[SOLVED] Dual Core Processor not recognized

[MarkTwain1835]

Noob to LMDE, using Debian since 2003.

I've been playing with Mint Debian for several days and only today after I installed GKrellM did I notice my dual core processor is not recognized.

Code: Select all

guest@mintde ~ $ inxi -FA
System:    Host mintde Kernel 3.2.0-3-486 i686 (32 bit) Distro Linux Mint Debian Edition
CPU:       Single core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (-UP-) cache 512 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3) bmips 2003.95 clocked at 1000.00 MHz 

Debian, Mepis, PCLOS, etc. have always recognized the dual core. What's up with Mint?

[xenopeek]

Indeed, it seems this would be a dual core processor. Can you post the output from the following command?

Code: Select all

sudo dmidecode -t processor

[MarkTwain1835]

Code: Select all

guest@mintde ~ $ sudo dmidecode -t processor
[sudo] password for guest: 
# dmidecode 2.11
SMBIOS 2.2 present.

Handle 0x0004, DMI type 4, 32 bytes
Processor Information
	Socket Designation: Socket 939
	Type: Central Processor
	Family: Athlon 64
	Manufacturer: AMD
	ID: B1 0F 02 00 FF FB 8B 17
	Signature: Family 15, Model 43, Stepping 1
	Flags:
		FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
		VME (Virtual mode extension)
		DE (Debugging extension)
		PSE (Page size extension)
		TSC (Time stamp counter)
		MSR (Model specific registers)
		PAE (Physical address extension)
		MCE (Machine check exception)
		CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
		APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
		SEP (Fast system call)
		MTRR (Memory type range registers)
		PGE (Page global enable)
		MCA (Machine check architecture)
		CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
		PAT (Page attribute table)
		PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
		CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
		MMX (MMX technology supported)
		FXSR (FXSAVE and FXSTOR instructions supported)
		SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
		SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
		HTT (Multi-threading)
	Version: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
	Voltage: 1.3 V
	External Clock: 200 MHz
	Max Speed: 3000 MHz
	Current Speed: 2000 MHz
	Status: Populated, Enabled
	Upgrade: Socket 939
	L1 Cache Handle: 0x000B
	L2 Cache Handle: 0x000D
	L3 Cache Handle: No L3 Cache

Handle 0x0005, DMI type 4, 32 bytes
Processor Information
	Socket Designation: Socket 939
	Type: Central Processor
	Family: Athlon 64
	Manufacturer: AMD
	ID: B1 0F 02 00 FF FB 8B 07
	Signature: Family 15, Model 43, Stepping 1
	Flags:
		FPU (Floating-point unit on-chip)
		VME (Virtual mode extension)
		DE (Debugging extension)
		PSE (Page size extension)
		TSC (Time stamp counter)
		MSR (Model specific registers)
		PAE (Physical address extension)
		MCE (Machine check exception)
		CX8 (CMPXCHG8 instruction supported)
		APIC (On-chip APIC hardware supported)
		SEP (Fast system call)
		MTRR (Memory type range registers)
		PGE (Page global enable)
		MCA (Machine check architecture)
		CMOV (Conditional move instruction supported)
		PAT (Page attribute table)
		PSE-36 (36-bit page size extension)
		CLFSH (CLFLUSH instruction supported)
		MMX (MMX technology supported)
		FXSR (FXSAVE and FXSTOR instructions supported)
		SSE (Streaming SIMD extensions)
		SSE2 (Streaming SIMD extensions 2)
	Version: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+
	Voltage: 1.3 V
	External Clock: 200 MHz
	Max Speed: 3000 MHz
	Current Speed: 2000 MHz
	Status: Populated, Enabled
	Upgrade: Socket 939
	L1 Cache Handle: 0x000C
	L2 Cache Handle: 0x000E
	L3 Cache Handle: No L3 Cache

Okay, dual core here. Why not everywhere? The real question is are both cores being used even if some monitoring apps can't see both?

[xenopeek]

So there may be a bug in inxi. You can check in both cores are online, by reading the file /sys/devices/system/cpu/online:

Code: Select all

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/online

The above would probably reply:

Code: Select all

0-1

[remoulder]

there may be a bug in inxi

Might be worth checking the version with inxi -V? On 1.8.22-00 here, recent versions of inxi can update itself with

Code: Select all

sudo inxi -U

[MarkTwain1835]

So there may be a bug in inxi. You can check in both cores are online, by reading the file /sys/devices/system/cpu/online:

Code: Select all

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/

The above would probably reply:

Code: Select all

0-1

I was much more concerned about GKrellM that I routinely use to monitor CPU usage (among other things). I used inxi just to confirm a single core was being reported.

/sys/devices/system/cpu/ is a directory that lists files but doesn't return any numerics.

However, I solved the problem. I was using the wrong kernel for an AMD multicore processor, 3.2.0-3-486 instead of 3.2.0.3-amd64. Everything is working correctly now.

Before

Code: Select all

guest@mintde ~ $ inxi -FA
System:    Host mintde Kernel 3.2.0-3-486 i686 (32 bit) Distro Linux Mint Debian Edition
CPU:       Single core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (-UP-) cache 512 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3) bmips 2003.95 clocked at 1000.00 MHz 

After

Code: Select all

guest@mintde ~ $ inxi -FA
System:    Host mintde Kernel 3.2.0-3-amd64 x86_64 (64 bit) Distro Linux Mint Debian Edition
CPU:       Dual core AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (-MCP-) cache 1024 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3) bmips 4008.24 
           Clock Speeds: (1) 1000.00 MHz (2) 1000.00 MHz

Thanks for the suggestions which did lead me to the solution.

[zerozero]

FWIW,
this is a kernel feature (limitation?)
me and Schoelje were struggling around this issue some time ago http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 20#p626247
i486 kernel does not only uses one core as we more or less already knew but also only acknowledges one.