From: Giovanni Gherdovich <ggherdovich@suse.cz>
To: Srinivas Pandruvada <srinivas.pandruvada@linux.intel.com>,
"Rafael J . Wysocki" <rjw@rjwysocki.net>,
Viresh Kumar <viresh.kumar@linaro.org>
Cc: Len Brown <lenb@kernel.org>,
linux-pm@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Force intel_pstate to load when HWP disabled in firmware
Date: Thu, 13 May 2021 12:10:04 +0200 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <bb90b6cac2f4adcc6c80b7fddf54dbe0a6b8ff66.camel@suse.cz> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <3fdc70c267d40561bed10fc722a8223a0b161200.camel@linux.intel.com>
On Thu, 2021-05-13 at 02:24 -0700, Srinivas Pandruvada wrote:
> On Thu, 2021-05-13 at 09:59 +0200, Giovanni Gherdovich wrote:
> > On CPUs succeeding SKX, eg. ICELAKE_X, intel_pstate doesn't load
> > unless
> > CPUID advertises support for the HWP feature. Some OEMs, however, may
> > offer
> > users the possibility to disable HWP from the BIOS config utility by
> > altering the output of CPUID.
>
> Is someone providing a utility? What is the case for broken HWP?
Yes, I know of at least one server manufacturer that ships a BIOS config
utility where the user can disable HWP.
On such server machine, which has an ICELAKE_X CPU, if the user unchecks HWP
via BIOS then intel_pstate will refuse to load saying:
intel_pstate: CPU model not supported
because ICELAKE_X is not in the list intel_pstate_cpu_ids (defined in
intel_pstate.c) of CPUs that intel_pstate supports when HWP is absent from
CPUID; that list ends at SKYLAKE_X.
An alternative approach to register intel_pstate in the case I'm describing
would be to add ICELAKE_X (and every CPU model after that, forever?) to the
list intel_pstate_cpu_ids.
> It is possible that some user don't want to use HWP, because there
> workloads works better without HWP. But that doesn't mean HWP is
> broken.
That's true, a user may legitimate want to disable HWP, and we have the
intel_pstate=no_hwp option for that. But for that option to work CPUID must
still show that the CPU is HWP-capable; when disablement happens in BIOS, it's
not the case.
The wording "hwp_broken_firmware" deliberately has a negative connotation (the
intended meaning is: "firmware is broken, regarding HWP"), carrying the
not-so-subtle message "OEM folks, please don't do this". My understanding is
that the preferred way to disable HWP is with intel_pstate=no_hwp, the
firmware should stay out of it.
I hope this clarifies the problem (there is an ICELAKE_X somewhere out there
that can't load intel_pstate, which is not nice) and the intention
(discouraging disablement of HWP via firmware).
Giovanni
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2021-05-13 10:10 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 23+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2021-05-13 7:59 [PATCH] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Force intel_pstate to load when HWP disabled in firmware Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-13 9:24 ` Srinivas Pandruvada
2021-05-13 10:10 ` Giovanni Gherdovich [this message]
2021-05-13 11:03 ` Srinivas Pandruvada
2021-05-13 12:10 ` Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-13 13:20 ` [PATCH v2] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Add Icelake servers support in no-HWP mode Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-14 15:31 ` Doug Smythies
2021-05-14 20:33 ` Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-14 22:12 ` Doug Smythies
2021-09-07 15:45 ` Doug Smythies
2021-09-07 16:01 ` Srinivas Pandruvada
2021-09-07 20:16 ` Doug Smythies
2021-09-08 2:04 ` Srinivas Pandruvada
2021-09-08 3:43 ` Doug Smythies
2021-09-14 18:41 ` Doug Smythies
2021-09-15 9:38 ` Srinivas Pandruvada
2021-05-15 2:58 ` Srinivas Pandruvada
2021-05-17 15:26 ` Rafael J. Wysocki
2021-05-18 11:33 ` Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-19 5:37 ` Doug Smythies
2021-05-18 12:34 ` [PATCH v3 1/2] " Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-18 12:34 ` [PATCH v3 2/2] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Add Cometlake " Giovanni Gherdovich
2021-05-21 16:49 ` [PATCH v3 1/2] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Add Icelake servers " Rafael J. Wysocki
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