[CentOS] cpuspeed settings??

Thu Jun 17 14:46:52 UTC 2010
ken <gebser at mousecar.com>

On 06/17/2010 04:16 AM Nicolas Thierry-Mieg wrote:
> ken wrote:
>> Hey, folks,
>>
>> Sometimes my workstation bogs down... slows to a crawl.  Using gkrellm,
>> it's obvious the CPU is the laggard.  The top utility confirms: the load
>> average gets up over 4 at times.  But this occurs when cpu stepping pegs
>> the speed at 600MHz.  This processor is capable of 1.5GHz and when it's
>> allowed to run at that speed, the load average is under 2, which is fine.
>>
>> So the question is: what's a good /etc/sysconfig/cpuspeed file?  This
>> workstation is a notebook and it can get hot.  Of course I'd rather type
>> on slow machine than a machine with a fried mainboard, so a report of a
>> high temperature should kick in the governor and lower the speed.
> 
> well, *is* the CPU really hot when cpuspeed slows it down? If it is then 
> there's no need to tweak /etc/sysconfig/cpuspeed , the defaults are 
> doing what you want.

No,  The temperature can be relatively low and cpu is still stepped down
to 600MHz, this while the load is over 3 (the cpu idle reads 1%).


> Depending on your CPU you can monitor its temp with rpms from elrepo, eg 
> kmod-coretemp for some intels.

I've been monitoring the temperature, cpu speed (governed), and other
system factors for years with ondemand and gkrellm.


The problem really is as I first stated.  And the solution-- good
settings for /etc/sysconfig/cpuspeed-- is really what is needed (at
least as far as can be discerned at this time).


Thanks for your help.