acpi/cpu scaling probs? Dell D820 FreeBSD current

[Kevin Oberman]

> Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 23:42:48 +0300
> From: Alexander Motin <mav at FreeBSD.org>
> 
> Kevin Oberman wrote:
> >> Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 21:55:48 +0300
> >> From: Alexander Motin <mav at FreeBSD.org>
> >> Sender: owner-freebsd-acpi at freebsd.org
> >>
> >> Ron Freidel wrote:
> >>> I hope I am posting to the correct list...
> >>>
> >>> I have updated to FreeBSD current to try out acpi sleep, which works great
> >>> by the way, and the improvements to wifi and the addition of sleep are
> >>> enough to keep current on the laptop.
> >>>
> >>> Here's the problem, the cpu is maxed out, no scaling at all.
> >>>
> >>> Here's the output of powerd -v
> >>> <snip>
> >>> load 108%, current freq 2000 MHz ( 0), wanted freq 4000 MHz
> >>> load 109%, current freq 2000 MHz ( 0), wanted freq 4000 MHz
> >>> load 102%, current freq 2000 MHz ( 0), wanted freq 4000 MHz
> >>> load 124%, current freq 2000 MHz ( 0), wanted freq 4000 MHz
> >>> load 108%, current freq 2000 MHz ( 0), wanted freq 4000 MHz
> >>> <snip>
> >>         ^^^
> >> This is the reason. powerd sees that one of your CPUs is constantly 
> >> busy. You should investigate why and what that CPU does.
> > 
> > Agreed, but that still does not explain why it keeps trying to set the
> > clock to 4 GHz on a 2 GHz system. Not too surprising that it does not
> > work. :-)
> 
> It is not a bug, but feature. It is specific of the "hiadaptive" mode. 
> It means that CPU is too busy now and should not drop frequency 
> immediately after load drops to not loose system interactivity and 
> performance.

Thanks! This makes excellent sense. I think I need to switch mine to
hiadaptive, at least on AC. Now, it Ron can get his CPU under control, I
think things will be normal on his system.
-- 
R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
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