cpufreq doesn't work quite on Dell GX520 with Pentium D at 2.80gHz

cpufreq doesn't work quite on Dell GX520 with Pentium D at 2.80gHz

[Deirdre Kylie]

Here is the results after "apt-get"-ing it and running cpufreq-info
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...
Preparing to unpack .../cpufrequtils_008-1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking cpufrequtils (008-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
Setting up libcpufreq0 (008-1) ...
Setting up cpufrequtils (008-1) ...
 * Loading cpufreq kernel modules...                                     [fail]
 * CPUFreq Utilities: Setting ondemand CPUFreq governor...
          * disabled, governor not available...
           [ OK ]
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.6) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
root@deeDell:/home/dee# cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 008: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
  no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.
analyzing CPU 1:
  no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

and here is using cpufreq-set (which I knew wouldn't run but I did it
to get any info I could for you.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
root@deeDell:/home/dee# cpufreq-set -c 0 -g performance
Error setting new values. Common errors:
- Do you have proper administration rights? (super-user?)
- Is the governor you requested available and modprobed?
- Trying to set an invalid policy?
- Trying to set a specific frequency, but userspace governor is not available,
   for example because of hardware which cannot be set to a specific frequency
   or because the userspace governor isn't loaded?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hope this is helpful for you

Thank you!

RE: cpufreq doesn't work quite on Dell GX520 with Pentium D at 2.80gHz

[Doug Smythies]

On 2015.09.17 12:24 Deirdre Kylie wrote:

> Here is the results after "apt-get"-ing it and running cpufreq-info
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> ...
> Preparing to unpack .../cpufrequtils_008-1_amd64.deb ...
> Unpacking cpufrequtils (008-1) ...
> Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
> Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
> ureadahead will be reprofiled on next reboot
> Setting up libcpufreq0 (008-1) ...
> Setting up cpufrequtils (008-1) ...
>  * Loading cpufreq kernel modules...          [fail]
>  * CPUFreq Utilities: Setting ondemand CPUFreq governor...
>          * disabled, governor not available...
>           [ OK ]
> Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.19-0ubuntu6.6) ...
> Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-16) ...
> root@deeDell:/home/dee# cpufreq-info
> cpufrequtils 008: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
> Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
> analyzing CPU 0:
>  no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
>  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.
> analyzing CPU 1:
>  no or unknown cpufreq driver is active on this CPU
>  maximum transition latency: 4294.55 ms.

It sounds as though you do not have any frequency scaling driver,
which might be a due to a BIOS setting (I don't know),
and so no you shouldn't try to use cpufrequtils.

Here is a way to check (there may be better ways):

First there is a scaling driver:

doug@s15:~/temp$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_driver
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
intel_pstate
doug@s15:~/temp$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor
powersave
powersave
powersave
powersave
powersave
powersave
powersave
powersave

Second there is not a scaling driver:

doug@doug-64:~$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_driver
cat: /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_driver: No such file or directory

In the latter case the CPU frequency is fixed and is always the same:

doug@doug-64:~$ grep MHz /proc/cpuinfo
cpu MHz         : 3391.586
cpu MHz         : 3391.586