AMD cool and quiet

[Jonny88]

How do you implement cool n quiet in linux?
I know how to set the bios up correctly and I have 'kpowersave' running, which currently shows my 2cores fluctuate between 1ghz and 2.2ghz, does this mean that everything runs properly or do I need to install the AMD drivers (which I have but have no idea how to use...)

[infwonder]

if you have Linux kernel >= 2.6.13 then the driver has been included. but you still need to check if SUSE Linux has enabled it.

first, check the kernel config :
assume you have kernel 2.6.18
cat /boot/config-2.6.18|grep -i power and see if the options below has been enabled (=y) or complied as modules (=m)

CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_POWERSAVE
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K6
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K7
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K7_ACPI
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8
CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8_ACPI

if it says the options are not configured then you'll need to recompile the kernel and enable them.
if your powernow driver has been complied as modules, try to modprobe the module:

modprobe thermal
modprobe powernow-k8
modprobe cpufreq_powersave

After that, simply check /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors

and see if you have any options available.

p.s.:
The driver's readme from AMD's website mentions that if you have a dual-core processor.
The driver will only work when you have acpi powerstate object. which means you have to enable The CONFIG_X86_POWERNOW_K8_ACPI and setup the cpuspeed or cpufreq properly...

Since I don't have a dual-core AMD chip, I haven't done that before. maybe someone can explain for us, please?

p.s.2 :
It seems to me that, if you can see the cpu frequency fluctuating, maybe it has been set up properly.

[dth1]

yes - job done