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Author Topic: Cpu scaling and fan control issues with Centrino  (Read 2087 times)

Offline wdef

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Cpu scaling and fan control issues with Centrino
« on: December 05, 2009, 03:04:36 AM »
This is the same laptop I've been using for years.  Installed and started acpid and laptop-mode-tools.

Going on battery alone does scale the cpu to half speed but other than that it always seems to run full tilt.  Unlike on say dsl, there does not appear to be a fan module.  The fan is always on though not at full speed.  I notice there are a few other centrino issues on the forum.

Could someone perhaps give me some pointers on manually scaling the cpu or at what I have to install to get this working?





Offline 4-stroke

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Re: Cpu scaling and fan control issues with Centrino
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2009, 03:22:58 AM »
Try putting this in your bootlocal.sh:

Code: [Select]
modprobe acpi-cpufreq
modprobe cpufreq_ondemand
echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

You need the cpufreq-2.6.29.1-tinycore.tczm extension.

Edit: It seems the speedstep module is deprecated and the acpi-cpufreq module should be used instead.
« Last Edit: December 05, 2009, 03:53:08 AM by 4-stroke »
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Online Juanito

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Re: Cpu scaling and fan control issues with Centrino
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2009, 09:52:38 AM »
This is the same laptop I've been using for years.  Installed and started acpid and laptop-mode-tools.

Going on battery alone does scale the cpu to half speed but other than that it always seems to run full tilt.  Unlike on say dsl, there does not appear to be a fan module.  The fan is always on though not at full speed.  I notice there are a few other centrino issues on the forum.

Could someone perhaps give me some pointers on manually scaling the cpu or at what I have to install to get this working?

I would leave laptop-mode-tools aside for the moment and try with the acpid and cpufreq extensions. You don't neccessarily have to start cpufreqd, you could use cpufreq-info to see what's happening in terms of the governor and frequency chosen. Also, you could start acpid in the foreground to see if there are any events regarding fan, temp, etc.

I think the acpi fan module is depreciated, but I could be wrong...

Offline wdef

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Re: Cpu scaling and fan control issues with Centrino
« Reply #3 on: December 12, 2009, 01:05:38 AM »
Thanks 4-stroke and Juanito - I'll give it  a shot and report back.

Re: cpufreq-2.6.29.1-tinycore.tczm  I think I had that installed but will try again. 

Offline wdef

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Re: Cpu scaling and fan control issues with Centrino
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2009, 02:00:19 PM »
Working.

acpid and cpufreq extensions are installed, no laptop-mode-tools, and:

modprobe acpi-cpufreq
modprobe cpufreq_ondemand
echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Much better, thanks.