Folding on Ubuntu 7.10 cpu's running slowly

[notfred]

FYI I just noticed and fixed this on my setup. I thought it might be of interest to others

I have Ubuntu 7.10 installed on a Quad 6600 rig and noticed that the cpus were still speedstepped down. The way to tell is to open a Terminal and do

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cat /proc/cpuinfo

and look at the entry "cpu MHz" for each processor. If you have folding running and that is lower than the maximum your processor goes to, you have this problem.

The problem is that the ondemand scaling control ignores "nice" processes by default. A "nice" process is one that is running in the background with the priority set to give up the CPU when just about anything else runs. We need to change the control to include "nice" processes in the calculation of what speed to run the CPUs:

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sudo echo 0 > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/ondemand/ignore_nice_load

Repeat this for each processor changing the "/cpu0/" to the appropriate processor number on each time. Now double check the output of

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cat /proc/cpuinfo

and you should see the "cpu MHZ" field for each processor now reporting the max value for that processor.

To get this to happen when you reboot the computer, you can either add it to any script you have to start up folding, or add it in to /etc/rc.local before the line "exit 0".

Editted to fill in details.

[flybywire]

Thanks for the info, notfred. I'll have to double-check my machines when I get a chance.

[jeffry55]

Hi NotFred! Thanks for the post. I am running Ubuntu 7.10 on two Q6600s. I changed the "niceness" setting on my folding processes to a midrange value when I first starting running Ubuntu 7.10. I don't know if this causes max CPU performance. I do know that I have to restore the niceness setting evertime I restart my computer so your script would be a nice tool. I'll check tonight and make a post.

[notfred]

Hmm, there's something not right here, mine keeps getting set back to 1 and I have to keep resetting it. I can't see any userspace program (like cpufreqd or powernowd) that might be doing it. I'll keep hunting...

[jeffry55]

Hi NotFred,

I am running 7.04 not 7.10. I was thinking about upgrading to the new version to see how their version of "Aero" looked, but I haven't done it yet.

On the System Tab of System Monitor for my Q6600 it shows 2.4 ghz per core. I also see 2.4 ghz per core when I use your command line in a terminal window. I have all instaces of the folding core set at nice=19.

I changed the nice=0 for all folding instances and the processor speed did not change. Maybe I needed to let it hang out for a while or do a restart to see if there was impact.

[cheesyking]

Hi NotFred,

I am running 7.04 not 7.10. I was thinking about upgrading to the new version to see how their version of "Aero" looked, but I haven't done it yet.

just install beryl from the add/remove programs app. Seems pretty stable on my 7.04 install.

[jeffry55]

I upgraded to 7.10 and didn't have any issues with slow CPU clock speed.