TECRA A9-S9017 -- Idles too hot -- Hardware Support

[freebsd_user at guice.ath.cx]

For those just starting to follow this thread, you can somewhat start at the
begining here: In-Reply-To: <489E9531.2090200 at guice.ath.cx>
-
-
Here's more data to append onto my last message; In-Reply-To:
<20080826002657.B14827 at sola.nimnet.asn.au> --  in response to your:
<quote>
> However we need some empirical data about what it's doing.  Showing
> your /var/run/dmesg.boot and 'sysctl hw.acpi' output would be a good start.
></quote>

With respects to 'powered' we ran in to a speed bump or two (2).

IAN:
> (if it's running) then run 'powerd -v' which runs in foreground and says 
> exactly what it's doing re shifting CPU frequency under various loads.
> 

freebsd_user:
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> /etc/rc.d/powerd stop
powerd not running?
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 -->
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> /etc/rc.d/powerd -v
/etc/rc.d/powerd: unknown directive '-v'.
Usage: /etc/rc.d/powerd
[fast|force|one](start|stop|restart|rcvar|status|poll)
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> /etc/rc.d/powerd start -v
Starting powerd.
powerd: lookup freq: No such file or directory
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> ps auxww | grep -i powerd
root     9190  0.0  0.0   372   208  p3  R+    3:32AM   0:00.00 grep -i
powerd
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> ps auxww | grep -i powerd
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> /etc/rc.d/powerd start -v
Starting powerd.
powerd: lookup freq: No such file or directory
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> ps auxww | grep -i powerd
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> /etc/rc.d/powerd start -v
Starting powerd.
powerd: lookup freq: No such file or directory

Now I'm curious about the contents of /etc/rc.d/powerd ...

powerd_poststop()
{
        sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq=`sysctl -n dev.cpu.0.freq_levels |
            sed -e 's:/.*::'` > /dev/null
}


which prompts me to look at the following 'sysctl' ...

Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> sysctl dev.cpu
dev.cpu.0.%desc: ACPI CPU
dev.cpu.0.%driver: cpu
dev.cpu.0.%location: handle=\_PR_.CPU0
dev.cpu.0.%pnpinfo: _HID=none _UID=0
dev.cpu.0.%parent: acpi0
dev.cpu.0.cx_supported: C1/157
dev.cpu.0.cx_lowest: C1
dev.cpu.0.cx_usage: 100.00%
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 --> sysctl -a |grep -i freq
kern.acct_chkfreq: 15
debug.cpufreq.lowest: 0
debug.cpufreq.verbose: 0
machdep.tsc_freq: 2194521505
machdep.i8254_freq: 1193182
machdep.acpi_timer_freq: 3579545
Tue Aug 26 03:30:40 EDT 2008 -->

Unless I've missed or mistyped something, the file /etc/rc.d/powerd is
trying to set a variable (dev.cpu.0.freq=) using the value(s) of "sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq_levels".
Once again unless I've missed or mistyped something, and please correct me if I'm wrong,"sysctl
dev.cpu.0.freq_levels" doesn't seem to exist within the machine.

If UPGRADING from 6.3-p3 to 7.X will save us all some time with the issues stated in this
thread, then so be it.  I don't mind trouble-shooting or customizing issues such
as this, but it may be a bit much given my mobile nature.


Time permiting I'll get to your next suggetion shown; just below this
line:

> It's also useful to watch the temperature(s) directly over the time, see ug
> acpi_thermal(4) and try logging those sysctls periodically in a script.
> 
> Firstly, yes that comment isn't too helpful .. power_profile only acts 
> (so far) when you apply or remove AC power, using the following values 
> from /etc/defaults/rc.conf unless you've set them otherwise:
> 
> performance_cx_lowest="HIGH"            # Online CPU idle state
> performance_cpu_freq="HIGH"             # Online CPU frequency
> economy_cx_lowest="HIGH"                # Offline CPU idle state
> economy_cpu_freq="HIGH"                 # Offline CPU frequency
> 
> If you have a look at /etc/rc.d/power_profile you'll see that these are 
> applied to sysctl hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest (from hw.acpi.cpu.cx_supported)
> and dev.cpu.0.freq (from dev.cpu.0.freq_levels).  You can set the above 
> variables to HIGH, LOW, a specific value, or NONE.
> 
> Specify "NONE" to have power_profile make no changes.  "C3" or at least 
> "C2" can be useful CX values, in some machines helping with temperature.  
> powerd will soon override the dev.cpu.0.freq setting anyway, so it's not 
> a problem - again, watch powerd -v output - and I guess you'll rarely 
> run on battery (you've got a nice 2-3 hour UPS, though :)
> 

Your thoughts?

> cheers, Ian
>
>  >
>  > Thank you.
>  >
>  > TECRA_A9-S9017

Wes Morgan, are you there?  :=)