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Re: CPU usage mysteriously spiking after kernel upgrade



Thanks everyone for the helpful suggestions!

* Darac Marjal <mailinglist@darac.org.uk> [110504 10:26]:
> Has your CPU governor changed, perhaps, to something more 'twitchy'?
> Try:
>    cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
>
> If this returns "ondemand", for example, the CPU will jump to a higher
> frequency more readily than, say "conservative". To change it,
> temporarily, echo one of the words in
> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors to
> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor and see whether
> that helps.

It was indeed set to ondemand. I changed this to conservative and the
twitchyness subsided:

  # echo conservative > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor
 
Using those keywords I searched and found:

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/How_to_make_use_of_Dynamic_Frequency_Scaling

Which suggests using the sysfsutils package & editing /etc/sysfs.conf
so that these settings are applied automatically on boot...I did that.


* Arnt Karlsen <arnt@c2i.net> [110504 10:26]:
> ..try "apt-get update; apt-cache search linux-image " for better
> and up-to-date ideas

I'll look into trying out some of the other kernels as well. When I
have more free time I'd like to tweak & compile a custom kernel for
this machine.


* Jörg-Volker Peetz <jvpeetz@web.de> [110504 18:37]:
> What kind of processor is built into your Thinkpad?

% cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 13
model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) M processor 1.50GHz
stepping        : 8
cpu MHz         : 600.000
cache size      : 2048 KB
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 2
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss tm pbe up bts est tm2
bogomips        : 1196.05
clflush size    : 64
power management:

> What is the output of lsmod?
> Maybe the kernel module used for frequency scaling is not optimal.

% lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ipw2200               130752  0 
michael_mic             2256  8 
arc4                    1656  4 
lib80211_crypt_tkip     8376  2 
aes_i586                8024  1 
aes_generic            27012  1 aes_i586
lib80211_crypt_ccmp     5000  1 
af_packet              18932  4 
usb_storage            32536  0 
usb_libusual           19680  1 usb_storage
usbhid                 33988  0 
i915                  199800  2 
drm                   137224  2 i915
i2c_algo_bit            5124  1 i915
acpi_cpufreq            8136  0 
cpufreq_ondemand        6624  0 
cpufreq_userspace       2816  0 
cpufreq_conservative     6920  1 
cpufreq_stats           4624  0 
cpufreq_powersave       1328  0 
freq_table              3424  3 acpi_cpufreq,cpufreq_ondemand,cpufreq_stats
sbs                    11912  0 
sbshc                   5048  1 sbs
pci_slot                4612  0 
container               3468  0 
twofish                 6848  1 
twofish_common         12856  1 twofish
ecb                     2676  5 
ecryptfs               87628  0 
fuse                   56816  1 
ipv6                  253624  16 
pcmcia                 34108  0 
snd_intel8x0m          13164  0 
snd_seq_dummy           2572  0 
thinkpad_acpi          60212  0 
hwmon                   2464  1 thinkpad_acpi
ac                      4252  0 
libipw                 24572  1 ipw2200
yenta_socket           22708  1 
rsrc_nonstatic         10688  1 yenta_socket
rfkill                 17468  1 thinkpad_acpi
lib80211                5428  4 ipw2200,lib80211_crypt_tkip,lib80211_crypt_ccmp,libipw
pcmcia_core            31480  3 pcmcia,yenta_socket,rsrc_nonstatic
nvram                   6340  1 thinkpad_acpi
video                  20252  1 i915
output                  2668  1 video
battery                10912  0 
evdev                   9032  0 
snd_intel8x0           28120  1 
snd_ac97_codec         99912  2 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0
ac97_bus                1476  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm_oss            35736  0 
snd_mixer_oss          15004  1 snd_pcm_oss
processor              36332  2 acpi_cpufreq
snd_seq_oss            26496  0 
snd_seq_midi            6216  0 
nsc_ircc               18672  0 
snd_rawmidi            19172  1 snd_seq_midi
rtc_cmos               10260  0 
snd_pcm                65536  5 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss
snd_seq_midi_event      6236  2 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi
irda                  165560  1 nsc_ircc
button                  5596  0 
rtc_core               15764  1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib                 2340  1 rtc_core
crc_ccitt               1660  1 irda
snd_seq                46676  6 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_timer              18516  2 snd_pcm,snd_seq
snd_seq_device          6284  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq
shpchp                 29480  0 
pci_hotplug            25160  1 shpchp
snd                    51460  12 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_seq_oss,snd_rawmidi,snd_pcm,snd_seq,snd_timer,snd_seq_device
i2c_i801                8860  0 
i2c_core               19204  4 i915,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_i801
soundcore               6104  1 snd
snd_page_alloc          8020  3 snd_intel8x0m,snd_intel8x0,snd_pcm
intel_agp              25432  1 
raid456                48144  0 
raid6_pq               80144  1 raid456
async_xor               2744  1 raid456
async_memcpy            1740  1 raid456
async_tx                2860  3 raid456,async_xor,async_memcpy
xor                    15792  2 raid456,async_xor
mmc_block               9880  0 
sdhci_pci               7188  0 
sdhci                  15628  1 sdhci_pci
ehci_hcd               32168  0 
uhci_hcd               20356  0 
mmc_core               47852  2 mmc_block,sdhci
led_class               3804  2 thinkpad_acpi,sdhci
e1000                 109796  0 
usbcore               134692  6 usb_storage,usb_libusual,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd
thermal                13892  0 
fan                     4424  0 
squashfs               21204  0 


Regards,

John


-- 
John Magolske
http://B79.net/contact


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