[gentoo-user] VMware and cpu_states on Dell 9300

[gentoo-user] VMware and cpu_states on Dell 9300

[Michael W. Holdeman]

I purchased a new Dell 9300 to replace teh 8600 I have been using. The lap is 
nearly identical to teh 8600. When running VMWare with w2k it was unbearably 
slow. Through some googeling and VMWare's forums I found that teh cpu kept 
going to sleep state when running vmware. So the best solution I found so far 
is to write a bash script as below:

#!/bin/bash 
echo 1 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate 
vmwarearts 
echo 8 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate 

I named it vmware_script and placed it in /etc/vmware, and execute it to run 
vmware. It works great as long as I execute as root :
chmod o+w /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate
So that as a user you can execute the max_cstate command. 

This works but whenever you boot the laptop you have to su to root and execute 
teh chmod again or the state will not be enforced and vmware is deathly slow.

Does anyone here have a better solution??

Mike
-- 
 
Michael W. Holdeman


________________________________________
Powered by Gentoo Linux www.gentoo.org  |
Kernel 2.6.15-ck2                       |
VMWare Workstation 5.5.1 vmware.com     |
Win4LinPro 6.1.1-03 win4lin.com         |
________________________________________|
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

[gentoo-user] Re: VMware and cpu_states on Dell 9300

[Harry Putnam]

"Michael W. Holdeman" <lists@ptfd.org> writes:

> I named it vmware_script and placed it in /etc/vmware, and execute
> it to run vmware. It works great as long as I execute as root :
> chmod o+w /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate So that as a
> user you can execute the max_cstate command.
>
> This works but whenever you boot the laptop you have to su to root
> and execute teh chmod again or the state will not be enforced and
> vmware is deathly slow.

There may be better ways but one would be to put it in
/etc/conf.d/local.start

and put that into the init setup with 
  rc-update add local default

Be sure to put a & after the command or it will hang up boot process. 

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] VMware and cpu_states on Dell 9300

[Neil Bothwick]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 593 bytes --]

On Fri, 3 Feb 2006 17:14:33 -0500, Michael W. Holdeman wrote:

> This works but whenever you boot the laptop you have to su to root and
> execute teh chmod again or the state will not be enforced and vmware is
> deathly slow.
> 
> Does anyone here have a better solution??

sudo. Giving root rights for echo might be a bad idea, but you could add
the script to /etc/sudoers, then use su in the script to run vmware
itself as your normal user.


-- 
Neil Bothwick

Q. How many mice does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A. Only two - but it's difficult to get them in there.

[-- Attachment #2: signature.asc --]
[-- Type: application/pgp-signature, Size: 189 bytes --]

Re: [gentoo-user] Re: VMware and cpu_states on Dell 9300

[Michael W. Holdeman]

On Friday 03 February 2006 17:45, Harry Putnam wrote:
> "Michael W. Holdeman" <lists@ptfd.org> writes:
> > I named it vmware_script and placed it in /etc/vmware, and execute
> > it to run vmware. It works great as long as I execute as root :
> > chmod o+w /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate So that as a
> > user you can execute the max_cstate command.
> >
> > This works but whenever you boot the laptop you have to su to root
> > and execute teh chmod again or the state will not be enforced and
> > vmware is deathly slow.
>
> There may be better ways but one would be to put it in
> /etc/conf.d/local.start
>
> and put that into the init setup with
>   rc-update add local default
>
> Be sure to put a & after the command or it will hang up boot process.

Should work..

Mike
-- 
 
Michael W. Holdeman


________________________________________
Powered by Gentoo Linux www.gentoo.org  |
Kernel 2.6.15-ck2                       |
VMWare Workstation 5.5.1 vmware.com     |
Win4LinPro 6.1.1-03 win4lin.com         |
________________________________________|
-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] VMware and cpu_states on Dell 9300

[Richard Fish]

On 2/3/06, Michael W. Holdeman <lists@ptfd.org> wrote:
> #!/bin/bash
> echo 1 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate
> vmwarearts
> echo 8 > /sys/module/processor/parameters/max_cstate

<snip>

> Does anyone here have a better solution??

If you build the ACPI processor kernel driver as a module, you can add
the following to /etc/modules.d/acpi:

options processor max_cstate=1

Then run modules-update and add "processor" to
/etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6.

The downside is that this uses (slightly) more power when you are not
running vmware.

-Richard

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list