Description of problem: When using ondemand CPU frequency scaling governor the system hangs after half an hour of use or less. Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): 2.6.23.9-85.fc8 #1 SMP Fri Dec 7 15:49:59 EST 2007 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux How reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1. Ugins Celeron M load p4-clockmod module and enable the ondemand governor 2. Do the usual stuff, like browsing, viewing photos and so on (no need to play big videos) 3. The system shows unresposivness - first one app is not responding, but mouse is active and you can switch to another already started app, then everything freezes (mouse pointer including) Actual results: The system is completely unresponsive. Expected results: Normal CPU scaling Additional info: cpu: processor : 0 vendor_id : GenuineIntel cpu family : 6 model : 9 model name : Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor 1400MHz stepping : 5 cpu MHz : 1400.000 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 mce cx8 mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 tm pbe up bts bogomips : 2800.78 clflush size : 64 modules loaded: Module Size Used by vfat 13249 0 fat 45277 1 vfat usb_storage 73601 0 cpufreq_stats 8545 0 cpufreq_ondemand 10317 0 p4_clockmod 8517 0 gspca 663888 0 videodev 28097 1 gspca v4l2_common 18625 1 videodev v4l1_compat 15941 1 videodev autofs4 20421 2 sunrpc 140765 1 dm_mirror 21697 0 dm_multipath 18249 0 dm_mod 46465 2 dm_mirror,dm_multipath ipv6 245989 20 snd_intel8x0m 16845 0 snd_intel8x0 30429 3 snd_ac97_codec 92389 2 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0 ac97_bus 6081 1 snd_ac97_codec snd_seq_dummy 6725 0 snd_seq_oss 29889 0 snd_seq_midi_event 9793 1 snd_seq_oss snd_seq 44849 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq_device 10061 3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq snd_pcm_oss 37569 0 via_rhine 23753 0 snd_mixer_oss 16705 1 snd_pcm_oss firewire_ohci 18497 0 firewire_core 36097 1 firewire_ohci video 19921 0 output 6977 1 video mii 8385 1 via_rhine crc_itu_t 6081 1 firewire_core snd_pcm 63685 5 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss iTCO_wdt 13797 0 ac 8133 0 iTCO_vendor_support 7109 1 iTCO_wdt button 10448 0 snd_timer 20549 3 snd_seq,snd_pcm snd 43461 14 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer i2c_i801 12113 0 pcspkr 6593 0 soundcore 9633 1 snd snd_page_alloc 11337 3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm i2c_core 21825 1 i2c_i801 joydev 11649 0 sg 31965 0 sr_mod 17509 0 cdrom 33889 1 sr_mod ata_piix 16709 4 ata_generic 8901 0 libata 100145 2 ata_piix,ata_generic sd_mod 27329 5 scsi_mod 119757 5 usb_storage,sg,sr_mod,libata,sd_mod ext3 110665 3 jbd 52457 1 ext3 mbcache 10177 1 ext3 uhci_hcd 23633 0 ohci_hcd 21445 0 ehci_hcd 31821 0 I have noticed that the disk led stopped flashing when the first signs of the hang are shown, I believe that is why the apps hang one ofther another, and not all at the same time, eventually everything that is requiring I/O to disk fails. I have checked the disk it is just fine, i can reproduce this on my work laptop also (same celeron M, same module p4-clockmod, same behaviour, disk operations stops, apps hang one after another and finaly everything freezes) nothing is recorded in messages, just the starting of the kernel after the cold reboot. Same happens if I use userspace governor and scale down t lets say 700Mhz the 1.4 G cpu. This was happening with the previous default kernel for F8 also. I am not sure how to collect more info on this, any advice will be appreciated. Thanks
p4-clockmod doesn't actually save any power, and has a number of unexplained problems on some systems. I'm leaning towards just disabling it.
(In reply to comment #1) > p4-clockmod doesn't actually save any power, and has a number of unexplained > problems on some systems. I'm leaning towards just disabling it. > I don't think we have a choice given the problems with it.
Driver disabled in rawhide to see if anyone complains.
Objection! First noticed the problem since updating F8 to 2.6.24.3-12.fc8 a few days ago. Therefore this late complaint. Asus EEE either has a fixed frequency setting of 630 MHz or (by loading p4-clockmod) you get the full frequency range from 112 to 900 MHz and cpuspeed support. I was using cpuspeed + p4-clockmod over a month now, and get not a single hang or crash. Best fix would be to reenable p4-clockmod but blacklisting it if possible. This is my vote for reenabling p4-clockmod. Please!
having knobs to turn is pointless if they are either causing crashes on some systems or having no effect on others. The fact that the eee is appearing to be scaling speed is a misnomer. All it's doing is making work take longer to complete, which isn't saving you any power at all.
Perhaps my comment was not accurate enough. I have no problem if the cpu cannot scale down below 630 MHz, as it is like Dave stated - it does not save power - everything just appears sluggish. With cpuspeed running it seemed to scale up to the full 900 Mhz. This was the reason I objected. Digging in deeper showed I was wrong. Wrote a simple calculating benchmark and ran it multiple times. Using 'time' showed: With p4-clockmod not loaded: * /proc/cpuinfo says cpu MHz = 630 * benchmark run time on average = 1m1s With p4-clockmod loaded and cpuspeed off: * /proc/cpuinfo says cpu MHz = 900 * benchmark run time on average = 1m1s With p4-clockmod loaded and cpuspeed on with MIN_SPEED/MAX_SPEED = 900000: * /proc/cpuinfo says cpu MHz = 900 * benchmark run time on average = 1m1s With p4-clockmod loaded and cpuspeed on with MIN_SPEED/MAX_SPEED = 675000: * /proc/cpuinfo says cpu MHz = 675 * benchmark run time on average = 1m23s So enabling p4-clockmod just raises the displayed MHz, but the cpu is not running any faster when displaying 900 instead of 630 MHz. The difference equals the underclocked/normal FSB ratio: 70 MHz underclocked/100 MHz normal. There is the possibility to overclock the fsb to 100 MHz instead of 70 MHz, where having cpuspeed would be nice, but as it is not guaranteed not to harm the EEE when running with 100 MHz FSB, not having p4-clockmod is not a big issue. Therefore, I am sorry and remove my objection.
*** Bug 438326 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I'd like to add a minor complaint after I've exhausted my other easy paths with my desktop PC. I've got an HP with somewhat broken ACPI DSDT. When it reaches some heat threshold, I get an ACPI error message logged. Example: Feb 3 05:28:59 hostname kernel: ACPI Error (psargs-0355): [\_TZ_.THRM] Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND Feb 3 05:28:59 hostname kernel: ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_GPE._L1C] (Node f7d02450), AE_NOT_FOUND Feb 3 05:28:59 hostname kernel: ACPI Exception (evgpe-0576): AE_NOT_FOUND, while evaluating GPE method [_L1C] [20070126] Basically, the errors map to a bug (undeclared variable basically) in the DSDT that only occurs when the CPU crosses a temp. threshold. Since I'm not up to ACPI debugging (I tried), I've been experimenting with the onboard fan controller and running it at annoyingly high volume levels to reduce the amount of times this message is printed. Even with these step I get around 900 reports a day. Thats an improvement from 10,000's. In the past (up until Fedora 9 rawhide), I simply enabled p4-clockmod and regardless of comments in the source code (saying it doesn't save energy) it seemed to keep the CPU cool enough that the messages were in the <100 range per day. At least for me, the p4-clockmod seems to help reduce CPU heat during idle systems (not busy systems of course) and has resulted in 0% system lockups. I could use it back in standard distribution but will look in to compiling it as a load module without recompiling the whole kernel package.
From my point of view the p4-clockmod is reducing power consumption. Maybe not much because of the high clock rates of the Pentium 4 structure itself but enough to let the CPU produce less heat at all. For sure the work takes longer if the speed is scaled down, but that is just normal. I'd like to remind that the cpu frequency scaling is just about that to reduce speed when the PC is idle or has less work to do. Furthermore it is pretty unusual to use the p4-clockmod with Eee PC when this is equipped with a Celeron CPU based upon the Intel Pentium M arch. Therefor the usage of the integrated acpi_cpufreq should be used.