# I can't use conservative or ondemand governor... why?

## mrfree

Here is my system info

```
# cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor       : 0

vendor_id       : GenuineIntel

cpu family      : 15

model           : 2

model name      : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 1.90GHz

stepping        : 9

cpu MHz         : 1898.651

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 sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe cid xtpr

bogomips        : 3774.46
```

```
# cpufreq-info

cpufrequtils 0.3: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004

Report errors and bugs to linux@brodo.de, please.

analyzing CPU 0:

  driver: speedstep-ich

  CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0

  hardware limits: 1.20 GHz - 1.90 GHz

  available frequency steps: 1.90 GHz, 1.20 GHz

  available cpufreq governors: conservative, ondemand, powersave, userspace, performance

  current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 1.90 GHz.

                  The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use

                  within this range.

  current CPU frequency is 1.90 GHz (asserted by call to hardware).
```

If I try to set conservative or ondemand governor

```

# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

performance

# echo conservative > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

OR

# echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

# cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

performance
```

Nothing change, but userspace and powersave works well

----------

## toralf

Do you havebuild the modules ?

```

tfoerste@n22 ~ $ grep CPU_FREQ_GOV /usr/src/linux/.config

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=m

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=m

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=m

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=m

```

----------

## mrfree

All governors are build-in in my kernel

```
# grep CPU_FREQ_GOV /usr/src/linux/.config

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_PERFORMANCE=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=y

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_CONSERVATIVE=y
```

----------

## bollucks

I assume you're doing the change as root...

----------

## mrfree

 *bollucks wrote:*   

> I assume you're doing the change as root...

 

yes

----------

## mrfree

The problem seems to reside in speedstep-ich module, probably it doesn't support ondemand/conservative governor (?)

I'm trying to use acpi_cpufreq module, with this I can set conservative governor but I cannot change cpu frequency (but any errors appears although I've enabled cpufreq debug in kernel configuration)   :Sad: 

Edit: For debug I need to set cpufreq.debug in the kernel cmdline, I'll try it...

----------

## mrfree

Ok probably my mistake...

With acpi_cpufreq all seems to works:

- with performance governor I can manually set 1900Mhz or 1200Mhz

- with ondemand/conservative I cannot manually set cpu frequency

I've tried ondemand with a low up_threshold parameter and the cpu "jump" from 1200 to 1900 correctly, but with conservative the cpu clock doesn't seem to change (I monitor it with gnome cpufreq applet) I use down_threshold=5 and up_threshold=20 to test it but the clock remain to 1200 with a costant cpu usage too, is it normal?

----------

## mrfree

In my case I should use ondemand governor instead of conservative because I can use my P4m at 1900Mhz or 1200Mhz without any intermediate steps

----------

## freke

I too have had little luck with the conservative govenor - I couldn't get it to change the freq on my CPU, so I stayed with the ondemand governor which scales correctly from 800 - 2000MHz on my system.

AMD64Turion 3200+

----------

## umproko5

Has anyone managed to get conservative to work on a Dell Latitude D600? All other governers work except that one.

Modules loaded:

speedstep-centrino

cpufreq_conservative

cpufreq_ondemand

cpufreq_powersave

cpufreq_performance

/Jason

----------

## OttOFIT

POWERSAVE governor should set your cpu STATICALLY to its lowest frequency, as PERFORMANCE should do to its highest.

ONDEMAND does the cpu frequency scaling dynamically - so does conservative governor, in a more ..er.. conservative way a :Smile: . They do not allow user to change  cpu freq.

USERSPACE governor does allow the user to set cpu freq via userspace programs like cpufreqd. performing cpu frequency scaling (eg intel enhanced speedstep, transmeta longrun (?) ando others).

Simple speedsted allows for a switch between lowest and highest freqs only, no more.

P4 clock throttling or clock modulation (beware: above i'm talking about clock *modification*) it is different.

So: use userspace governor if you have speedstep tecnology (p4-mobile, centrino)on x86 and want to manually choose between allowed frequencies.

Or use ondemand, performance, powersave, conservative and use klaptopdaemon to switch between them. Beware that you may run into some problems setting up klaptopdaemon. grepping for governor in its configuration file (kcmlaptoprc) and setting it e.g. to ondemand and enabling performance profiles may solve some problems

Hope it helps

mic

[quote="mrfree"]Here is my system info

[code]# cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor       : 0

vendor_id       : GenuineIntel

cpu family      : 15

model           : 2

model name      : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 - M CPU 1.90GHz

----------

## umproko5

I have it working accept for the conservative govenor. Everytime, whether automatic or manually set, the conservative govenor locks the keyboard. I have even reinstalled gentoo to see if something screwed up the first time. Still no luck.

Any suggestions???

Running on a DELL D600 laptop.

----------

