problems getting AMD C-70 APU working with powerd/cpufreq

[tech-lists]

Hi,

On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 02:58:10AM +1100, Ian Smith wrote:
>On Sat, 14 Oct 2017 22:26:02 +0100, tech-lists wrote:
> > On Sat, Oct 14, 2017 at 10:36:02PM +1100, Ian Smith wrote:
> > > On Fri, 13 Oct 2017 13:37:21 +0100, tech-lists wrote:

>However, this is after you've booted, right?  Might you need to add
>cpufreq_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf, so it's loaded before being
>needed for detection / attachment during boot probing, perhaps?

ok tried that. I get cpufreq.ko loaded in the kernel via
/boot/loader.conf but still I get

$ sudo powerd -v
powerd: no cpufreq(4) support -- aborting: No such file or directory

>I may again be misinterpreting how your dmesg arose .. you can select
>verbose boot or add boot_verbose="YES" and maybe verbose_loading="YES"
>to loader.conf too .. I often run that way and quote /var/run/dmesg.boot

selected at boot

>Again, might this be rather because cpufreq wasn't loaded before boot?

unfortunately, with it loaded in loader.conf seems to not make any
difference.

>then battery life should be ok?  Or maybe was, 3-4 years ago?

difficult to say, and there is a story behind that. [0]

>Well unless booting with cpufreq loaded - assuming you didn't before -
>provides any more info on why powernow(0) (STILL no manpage!) didn't at
>least try to attach, I'm out of ideas.
>
>If you do get any further, sysctl hw.acpi might shed some light too.

I have set hw.acpi.verbose=1 in /etc/sysctl.conf for obvious reasons

$ sudo sysctl -a | grep hw.acpi
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._TSP: 40
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._TC2: 3
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._TC1: 2
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._ACx: -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1 -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._CRT: 100.1C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._HOT: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0._PSV: 94.1C
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.thermal_flags: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.passive_cooling: 1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.active: -1
hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.temperature: 70.1C
hw.acpi.thermal.user_override: 0
hw.acpi.thermal.polling_rate: 10
hw.acpi.thermal.min_runtime: 0
hw.acpi.battery.info_expire: 5
hw.acpi.battery.units: 1
hw.acpi.battery.state: 0
hw.acpi.battery.time: -1
hw.acpi.battery.life: 100
hw.acpi.acline: 1
hw.acpi.cpu.cx_lowest: C2
hw.acpi.reset_video: 0
hw.acpi.handle_reboot: 1
hw.acpi.disable_on_reboot: 0
hw.acpi.verbose: 1
hw.acpi.s4bios: 0
hw.acpi.sleep_delay: 1
hw.acpi.suspend_state: S3
hw.acpi.standby_state: NONE
hw.acpi.lid_switch_state: NONE
hw.acpi.sleep_button_state: S3
hw.acpi.power_button_state: S5

[0] would you beleive this netbook was set at the factory to load
windows 8 installation!! When I saw how it was struggling, I aborted 
the process and installed linux mint as a stopgap, thinking maybe
install freebsd later when there was more time. Leading to this
situation [1]

So for a while it was used as a mint netbook, then hd errors started
happening, so installed freebsd with the then new option of root-on-zfs
and used it as a hobby/dev server that came with built-in UPS (ie the
netbook battery). While configured like this, it was permanently plugged
into AC and wired ethernet. It was set up this way for a couple of
years. Then my bigger, more powerful laptop died, so re-purposed the
netbook to be a proper netbook, along the way replacing the hd with a
SSD, upgrading ram from 4GB to 8GB [1]. It's now running smoothly but the
battery needs replacing as the capacity is 70% of what it was. It
manages about 2 hrs, longer if the screen is off, but this is another
problem [3]. I'm persisting in trying to get this device working as I'd
like because the form factor and build quality is excellent and the
wireless is well supported (Atheros AR9485)

[1] bios upgrades seem to require windows being present. It's a windows
executable file [4] [5]

[2] somehow the bios acquired a password. I don't know the password. [5]
All I can do is to select bootable media, all other functions and access
to the bios require a password.

[3] there are function keys to turn up and down the brightness. Right
now it's at 100% brightness and the function keys don't work under
FreeBSD (they may have done under Mint, I can't remember). The screen
will automatically turn off after 10 mins of keyboard non-use.

[4] I have a windows 8 key but no windows, and I don't own any windows
computers, not for a long time.

[5] I think swapping out the hardware made it "acquire" a "password" 
I'll try to get some diagnostics via linux mint, booting from usb3.
Have tried via booting to freedos but the executable seems to require
actual windows :(

ISTR acpi being turned on in the bios. But there's nothing much tunable
in there. That and selecting boot media are about it.

many thanks,
-- 
J.