Ubuntu
linux package

ondemand governor should be used by default

Bug #343354 reported by FredBezies
48
This bug affects 4 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
GNOME Applets
Invalid
Medium
linux (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned
Nominated for Jaunty by FredBezies

Bug Description

Binary package hint: gnome-applets

I saw a strange behavior of this applet. Every single time jaunty start, it sets governor on "performance" profile, but I want a "on demand" profile.

Could be like bug 326533.

Here is the CPU info :

fred@fred-laptop:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 104
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 800.000
cache size : 256 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow rep_good pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
bogomips : 1600.08
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps

processor : 1
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 104
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual-Core Processor TK-55
stepping : 1
cpu MHz : 800.000
cache size : 256 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow rep_good pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy 3dnowprefetch
bogomips : 1600.08
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc 100mhzsteps

And gnome applets version is :

fred@fred-laptop:~$ apt-cache showpkg gnome-applets
Package: gnome-applets
Versions:
2.25.92-0ubuntu2 (/var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_main_binary-amd64_Packages) (/var/lib/dpkg/status)
 Description Language: fr
                 File: /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_main_i18n_Translation-fr
                  MD5: 275fbb8f3509c155b32f281a46c769d8
 Description Language:
                 File: /var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_jaunty_main_binary-amd64_Packages
                  MD5: 275fbb8f3509c155b32f281a46c769d8

Tags: kconfig
Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

The bug should be sent to bugzilla.gnome.org by somebody having the issue

Changed in gnome-applets (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → desktop-bugs
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
FredBezies (fredbezies-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Reported as http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=575578

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

Thank you for sending the bug to GNOME

Changed in gnome-applets (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
FredBezies (fredbezies-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

From what I understand, it looks like an ubuntu bug :

"cpufreq-applet doesn't set anything on startup, it only changes freq/governor
on user's request. If the governor is set to performance on startup is because
the kernel has been compiled with the performance governor as the default one,
or because another script is changing it, but not the cpufreq-applet."

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

that seems to not be a bug at all or do you discuss the default governor choice?

Revision history for this message
FredBezies (fredbezies-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

Indeed. On intrepid and hardy, governor was set by default on "on demand" which is more CPU friendly.

And it seems I'm not the only one which disagree "perfomance" setting to be on by default (see comment #0 of this bug).

Revision history for this message
Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote :

reassigning to linux

Changed in gnome-applets (Ubuntu):
assignee: desktop-bugs → nobody
status: Triaged → New
Revision history for this message
FredBezies (fredbezies-deactivatedaccount) wrote :

It seems to be the default setting now. Close it as fixed ?

Revision history for this message
pelle.k (pele2) wrote :

I'm running a fully updated Jaunty as of 2009-04-22, and the problem is not fixed.
They did two (possibly more) changes from intrepid>jaunty. First they reomved the acpi_cpufreq module, and cpufreq_* governors as modules (they are now compiled into the kernel). Then they removed powernowd from the standard installation, which did set ondemand as cpu frequency governor (i belive, correct me if i'm wrong).
So, what is needed now is ondemand by default (at least on laptop/notebook computers). This can be achived by installing "cpufrequtils" (or powernowd for that matter). The cpufrequtils daemon runs by default at startup, and sets the governor to "ondemand". However, what method will be used is up to the developers.
It's needed though. A desktop computer can easily cope with the "performance" governor easily enough, but my laptop does get quite hot. For a new user, figuring this stuff out may prove to be "too much".

Revision history for this message
Dominik (dominalien) wrote :

I can confirm this. On fully updated Jaunty as of today (22.04.2009) the default governor on boot is "performance".

It really should be "on demand".

Revision history for this message
Christoph Shipley (champro) wrote :

pelle.k mentioned installing powernowd or cpufrequtils to fix this issue. I installed powernowd since it has a lower overhead (as mentioned in the comments in Synaptic). Now I start as OnDemand.

Revision history for this message
Leann Ogasawara (leannogasawara) wrote :

Still appears disabled for Karmic:

ogasawara@emiko:~/ubuntu-karmic/debian/config$ grep -rn "CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_ONDEMAND" *
amd64/config:467:# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_ONDEMAND is not set
i386/config:483:# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_ONDEMAND is not set
lpia/config:414:# CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_DEFAULT_GOV_ONDEMAND is not set

Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
tags: added: kconfig
Revision history for this message
David Burgess (apt-get) wrote :

Confirmed here using 9.04 up to date.

Linux zacharias 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Installing powernowd fixed the problem. Wasn't powernowd formerly part of the default Ubuntu install?

db

Revision history for this message
George Roberts (g-roberts0) wrote :

I notice on the computers I run Ubuntu on, the scaling starts out set to 'Performance' immediately after startup, but then switches to 'Ondemand' automatically about 30s-1min later. Is this not the case for everyone else?

Revision history for this message
Tom Jaeger (thjaeger) wrote :

Is this decision explained somewhere?

Robert Entner (robertentner)
Changed in linux (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Przemek K. (azrael) wrote :

Same bug on Karmic. It sets performance as a default governor after each reboot. This is not an expected behaviour on a laptop.

Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
importance: Unknown → Medium
Bug Watch Updater (bug-watch-updater)
Changed in gnome-applets:
status: New → Invalid
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