I get the same problem using either 3.0.0-1-amd64 or 3.2.0-2-amd64 kernels. I have just updated my BIOS and saw no difference. I have tried disabling dynamic frequency by disabling Intel SpeedStep Technology in the BIOS. I got a similar situation. In this case, the CPU was reporting a constant frequency of 2.67 GHz but minor tasks (eg firefox, conky, emacs) would occupy >20% of CPU and the CPU usage would quickly reach 99%. I mean that before running "stress" or similar, firefox was sitting happily at ~6% CPU, As soon as I started stressing the system, firefox shot up to ~20% despite the CPU freq apparently not changing. This seems to imply that the CPU freq is misreported and disabling Intel SpeedStep does not stop the decrease in freq, just stops the system from reporting it.
So, either using dynamic frequency or not, my system becomes unusable when even under minor processor loads. Does anyone have any ideas how to fix this? I seem to recall there are known regressions in the 3.0-3.2 kernels that could affect CPU frequency control. Anybody know if that is true? Should I just wait for 3.3?
System Specs:
Dell M4500
Intel Core i7 M 620 @ 2.67GHz
4GB RAM
LMDE, 3.2.0-2-amd64
BIOS: Dell Inc. A10 11/30/2011
Details when using "performace" governor:
1. System idle:
cpufreq-info output (for one processor):
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cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1 2 3
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 1.20 GHz - 2.67 GHz
available frequency steps: 2.67 GHz, 2.67 GHz, 2.53 GHz, 2.40 GHz, 2.27 GHz, 2.13 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.87 GHz, 1.73 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.47 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.20 GHz
available cpufreq governors: userspace, conservative, powersave, ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 2.27 GHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 2.27 GHz.
cpufreq stats: 2.67 GHz:64.78%, 2.67 GHz:0.81%, 2.53 GHz:1.03%, 2.40 GHz:0.45%, 2.27 GHz:1.38%, 2.13 GHz:1.25%, 2.00 GHz:0.66%, 1.87 GHz:0.48%, 1.73 GHz:0.43%, 1.60 GHz:1.20%, 1.47 GHz:0.80%, 1.33 GHz:0.77%, 1.20 GHz:25.95% (450)
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2667000
In this example, I am running stress but anything can trigger this. Even pasting large amounts of data into a terminal(!):
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stress --cpu 8 --io 4 --vm 2 --vm-bytes 128M --timeout 10s
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cpufrequtils 007: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to cpufreq@vger.kernel.org, please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1 2 3
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 1.20 GHz - 2.67 GHz
available frequency steps: 2.67 GHz, 2.67 GHz, 2.53 GHz, 2.40 GHz, 2.27 GHz, 2.13 GHz, 2.00 GHz, 1.87 GHz, 1.73 GHz, 1.60 GHz, 1.47 GHz, 1.33 GHz, 1.20 GHz
available cpufreq governors: userspace, conservative, powersave, ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 1.20 GHz and 1.20 GHz.
The governor "performance" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 1.20 GHz.
cpufreq stats: 2.67 GHz:60.05%, 2.67 GHz:0.75%, 2.53 GHz:2.21%, 2.40 GHz:0.98%, 2.27 GHz:2.46%, 2.13 GHz:1.18%, 2.00 GHz:0.64%, 1.87 GHz:0.47%, 1.73 GHz:0.42%, 1.60 GHz:1.14%, 1.47 GHz:0.77%, 1.33 GHz:0.73%, 1.20 GHz:28.19% (462)
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