Conky and frequency scaling

Question

Hello.
I have couple of computers with conky and cpufreq working. All fine there. It was so also on my notebook, which had Ubuntu 9.04 installed. I reinstalled to 9.10 and since then my conky reports full frequency.
There was a lot of other issues, so I decided to finally remove Ubuntu and take the time to install Arch. Things are much better with Arch on this notebook, but I did not get rid of the frequency scaling problem. It is Thinkpad X31 btw.
According to powertop and cpufreq-info, the frequency scaling is working. Conky reports 1400Mhz all the time.
Here is my cpufreq-info:
cpufrequtils 005: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2006
Report errors and bugs to [email protected], please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which need to switch frequency at the same time: 0
hardware limits: 600 MHz - 1.40 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.40 GHz, 1.20 GHz, 1000 MHz, 800 MHz, 600 MHz
available cpufreq governors: ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 600 MHz and 1.40 GHz.
The governor "ondemand" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 600 MHz.
cpufreq.conf
#configuration for cpufreq control
# valid governors:
# ondemand, performance, powersave,
# conservative, userspace
governor="ondemand"
# valid suffixes: Hz, kHz (default), MHz, GHz, THz
min_freq="0.5GHz"
max_freq="3GHz"
lsmod | grep freq
cpufreq_ondemand 7400 1
acpi_cpufreq 8648 0
freq_table 3740 2 cpufreq_ondemand,acpi_cpufreq
processor 36076 2 acpi_cpufreq
Running this script clearly shows that freq is changing
#!/bin/bash
while [ "1"=="1" ]; do
echo `cpufreq-info | grep "current CPU frequency"`
sleep 2
done
conkyrc
update_interval 2
background yes
use_spacer left
double_buffer yes
short_units yes
pad_percents 3
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
gap_x 4
gap_y 30
draw_shades no
draw_outline no
draw_borders no
stippled_borders 10
color0 black
color1 white
default_shade_color white
default_outline_color white
own_window_hints undecorated, below, skip_taskbar, skip_pager
alignment bottom_left
TEXT
${alignc}${color1}$nodename
${alignc}$sysname $kernel on $machine
${color1}$hr
${color1}CPU: $color0${cpu cpu0}%
${color0}${cpugraph cpu0 15}
${cpubar cpu0 4}
${color1}RAM :$color0 $memperc% ${membar 4}
${color1}Swap :$color0 $swapperc% ${swapbar 4}
${color1}Processes :$color0 ${exec printf "%3d" `ps -A | wc -l`}/$running_processes ${color1}Uptime :$color0 $uptime_short${color1}
${color1}Frequency :$color0 ${exec cpufreq-info | grep "current CPU frequency" | cut -c28-35} ${freq}${color1} ${if_existing /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0}${if_existing /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/present 1}
${color1}$hr
Battery : $color0${battery_bar 4 BAT0}
${battery_time}${alignr}${battery}${endif}${endif}
${color1}$hr
${if_existing /sys/class/net/eth0/operstate up}${color1}IP :${alignr}${color0}${addr eth0}${color1}
Wired connection
${color0}${downspeedgraph eth0 12,108} ${upspeedgraph eth0 12,108}
${color1}Down : $color0${downspeed eth0} ${color1} Up: $color0${upspeed eth0}${color1}k/s ${else}${if_existing /sys/class/net/wlan0/operstate up}${color1}IP :${alignr}${color0}${addr wlan0}${color1}
Wifi :$color0${wireless_link_qual wlan0}% ${wireless_link_bar 4,0 wlan0}
${color0}${downspeedgraph wlan0 12,108} ${upspeedgraph wlan0 12,108}
${color1}Down : $color0${downspeed wlan0} ${color1} Up : $color0${upspeed wlan0}${color1}${else}
${endif}${endif}
${color1}$hr
${color1}CPU :$color0 ${ibm_temps 0} ${color1}C HDD :$color0 ${ibm_temps 2}${color1} C
${color1}GPU :$color0 ${ibm_temps 3} ${color1}C BAT :$color0 ${ibm_temps 4} ${color1}/${color0} ${ibm_temps 6} ${color1}C
${color1}$hr
${color1}Top: PID CPU% MEM%
${color0 white} ${top name 1} ${top pid 1} ${top cpu 1} ${top mem 1}
${color0 white} ${top name 2} ${top pid 2} ${top cpu 2} ${top mem 2}
${color0 white} ${top name 3} ${top pid 3} ${top cpu 3} ${top mem 3}
${color0 white} ${top name 4} ${top pid 4} ${top cpu 4} ${top mem 4}
As you can see I even put that part of script, which takes values from cpufreq-info into conky, but it still does show wrong values.
When I manually set frequency to 600Mhz, it shows up in conky.
With Ubuntu 9.04 this was working fine, so I wonder what has recently changed that could have resulted in this behaviour.

Answer 1

Archiee wrote:[...]
- Frequency step size is configurable (default to 100MHz/step) (cpufreq doesn't support this)
If I'm not mistaken it's the CPU that tells the utility what frequencies it can switch to; not the other way around. Remember each frequency has a voltage tied to it. Also, he's not asking about a way to manage his cpuf requency management, just about a glitch in actualy frequency reporting.
@ topic starter: why are you grepping cpufreq-info if you can have conky just read it out for you? It's a hardcoded conky feature...
From their documentation:
freq    (n)    Returns CPU #n's frequency in MHz. CPUs are counted from 1. If omitted, the parameter defaults to 1
@ Archiee: I checked with powernowd:
root@hermes # powernowd -v
powernowd: PowerNow Daemon v1.00, (c) 2003-2008 John Clemens
powernowd: Settings:
powernowd: verbosity: 1
powernowd: mode: 1 (AGGRESSIVE)
powernowd: step: 100 MHz (100000 kHz)
powernowd: lowwater: 20 %
powernowd: highwater: 80 %
powernowd: poll interval: 1000 ms
powernowd: about to return count = 1
powernowd: Found 2 scalable units: -- 1 'CPU' per scalable unit
powernowd: cpu0: 800Mhz - 1200Mhz (2 steps)
powernowd: step1 : 1200Mhz
powernowd: step2 : 800Mhz
powernowd: cpu1: 800Mhz - 1200Mhz (2 steps)
powernowd: step1 : 1200Mhz
powernowd: step2 : 800Mhz
root@hermes # cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils 006: cpufreq-info (C) Dominik Brodowski 2004-2009
Report errors and bugs to [email protected], please.
analyzing CPU 0:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 0
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.20 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: userspace, powersave, ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.20 GHz.
The governor "userspace" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).
analyzing CPU 1:
driver: acpi-cpufreq
CPUs which run at the same hardware frequency: 0 1
CPUs which need to have their frequency coordinated by software: 1
maximum transition latency: 10.0 us.
hardware limits: 800 MHz - 1.20 GHz
available frequency steps: 1.20 GHz, 800 MHz
available cpufreq governors: userspace, powersave, ondemand, performance
current policy: frequency should be within 800 MHz and 1.20 GHz.
The governor "userspace" may decide which speed to use
within this range.
current CPU frequency is 800 MHz (asserted by call to hardware).