CPU Scaling not working on laptop

doveman · posted: 2012-09-06 17:39

I'm hoping to use AntiX on an old laptop, Sony VAIO PCG-FX501. It has a Mobile AMD Duron 1Ghz and AMD Mobility M1 8MB GPU.

The problem is it doesn't seem to downclock the CPU when idle, meaning it gets rather hot and the fans spin at full speed constantly. Under XP it runs much cooler/quieter, so I'm guessing that's the problem anyway. I looked at the CPU Frequency Scaling program but it said it may not be compatible with my laptop and it doesn't appear to do anything. The laptop has a VIA chipset.

So is it possible to install something that will make AntiX downclock the CPU (assuming that's the problem) when idle, so that a) it doesn't get so hot/loud and b) the batteries last longer (not that they're working (i.e either not charging or the charge not being detected properly) at the moment, that's the next thing I need to fix!)

male · 06 Sep 2012, 19:33 #2 2012-09-06 19:33

What processes are at the top of the load?

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htop

or

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top

tell you. __{{emoticon}}__

doveman · posted: 2012-09-06 20:09

Oops, it might have been because I had lean in the boot line, which looks like it prevents some CPU drivers from loading __{{emoticon}}__ I'll see how it is without that.

To answer your question, X and Conky are both 2-3% and then roxterm and top itself on 0.7-1%

male · posted: 2012-09-07 09:42

sorry,
then it can only lie in the BIOS.
Maybe ACPI must be explicitly selected ... To the kernel of antiX it is not.

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linktext was:"http://www.p-weissgerber.de/linux/notebook.html"
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Quelle:

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url was:"http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/sony.html"
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I do not know. __{{emoticon}}__

doveman · posted: 2012-09-07 10:46

Thanks, that first link is very useful.

I think it probably was the 'lean' parameter that was the problem. I think it was loading the Powernow-K7 driver anyway but maybe not the cpufreq_ondemand one.

doveman · posted: 2012-09-10 16:28

I found AMD Powernow_K7 was the correct driver to select in CPU Power Scaling. There appears to be a bug with it though, as it defaults to Maximum 500Mhz, Minimum 1000Mhz which is obviously the wrong way round. After swapping them round I think it's working now.

anticapitalista · posted: 2012-09-10 18:30

Good find doveman. Enjoy antiX either installed or frugally.

Actually, I'm interested on your thoughts of how antiX runs frugally as compared to Puppy. Of course antiX is not Puppy, nor are we trying to 'compete' with Puppy. More like complement Puppy-like to Debian.

doveman · posted: 2012-09-10 18:48

My main issue with Puppy (I tried Slack, Lucid and Wary) is that it used around 240MB, which was a pain when I only had 256MB and I didn't want to use a swapfile as I was running from a CF card. antiX in comparison only used about 60MB, so was much more suitable for a low memory machine (even after upgrading the laptop to 512MB, I didn't really want to lose 240MB to Puppy and even Windows XP only uses about 150MB).

I think it was Puppy (I've given the laptop back to my Dad now, so can't check) that has Frisbee for managing wireless connections which seemed quite user friendly. As you can see from my other thread, I had problems setting up the WLAN in antiX after installing, although I'm pretty sure it was working when I ran it Live. Ideally you want a tool that when clicked on just presents a list of detected wireless points and saved profiles, like the connection manager in XP, as a lot of the utils for Linux seem to make you go through various other screens before getting there and I think even Frisbee was guilty of that.

I know I had trouble installing/upgrading the browser and Opera crashing every time I closed it in Puppy or antiX but I can't recall which I'm afraid. I expect it was Puppy and something to do with the lack of free RAM though.

The main problem I found with antiX is there doesn't seem to be a way to create a user savefile, so it's either run it Live and lose your settings every time or install it for which you need 2-6GB. Maybe there is a way that I overlooked but Puppy makes it very simple, asking you if you want to save when first shutting down.

anticapitalista · posted: 2012-09-10 19:21

doveman - antiX-12 does work like Puppy in live persistence.
You have to create 2 files. rootfs to save any changes made to root eg installed apps and homefs to save changes to home. The antiX control centre has a Live tab and Set up persistence.
You need to add persist to the boot/menu once rootfs/homefs is set up.
antiX also allows users to remaster their running live install to create a new linuxfs file (equivalent to the Puppy sfs file)

doveman · posted: 2012-09-10 20:24

OK, cool, I'll try that sometime. Obviously it's easier and more obvious with Puppy though __{{emoticon}}__