[SOLVED] Lost cores

[Leomas]

This one has me completely stumped.....

Installed Mint Debian on the system almost as soon as 14 came out and everything in the garden was rosy. Applied the updates as recommended and everything still seemed fine but I was having some issues recently with BOINC and when I checked, only one computation was running. Went through the 'how have I broken it this time' routine but could not find a problem. Checked the system monitor and all was clear, I was only doing one computation as I now apparently only had one CPU core instead of the original 4.
To make matters even more interesting, despite installing Debian 14 (as mentioned above), The General page shows Version 1 ???

It is not a hardware issue as putting in a live CD brings all 4 cores back to life

While it would not be the end of the world to just wipe and rebuild, it would use up a weekend I would rather use for other things. Anyone any ideas?

[xenopeek]

We have Linux Mint 14 and we have Linux Mint Debian Edition, that are two separate editions of Linux Mint; there is no "Debian 14". Can you clarify which you are using? Also, have you installed 32-bit or 64-bit?

To answer that and more (having a look at the hardware), please open a terminal and run the following command. Share the output here. You can copy text to/from the terminal, see its Edit menu.

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inxi -Fxz

[Leomas]

Tried the command as mentioned but it did not like the 'z' option so here is the output from 'inxi -Fx'

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System:    Host yerknow Kernel 3.2.0-4-486 i686 (32 bit) Distro Linux Mint Debian Edition
CPU:       Single core Intel Core i5 M 540 (-UP-) cache 3072 KB flags (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips 5053.59 clocked at 2534.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller X.Org 1.12.4 Res: 1280x800@60.0hz
           GLX Renderer Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2 GLX Version 2.1 Mesa 8.0.4 Direct Rendering Yes
Audio:     Card-1 Intel 5 Series/3400 Series Chipset High Definition Audio driver snd_hda_intel BusID: 00:1b.0
           Card-2 Sennheiser Communications  driver snd-usb-audio
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Version 1.0.24
Network:   Card-1 Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 driver iwlwifi v: in-tree: BusID: 03:00.0
           Card-2 Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection driver e1000e v: 1.5.1-k at port 1820 BusID: 00:19.0
Disks:     HDD Total Size: 250.1GB (5.1% used) 1: /dev/sda WDC_WD2500BEVS 250.1GB
Partition: ID:/ size: 30G used: 7.6G (28%) fs: rootfs ID:/ size: 30G used: 7.6G (28%) fs: ext4
           ID:/home size: 190G used: 12G (7%) fs: ext4 ID:swap-1 size: 10.74GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 57.0C mobo: 0.0C
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: 3685
Info:      Processes 134 Uptime 1:48 Memory 311.3/2967.0MB Runlevel 2 Client Shell inxi 1.4.23


I am working on learning enough to be classed a Newbie...

[zerozero]

this is a kernel limitation:
the i486 only recognises one core, if you have (like here you do have an i5) a multi-core processor install the pae kernel and headers (using for example ddm viewtopic.php?f=47&t=113559 the pae thinky is well tested)

more on how i know this here viewtopic.php?f=61&t=106426&start=320#p626247

[xenopeek]

Okay, you have Linux Mint Debian Edition, which has no version numbers Moved your topic to the LMDE section of the forum.

Indeed, your CPU has two cores and with hyperthreading will present itself as having 4 cores to the operating system: http://ark.intel.com/products/43544/Int ... e-2_53-GHz. However, you have installed the 32 bit version of Linux Mint which by default comes with the legacy compatibility kernel that will only use one core (as shared in the release notes: http://www.linuxmint.com/rel_debian.php). To use multiple cores, replace your kernel with the PAE one. You can do so with the following two commands:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install linux-image-686-pae linux-headers-686-pae

Or use your favorite package manager to install linux-image-686-pae and linux-headers-686-pae.

[Mr. B]

I'd go install the 64bit on that machine and not go through the install of another kernel. There's nothing wrong with that but it is after all a 64bit machine so make full use of the hardware you have.

[Leomas]

I'm having a go at putting in the PAE as at least one package I use is a little sniffy about using 64bit.....Could be all OK but I will use the minimal change route

[Leomas]

Oh dearie me....now sat quietly but very red faced.


As someone who screams blue murder when users don't follow basic 'how-to' guides it is more than a little embarrassing to have managed to pick the wrong flavour of distro. Installed the PAE and now all four 'cores' are back to life.

Now back to my hole if someone would kindly put the lid on once I am in.

[xenopeek]

Well, you have it sorted now and you were posting in the Newbie Questions section. So all is fine You can come out again now