# AES-NI instructions are not detected

## leipie

Hello!

I have a mobile i5-520um processor with AES-NI support ([url]http://ark.intel.com/products/47554/Intel-Core-i5-520UM-Processor-(3M-Cache-1_06-GHz)[/url])

But the output of "dmesg | grep AES" is "Intel AES-NI instructions are not detected."

I am using a custom compile of the 2.6.38-r1 tuxonice-sources.

Does anyone have a clue why the detection fails and how I can make the kernel detect/use the feature correctly? I would really like to speed up my disk encryption and the processor seems to be the bottleneck.

Cheers,

leipie

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## Hu

Does it work in a newer kernel?  Your current kernel is quite old and no longer receives security or correctness patches.

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## leipie

Thnx,

I haven't tried it with a newer kernel yet. (The latest available is 3.0.17-r1)

Until quite recently 2.6.38 was the latest stable kernel for tuxonice-sources. And the 3+ sources seemed to crash X a lot on my machine and also consume a lot more power from the battery. (both gentoo-sources and tuxonice-sources)

I was hoping that someone could tell me if a newer kernel would solve the problem.

I will try the 3.0 version to make sure it makes a difference.

Cheers,

leipie

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## DaggyStyle

 *leipie wrote:*   

> Thnx,
> 
> I haven't tried it with a newer kernel yet. (The latest available is 3.0.17-r1)
> 
> Until quite recently 2.6.38 was the latest stable kernel for tuxonice-sources. And the 3+ sources seemed to crash X a lot on my machine and also consume a lot more power from the battery. (both gentoo-sources and tuxonice-sources)
> ...

 

3.4 solved the regression power, as for X, are you sure it is the driver and not something else?

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## leipie

The 3.0.15-tuxonice-r1 kernel, also doesn't detect it correctly

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## leipie

Hey!

Same result with 3.2.12-gentoo kernel.

Does anyone know if the statement is correct? If so how I can force the kernel to use/detect the AES-NI functionality?

Cheers,

leipie

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## EatMeerkats

Can you paste the output of "cat /proc/cpuinfo"?

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## leipie

4x

processor       : 3

vendor_id       : GenuineIntel

cpu family      : 6

model           : 37

model name      : Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       U 520  @ 1.07GHz

stepping        : 2

cpu MHz         : 1067.000

cache size      : 3072 KB

physical id     : 0

siblings        : 4

core id         : 2

cpu cores       : 2

apicid          : 5

initial apicid  : 5

fpu             : yes

fpu_exception   : yes

cpuid level     : 11

wp              : yes

flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid

bogomips        : 2831.89

clflush size    : 64

cache_alignment : 64

address sizes   : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual

power management:

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## leipie

I checked with intel's support and they say my cpu should really support the "AES New Instructions"

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## roarinelk

you're missing the "aes" flag.  Either BIOS explicitly disabled it or the CPU does indeed not support aesni at all.

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## leipie

Hmmm,

I think I'm going to bug Asus now  :Razz: 

Thnx for your help.

Cheers,

leipie

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## leipie

Hello again,

Asus support informed me that the processor in my laptop does indeed support the instruction, but the BIOS of my laptop does not. They also informed I had to wait for a BIOS update, but they have no intention/priority to fix this in the near future :s

Does anyone know a way around this?

Cheers,

leipie

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