency and voltage.

powernow: Found PSB header at c00e5100

powernow: Table version: 0x12

powernow: Flags: 0x0 (Mobile voltage regulator)

powernow: Settling Time: 100 microseconds.

powernow: Has 1 PST tables. (Only dumping ones relevant to this CPU).

powernow: PST:0 (@c00e5110)

powernow:  cpuid: 0x781  fsb: 133  maxFID: 0xe  startvid: 0xb

powernow:    FID: 0x4 (5.0x [665MHz])  VID: 0x13 (1.200V)

powernow:    FID: 0x6 (6.0x [798MHz])  VID: 0x13 (1.200V)

powernow:    FID: 0xa (8.0x [1064MHz])  VID: 0x13 (1.200V)

powernow:    FID: 0xe (10.0x [1330MHz])  VID: 0xb (1.450V)

powernow:    FID: 0x1 (11.5x [1529MHz])  VID: 0x9 (1.550V)

looks good. I applied the patch for the buggy Acer bios from the CPUfreq list. Before, I only had one setting.

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## JensZ

okay that means Acer is still not able to provide a correct bios...

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