[SOLVED] Dual core CPU, only one core shown?

[Kilhd]

Hi.. after hours of trying to get my nvidia card drivers working I got it, but somewhere during the time I was figuring it out I came across "sysinfo" and noticed in the "CPU" area it says only 1 CPU.
Now I am not a hardware professional or anything but if the CPU is dual core, wouldn't it show 2 CPUs? (If so, where's the 2nd? is this hardware failure or what?) And when I run "cat /proc/cpuinfo" I get... (Thanks in advance for any information/help)

@mintdeb ~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 23
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E8400 @ 3.00GHz
stepping : 6
cpu MHz : 2999.994
cache size : 6144 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 1
core id : 0
cpu cores : 1
...

[wyrdoak]

you need to ugrade to the 686- pae kernel to support HT and/or multiple cores, it's in the package manager.

[Kilhd]

Thanks, but I can't seem to find it. I search in Synaptic using various terms and don't see it. Do you have a package name?

[Andrew33]

Look under linux image, and/or image headers.....you'll need both. I just built a new tower not to long ago and it runs an AMD Phenom II 3.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo and I have opened up 2 extra cores of which LMDE sees all of them (4 cores) and it runs great. Anyway, go into Synaptic, go to the section on the left, scroll down to "kernel and modules", then in the search window @ the top, type; linux image and it will give you all listings and just look for the one wyroak mentioned....specifically you're looking for linux-image-686-pae.....hope this is helpful.....cheers.


Andrew

[Kilhd]

Thanks for the info/help. I still don't see any "PAE" images though. Could it be the highlighted image that I need?

[itsme4401]

AFAIK the *-pae kernel is only available for 32-bit systems. The pae-kernel copes with memoryproblems: it makes more than 3,2 GB RAM available/reachable on 32-bit systems. You seem to have a 64-bit system. I guess wyrdoak missed that point when hy replied.
No, I have no answer to your problem; sorry!

[Kilhd]

itsme, that explains why I am unable to see the -pae. Thanks for the info! I guess I should have mentioned I am on 64-bit.

[wyrdoak]

Lets see if it's a BIOS problem. Install intel-microcode and reboot to see if that does it, microcode.cti will probably with it.

The microcode data file for Linux contains the latest microcode
definitions for all Intel processors. Intel releases microcode
updates to correct processor behavior as documented in the
respective processor specification updates. While the regular
approach to getting this microcode update is via a BIOS upgrade,
Intel realizes that this is an administrative hassle; the Linux
Operating System has a mechanism to update the microcode after
booting the OS.

[Kilhd]

wyrdoak, thanks again for the info. I installed said package(s) and rebooted and get the same output for cpuinfo. I was watching the screen this time and right when linux booted up(immediately after grub) I noticed it said "[00083483.Some.Numbers.Here - CPU1 Not responding]" This is not good I am guessing.
The board is a Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (rev. 2.0) - http://www.gigabyte.us/products/product ... 29&dl=1#ov

I never really paid attention in windows to the CPU so it could have been only seeing one core as well. =/

[wyrdoak]

I see the last time the motherboard manufacturer bothered to supply an update for the microcode was Jul2008.

But your microcode should be up to date after your install.

Then again you might just have a bad core, hard to tell from here. If it's working for you OK it should still be OK for awhile.

Maybe someone more knowledgeable than I can figure why the other core isn't posting on boot.

[Kilhd]

So, I decided to flash my BIOS today for the hell of it thinking Maybe that would help. To my surprise it worked! I now have dual cores showing for my CPU info. Thanks again all for info/help.

[wyrdoak]

Glad you got it going. Must have been the motherboard that needed an update also.