ondemand governor hangs up on my Dell 5150

Hi all!

I'm new to this list and I'd like to have your feedback on the following problem I'm experimenting and which is starting to annoying me very much!

After compiling a new kernel with cpu frequency scaling capabilities activated my system execute the following script at boot time:

echo ondemand > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor /usr/bin/i8kfan 0 0 (*)

And finally, I have my laptop quiet and with low battery consuption at least when I write e-mail read newspaper on line! :)

The problem is that now and then the computer hangs and there's no way to reboot it but holding down the power-off button... thus losing any unsaved data and having to wait for a whole disk error checking at next boot! :(

This problem is sort of repeatable, in fact whenever I launch mplayer the machine hangs up immediately 90% of the times.

I thought a kernel upgrade can solve the problem, but kernel 2.6.21.5 didn't fix it!

Can you tell me whether you experimented similar problem? And how you solved it in case? Or can you help me to understand what is the possible cause?

My laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5150 with:

cpu family : 15
model : 2
model name : Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
stepping : 9
cpu MHz : 3066.590

and os is:

Linux gardelito 2.6.21.5-ARCH #1 SMP Tue Jun 19 19:43:55 CEST 2007 i686 Mobile Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

Thank you very very much for any help/hints you can provide...

Federico.

(*) I found out that if I stop the fan this way at boot time, then it is started/tuned/stopped depending on cpu temperature, otherwise it is kept speed controlled but never stopped.

Sorry I didn't provide you with more precise information but I'm still learning... :)

I was suggested to post here part of 'dmesg' output where some errors/warnings/exceptions appear:

[flego@gardelito ~]$ dmesg |grep -i speedstep
speedstep: frequency transition measured seems out of range (0 nSec), falling back to a safe one of 500000 nSec.

[flego@gardelito ~]$ dmesg |grep -i acpi
ACPI: RSDP (v000 DELL ) @ 0x000fdea0
ACPI: RSDT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d4071e ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x3fff0000
ACPI: FADT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d4071e ASL 0x00000061) @ 0x3fff0400
ACPI: MADT (v001 DELL CPi R 0x27d4071e ASL 0x00000047) @ 0x3fff0c00
ACPI: DSDT (v001 INT430 SYSFexxx 0x00001001 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000
ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x1008
ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] high edge lint[0x1])
ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] high edge lint[0x1])
ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0])
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl)
ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
ACPI: IRQ0 used by override.
ACPI: IRQ2 used by override.
ACPI: IRQ9 used by override.
Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
ACPI: Core revision 20060707
ACPI: bus type pci registered
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
ACPI: Assume root bridge [\_SB_.PCI0] bus is 0
PCI quirk: region 1000-107f claimed by ICH4 ACPI/GPIO/TCO
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 9 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 5 7) *11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 9 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 5 7 9 10 *11)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 3 4 5 6 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGP_._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.PCIE._PRT]
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:02:04.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
ACPI: AC Adapter [AC] (off-line)
ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)
ACPI: Video Device [VID] (multi-head: yes rom: no post: no)
ACPI Error (dswload-0333): [SMIX] Namespace lookup failure, AE_ALREADY_EXISTS
ACPI Exception (psloop-0285): AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog [20060707]
ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU0._PDC] (Node c1903cfc), AE_ALREADY_EXISTS
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports 8 throttling states)
ACPI Error (dswload-0333): [GETC] Namespace lookup failure, AE_ALREADY_EXISTS
ACPI Exception (psloop-0285): AE_ALREADY_EXISTS, During name lookup/catalog [20060707]
ACPI Error (psparse-0537): Method parse/execution failed [\_PR_.CPU1._PDC] (Node c1903cd4), AE_ALREADY_EXISTS
ACPI: Processor [CPU1] (supports 8 throttling states)
ACPI: Thermal Zone [THM] (34 C)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.1[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[D] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.1[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 18
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.2[C] -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 19
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
Time: acpi_pm clocksource has been installed.

Hope this can help somebody to understand what is the problem on my machine!

Thank you very much for your help,

Federico.

Yes this helps.
You do not have a cpufreq, but an ACPI problem.
Best is you open a bug on: bugzilla.kernel.org
Shortly describe your problem (also add this output, it clearly points to ACPI). Then use "create an attachment" and add the output of the acpidump command from this machine ("acpidump >/tmp/acpidump" and upload the created file).
Assign the bug to the ACPI component and add [email protected] and myself ([email protected]) to CC'ed people of the bug.

Thanks,

Thomas