Public bug reported:
** WORKAROUND**: shut down the thermald process completely. If your
computer has an actual physical cooling fan and it's fully functional,
you don't need thermald at all.
I have Ubuntu 15.10 up to date with automatic updates and I never touched
thermald configuration.
This is on a laptop, which has an actual physical cooling fan (like most
laptops).
EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:
as the CPU temperature increases, the fan should spin faster to keep the
temperature from getting too high. ONLY IF, even with the fan at its full
capacity, or approaching it, the temperature keeps growing, THEN that's when
powerclamp and things like that should trigger, throttling the CPU, so that it
doesn't burn (or shut down abruptly). Also, these kinds of CPU throttling
should come in gradually as needed. That is, if you inject idle processes, you
should inject just the minimum amount that is needed. For example, if the fan
at its maximum speed is *almost* enough to keep the temperature below the
threshold, but not *quite* enough, injecting just a small amount of idle time
into the CPU should be enough to do that extra bit of cooling that is needed.
You would barely notice it. It would not slow your system down a lot, unless
the heating is *way* higher than the fan alone can fight.
On a fully functional system (where the fan is enough to prevent the CPU
from overheating and/or excessive CPU consumption does not occur in a
huge degree for a long time), you shouldn't note any difference by
shutting down thermald completely. Only on a system where the fan is not
fully functional and/or hugely excessive CPU usage goes on for too long
(actually, if the latter alone is enough to make it happen, it means
that the fan is underdimensioned) would you notice the difference
between having thermald (powerclamp and other CPU throttling mechanisms
would kick in and prevent the temperature from becoming critical) and
not having it (temperature would eventually go critical and something
bad would happen, such as a sudden shutdown)
OBSERVED BEHAVIOR
When CPU temperature becomes high due to relatively high (not huge) CPU
consumption, intel_powerclamp starts to kick in injecting idle processes and
crippling the whole system. The observable result is that the system becomes
unresponsive and unusable, yet the physical fan is sponning at roughly HALF of
its maximum speed. So, you have a fast quad core machine, with a cooling fan
that is perfectly capable of keeping the temperature down while using all the
computing power that you require, BUT since powerclamp and things like that
kick in too soon, you are limited to use a tiny fraction of the power your
machine is capable of.
To put it another way: you can't watch a f***ing youtube video in full screen
because the whole system will become unresponsive.
Even after removing and blacklisting the intel_powerclamp and intel_rapl kernel
modules, the apparent behavior was practically the same, except that I wouldn't
observe the "kidle_inject" processes by running "top". I guess there are other
CPU-throttling mechanisms besides powerclamp and rapl.
So now I have SHUT DOWN THERMALD completely, and my system behaves
NORMALLY. The fan, of course, reaches higher speeds. Not even _much_
higher, which means that it needed just a little bit more speed to keep
up with the heating. Powerclamp and other cpu throttling mechanisms were
kicking in WAY too soon.
It took me quite a long time to figure out that this was the problem. I
just assumed that some bug was causing excessive CPU consumption for
trivial stuff such as playing video (which is actually true but is not
the whole story) and that the CPU consumption actually was causing too
much heat for the fan to dissipate, making it necessary for powerclamp
to kick in. Also, I thought my fan was probably filled with dust and
uncapable of doing its job efficiently (which is also true but is not
the whole story).
Until I realised that when I was observing unresponsiveness, the fan was
not even close to its maximum speed.
CONCLUSION: either thermald does a ridiculously bad job, or its default
configuration is ridiculously bad.
NOTE: this issue is **CRITICAL**: this cripples the whole system making it
unresponsive when doing moderately heavy work (which the system would otherwise
be perfectly capable of handling without overheating).
Most non-geek users don't even know what thermald is and will never find out
that they can work around the problem by shutting it down, let alone fix its
configuration. So, for most users, this "renders the system temporarily or
permanently unusable", which is one of the criteria for critical importance.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: thermald 1.4.3-5ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-41.48-generic 4.2.8-ckt11
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-41-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Jul 10 14:03:56 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1002 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
SourcePackage: thermald
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2016-01-18 (174 days ago)
** Affects: thermald (Ubuntu)
Importance: Undecided
Status: New
** Tags: amd64 apport-bug wily
** Description changed:
** WORKAROUND**: shut down the thermald process completely. If your
computer has an actual physical cooling fan and it's fully functional,
you don't need thermald at all.
-
I have Ubuntu 15.10 up to date with automatic updates and I never touched
thermald configuration.
This is on a laptop, which has an actual physical cooling fan (like most
laptops).
- EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:
- as the CPU temperature increases, the fan should spin faster to keep the
temperature from getting too high. ONLY IF, even with the fan at its full
capacity, or approaching it, the temperature keeps growing, THEN that's when
things like intel powerclamp and things like that should trigger, throttling
the CPU, so that it doesn't burn (or shut down abruptly). Also, these kinds of
CPU throttling should come in gradually as needed. That is, if you inject idle
processes, you should inject just the minimum amount that is needed. For
example, if the fan at its maximum speed is *almost* enough to keep the
temperature below the threshold, but not *quite* enough, injecting just a small
amount of idle time into the CPU should be enough to do that extra bit of
cooling that is needed. You would barely notice it. It would not slow your
system down a lot, unless the heating is *way* higher than the fan alone can
fight.
+ EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:
+ as the CPU temperature increases, the fan should spin faster to keep the
temperature from getting too high. ONLY IF, even with the fan at its full
capacity, or approaching it, the temperature keeps growing, THEN that's when
powerclamp and things like that should trigger, throttling the CPU, so that it
doesn't burn (or shut down abruptly). Also, these kinds of CPU throttling
should come in gradually as needed. That is, if you inject idle processes, you
should inject just the minimum amount that is needed. For example, if the fan
at its maximum speed is *almost* enough to keep the temperature below the
threshold, but not *quite* enough, injecting just a small amount of idle time
into the CPU should be enough to do that extra bit of cooling that is needed.
You would barely notice it. It would not slow your system down a lot, unless
the heating is *way* higher than the fan alone can fight.
On a fully functional system (where the fan is enough to prevent the CPU
from overheating and/or excessive CPU consumption does not occur in a
huge degree for a long time), you shouldn't note any difference by
shutting down thermald completely. Only on a system where the fan is not
fully functional and/or hugely excessive CPU usage goes on for too long
(actually, if the latter alone is enough to make it happen, it means
that the fan is underdimensioned) would you note the difference between
having thermald (powerclamp and other CPU throttling mechanisms would
kick in and prevent the temperature from becoming critical) and not
having it (temperature would eventually go critical and something bad
would happen, such as a sudden shutdown)
-
OBSERVED BEHAVIOR
When CPU temperature becomes high due to relatively high (not huge) CPU
consumption, intel_powerclamp starts to kick in injecting idle processes and
crippling the whole system. The observable result is that the system becomes
unresponsive and unusable, yet the physical fan is sponning at roughly HALF of
its maximum speed. So, you have a fast quad core machine, with a cooling fan
that is perfectly capable of keeping the temperature down while using all the
computing power that you require, BUT since powerclamp and things like that
kick in too soon, you are limited to use a tiny fraction of the power your
machine is capable of.
To put it another way: you can't watch a f***ing youtube video in full screen
because the whole system will become unresponsive.
Even after removing and blacklisting the intel_powerclamp and intel_rapl
kernel modules, the apparent behavior was practically the same, except that I
wouldn't observe the "kidle_inject" processes by running "top". I guess there
are other CPU-throttling mechanisms besides powerclamp and rapl.
+ So now I have SHUT DOWN THERMALD completely, and my system behaves
+ NORMALLY. The fan, of course, reaches higher speeds. Not even _much_
+ higher, which means that in needed just a little bit more speed to keep
+ up with the heating. Powerclamp and other cpu throttling mechanisms were
+ kicking in WAY too soon.
- So now I have SHUT DOWN THERMALD completely, and my system behaves NORMALLY.
The fan, of course, reaches higher speeds. Not even _much_ higher, which means
that in needed just a little bit more speed to keep up with the heating.
Powerclamp and other cpu throttling mechanisms were kicking in WAY too soon.
-
-
- It took me quite a long time to figure out that this was the problem. I just
assumed that some bug was causing excessive CPU consumption for trivial stuff
such as playing video (which is actually true but is not the whole story) and
that the CPU consumption actually was causing too much heat for the fan to
dissipate, making it necessary for powerclamp to kick in. Also, I thought my
fan was probably filled with dust and uncapable of doing its job efficiently
(which is also true but is not the whole story).
+ It took me quite a long time to figure out that this was the problem. I
+ just assumed that some bug was causing excessive CPU consumption for
+ trivial stuff such as playing video (which is actually true but is not
+ the whole story) and that the CPU consumption actually was causing too
+ much heat for the fan to dissipate, making it necessary for powerclamp
+ to kick in. Also, I thought my fan was probably filled with dust and
+ uncapable of doing its job efficiently (which is also true but is not
+ the whole story).
Until I realised that when I was observing unresponsiveness, the fan was
not even close to its maximum speed.
+ CONCLUSION: either thermald does a ridiculously bad job, or its default
+ configuration is ridiculously bad.
- CONCLUSION: either thermald does a ridiculously bad job, or its default
configuration is ridiculously bad.
-
-
- NOTE: this issue is **CRITICAL**: this cripples the whole system making it
unresponsive when doing moderately heavy work (which the system would otherwise
be perfectly capable of handling without overheating).
+ NOTE: this issue is **CRITICAL**: this cripples the whole system making it
unresponsive when doing moderately heavy work (which the system would otherwise
be perfectly capable of handling without overheating).
Most non-geek users don't even know what thermald is and will never find out
that they can work around the problem by shutting it down, let alone fix its
configuration. So, for most users, this "renders the system temporarily or
permanently unusable", which is one of the criteria for critical importance.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: thermald 1.4.3-5ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-41.48-generic 4.2.8-ckt11
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-41-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Jul 10 14:03:56 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1002 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
SourcePackage: thermald
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2016-01-18 (174 days ago)
** Description changed:
** WORKAROUND**: shut down the thermald process completely. If your
computer has an actual physical cooling fan and it's fully functional,
you don't need thermald at all.
I have Ubuntu 15.10 up to date with automatic updates and I never touched
thermald configuration.
This is on a laptop, which has an actual physical cooling fan (like most
laptops).
EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:
as the CPU temperature increases, the fan should spin faster to keep the
temperature from getting too high. ONLY IF, even with the fan at its full
capacity, or approaching it, the temperature keeps growing, THEN that's when
powerclamp and things like that should trigger, throttling the CPU, so that it
doesn't burn (or shut down abruptly). Also, these kinds of CPU throttling
should come in gradually as needed. That is, if you inject idle processes, you
should inject just the minimum amount that is needed. For example, if the fan
at its maximum speed is *almost* enough to keep the temperature below the
threshold, but not *quite* enough, injecting just a small amount of idle time
into the CPU should be enough to do that extra bit of cooling that is needed.
You would barely notice it. It would not slow your system down a lot, unless
the heating is *way* higher than the fan alone can fight.
On a fully functional system (where the fan is enough to prevent the CPU
from overheating and/or excessive CPU consumption does not occur in a
huge degree for a long time), you shouldn't note any difference by
shutting down thermald completely. Only on a system where the fan is not
fully functional and/or hugely excessive CPU usage goes on for too long
(actually, if the latter alone is enough to make it happen, it means
- that the fan is underdimensioned) would you note the difference between
- having thermald (powerclamp and other CPU throttling mechanisms would
- kick in and prevent the temperature from becoming critical) and not
- having it (temperature would eventually go critical and something bad
- would happen, such as a sudden shutdown)
+ that the fan is underdimensioned) would you notice the difference
+ between having thermald (powerclamp and other CPU throttling mechanisms
+ would kick in and prevent the temperature from becoming critical) and
+ not having it (temperature would eventually go critical and something
+ bad would happen, such as a sudden shutdown)
OBSERVED BEHAVIOR
When CPU temperature becomes high due to relatively high (not huge) CPU
consumption, intel_powerclamp starts to kick in injecting idle processes and
crippling the whole system. The observable result is that the system becomes
unresponsive and unusable, yet the physical fan is sponning at roughly HALF of
its maximum speed. So, you have a fast quad core machine, with a cooling fan
that is perfectly capable of keeping the temperature down while using all the
computing power that you require, BUT since powerclamp and things like that
kick in too soon, you are limited to use a tiny fraction of the power your
machine is capable of.
To put it another way: you can't watch a f***ing youtube video in full screen
because the whole system will become unresponsive.
Even after removing and blacklisting the intel_powerclamp and intel_rapl
kernel modules, the apparent behavior was practically the same, except that I
wouldn't observe the "kidle_inject" processes by running "top". I guess there
are other CPU-throttling mechanisms besides powerclamp and rapl.
So now I have SHUT DOWN THERMALD completely, and my system behaves
NORMALLY. The fan, of course, reaches higher speeds. Not even _much_
higher, which means that in needed just a little bit more speed to keep
up with the heating. Powerclamp and other cpu throttling mechanisms were
kicking in WAY too soon.
It took me quite a long time to figure out that this was the problem. I
just assumed that some bug was causing excessive CPU consumption for
trivial stuff such as playing video (which is actually true but is not
the whole story) and that the CPU consumption actually was causing too
much heat for the fan to dissipate, making it necessary for powerclamp
to kick in. Also, I thought my fan was probably filled with dust and
uncapable of doing its job efficiently (which is also true but is not
the whole story).
Until I realised that when I was observing unresponsiveness, the fan was
not even close to its maximum speed.
CONCLUSION: either thermald does a ridiculously bad job, or its default
configuration is ridiculously bad.
NOTE: this issue is **CRITICAL**: this cripples the whole system making it
unresponsive when doing moderately heavy work (which the system would otherwise
be perfectly capable of handling without overheating).
Most non-geek users don't even know what thermald is and will never find out
that they can work around the problem by shutting it down, let alone fix its
configuration. So, for most users, this "renders the system temporarily or
permanently unusable", which is one of the criteria for critical importance.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: thermald 1.4.3-5ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-41.48-generic 4.2.8-ckt11
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-41-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Jul 10 14:03:56 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1002 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
SourcePackage: thermald
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2016-01-18 (174 days ago)
** Description changed:
** WORKAROUND**: shut down the thermald process completely. If your
computer has an actual physical cooling fan and it's fully functional,
you don't need thermald at all.
I have Ubuntu 15.10 up to date with automatic updates and I never touched
thermald configuration.
This is on a laptop, which has an actual physical cooling fan (like most
laptops).
EXPECTED BEHAVIOR:
as the CPU temperature increases, the fan should spin faster to keep the
temperature from getting too high. ONLY IF, even with the fan at its full
capacity, or approaching it, the temperature keeps growing, THEN that's when
powerclamp and things like that should trigger, throttling the CPU, so that it
doesn't burn (or shut down abruptly). Also, these kinds of CPU throttling
should come in gradually as needed. That is, if you inject idle processes, you
should inject just the minimum amount that is needed. For example, if the fan
at its maximum speed is *almost* enough to keep the temperature below the
threshold, but not *quite* enough, injecting just a small amount of idle time
into the CPU should be enough to do that extra bit of cooling that is needed.
You would barely notice it. It would not slow your system down a lot, unless
the heating is *way* higher than the fan alone can fight.
On a fully functional system (where the fan is enough to prevent the CPU
from overheating and/or excessive CPU consumption does not occur in a
huge degree for a long time), you shouldn't note any difference by
shutting down thermald completely. Only on a system where the fan is not
fully functional and/or hugely excessive CPU usage goes on for too long
(actually, if the latter alone is enough to make it happen, it means
that the fan is underdimensioned) would you notice the difference
between having thermald (powerclamp and other CPU throttling mechanisms
would kick in and prevent the temperature from becoming critical) and
not having it (temperature would eventually go critical and something
bad would happen, such as a sudden shutdown)
OBSERVED BEHAVIOR
When CPU temperature becomes high due to relatively high (not huge) CPU
consumption, intel_powerclamp starts to kick in injecting idle processes and
crippling the whole system. The observable result is that the system becomes
unresponsive and unusable, yet the physical fan is sponning at roughly HALF of
its maximum speed. So, you have a fast quad core machine, with a cooling fan
that is perfectly capable of keeping the temperature down while using all the
computing power that you require, BUT since powerclamp and things like that
kick in too soon, you are limited to use a tiny fraction of the power your
machine is capable of.
To put it another way: you can't watch a f***ing youtube video in full screen
because the whole system will become unresponsive.
Even after removing and blacklisting the intel_powerclamp and intel_rapl
kernel modules, the apparent behavior was practically the same, except that I
wouldn't observe the "kidle_inject" processes by running "top". I guess there
are other CPU-throttling mechanisms besides powerclamp and rapl.
So now I have SHUT DOWN THERMALD completely, and my system behaves
NORMALLY. The fan, of course, reaches higher speeds. Not even _much_
- higher, which means that in needed just a little bit more speed to keep
+ higher, which means that it needed just a little bit more speed to keep
up with the heating. Powerclamp and other cpu throttling mechanisms were
kicking in WAY too soon.
It took me quite a long time to figure out that this was the problem. I
just assumed that some bug was causing excessive CPU consumption for
trivial stuff such as playing video (which is actually true but is not
the whole story) and that the CPU consumption actually was causing too
much heat for the fan to dissipate, making it necessary for powerclamp
to kick in. Also, I thought my fan was probably filled with dust and
uncapable of doing its job efficiently (which is also true but is not
the whole story).
Until I realised that when I was observing unresponsiveness, the fan was
not even close to its maximum speed.
CONCLUSION: either thermald does a ridiculously bad job, or its default
configuration is ridiculously bad.
NOTE: this issue is **CRITICAL**: this cripples the whole system making it
unresponsive when doing moderately heavy work (which the system would otherwise
be perfectly capable of handling without overheating).
Most non-geek users don't even know what thermald is and will never find out
that they can work around the problem by shutting it down, let alone fix its
configuration. So, for most users, this "renders the system temporarily or
permanently unusable", which is one of the criteria for critical importance.
ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 15.10
Package: thermald 1.4.3-5ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.2.0-41.48-generic 4.2.8-ckt11
Uname: Linux 4.2.0-41-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 2.19.1-0ubuntu5
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: Unity
Date: Sun Jul 10 14:03:56 2016
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-10-11 (1002 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 13.04 "Raring Ringtail" - Release amd64 (20130424)
SourcePackage: thermald
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to wily on 2016-01-18 (174 days ago)
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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1600599
Title:
Thermald is totally broken, or its default configuration is
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