View Single Post
  #1   (View Single Post)  
Old 4th June 2008
yurtesen yurtesen is offline
Port Guard
 
Join Date: May 2008
Posts: 18
Default Is powerd really working?

Hi,

I have boxes with 6.2-x86 to 7.0-amd64 with CPUs from AMD and Intel ranging between Athlon64, Pentium4, Xeon processors.

OK I have setup powerd and when I run powerd I see (for example):

idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 2978 MHz to 2605 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 2605 MHz to 2233 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 2233 MHz to 1861 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1861 MHz to 1489 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1489 MHz to 1116 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1116 MHz to 744 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 744 MHz to 372 MHz

and sysctl's seem to be in order:

dev.cpu.0.freq: 372
dev.cpu.0.freq_levels: 2978/-1 2605/-1 2233/-1 1861/-1 1489/-1 1116/-1 744/-1 372/-1
dev.p4tcc.0.freq_settings: 10000/-1 8750/-1 7500/-1 6250/-1 5000/-1 3750/-1 2500/-1 1250/-1
dev.cpufreq.0.%driver: cpufreq
dev.cpufreq.0.%parent: cpu0


However, I downloaded acpi_ppc from http://www.spa.is.uec.ac.jp/~nfukuda/software/ and there comes a program called chkfreq with it which measures the cpu time. It always shows the maximum speed. For example 2992751205 for 3ghz P4 (from the above examples) regardless of what freq is set.

OK lets say the chkfreq is faulty, but I tested this on another machine with 6.2 box with:
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3500+ (2202.83-MHz 686-class CPU)
and acpi_ppc says:

cpu0: Px state: P0, 2200MHz, 89000mW, 100us, 7us
cpu0: Px state: P1, 2000MHz, 69000mW, 100us, 7us
cpu0: Px state: P2, 1800MHz, 50000mW, 100us, 7us
cpu0: Px state: P3, 1000MHz, 22000mW, 100us, 7us
cpu0: Px method: AMD K8 Cool'n'Quiet

and when at 1000mhz chkfreq shows 1001297861 when I unload acpi_ppc it shows 2202845489.

Then I load cpufreq and I see:
powernow0: <Cool`n'Quiet K8> on cpu0
and run powerd
dev.cpu.0.freq: 1000
dev.cpu.0.freq_levels: 2200/89000 2000/69000 1800/50000 1000/22000
dev.powernow.0.freq_settings: 2200/89000 2000/69000 1800/50000 1000/22000
dev.cpufreq.0.%driver: cpufreq
dev.cpufreq.0.%parent: cpu0
but when I run chkfreq I get 2202846202 (I checked with -v, powerd does not increase speed while testing)

I tested powerd on several machines with p4, athlon64, xeon processors and it seems to work in none of the machines properly.

Does anybody know how any way to check for sure if powerd is really working or not?

Thanks,
Evren
Reply With Quote