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

[Wes Morgan]

On Tue, 26 Aug 2008, freebsd_user at guice.ath.cx wrote:

> 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


By "powerd -v" he means not the rc.d script but /usr/sbin/powerd, ie:

[root at catalyst:/usr/home/morganw#]: powerd -v
powerd: using sysctl for AC line status
powerd: using devd for AC line status

> 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.

It looks like you don't have coretemp and/or cpufreq in your kernel. Load 
those modules or include them in your kernel configuration. I don't think 
powerd will be able to do anything without that.


> 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?  :=)
>