AW: Multi-Processor Usage an Lubuntu 13.10 (64-bit) on MacBook

Thu Oct 24 22:07:36 UTC 2013

On 10/24/2013 11:57 AM, Nio Wiklund wrote:
> On 2013-10-24 19:30, Aere Greenway wrote:
>> On 10/24/2013 01:20 AM, Leszek Lesner wrote:
>>> Tryout the terminal command
>>>
>>> Cat /proc/cpuinfo
>>>
>>> If this shows processor 0 and a processor 1 the system recognized two
>>> CPUs and is using them.
>>> The Qsynth through pulseaudio thing is bad as it had (from my
>>> experience till pulseaudio 2.0) a bad latency. Use Alsa here instead
>>> (needs to suspend pulseaudio first) and test again.
>>>
>> I browsed (using the file browser) to /proc, and double-clicked the
>> cpuinfo file.
>>
>> It showed "Intel Core Duo 2" (something like that - I'm going from
>> memory), and the number of cores was displayed as 1.  Information
>> (options such as pae) was shown only for one CPU.
>>
>> I then tried booting the Ubuntu 13.04 amd64 live CD.
>>
>> When I hold down the Options key while powering up, with Ubuntu, there
>> are two icons having the round CD icon at the right.  The first of those
>> two, is labeled "Windows".   The second is labeled "EFI Boot".
>>
>> I booted the Ubuntu 13.04 DVD using the first ("Windows") CD icon.
>>
>> It came up, and ran fine, but system-monitor showed only 1 CPU, and the
>> "/proc/cpuinfo" file agreed with that assessment.  There were no desktop
>> hangs observed.
>>
>> I shut it down, and (again holding down the "Options" key when it
>> powers-up) this time I selected the "EFI Boot" CD icon at the far right
>> of the list.
>>
>> It immediately showed a text line saying secure boot was not available,
>> and then presented me with a text menu with entries (as I recall):
>>
>> Try Ubuntu
>> Install Ubuntu
>> Check Disk for Defects
>>
>> I chose "Try Ubuntu", and it booted (eventually) directly into Ubuntu
>> Unity desktop.  In this case, system-monitor showed two CPU's, and the
>> "/proc/cpuinfo" file also showed two cores (and info/options about each
>> of them).
>>
>> However, after awhile running, the desktop hung, and I could not do
>> anything further but power down (I did wait quite awhile for it to
>> un-freeze).
>>
>> I then tried the Lubuntu 13.10 amd64-mac live DVD, wanting to try the
>> "EFI Boot" option, but only the "Windows" CD icon was available.  On
>> booting this CD, only one CPU was available.
>>
>> I also tried selecting rEFIt on power-up, and it showed the Linux
>> penguin icon (for the Linux partition on the hard disk), and also
>> another penguin icon at the far right, which when highlighted, indicated
>> it was on CD (DVD).  I selected this (far right) icon, and booted it.
>>
>> When it came up, it had only one CPU (the "/proc/cpuinfo" file indicated
>> that the number of cores was "1").  The system did not hang in the time
>> I was using it.
>>
>>
>> Regarding my use of PulseAudio, I install it so that I can access the
>> Java Sound (Gervill) synthesizer.  If I don't load PulseAudio (and
>> pavucontrol), I cannot use that synthesizer.  On all Ubuntu variants,
>> the Java Sound synthesizer expects PulseAudio to be used.
>>
>> When I re-configured Qsynth to use JACK, there were no more cut-outs on
>> the sound.  But I (as always with Linux on this MacBook) would only
>> produce audible sound with the laptop speakers - plugging in the
>> amplifier cable into the headphone jack effectively shut off all sound.
>>
>> -- 
>> Sincerely,
>> Aere
>>
>>
>>
> Interesting. It seems there are fundamental problems to run an Ubuntu
> based OS on this computer.
>
> Best regards
> Nio
>
Nio, and all:

I tried running an openSUSE 12.3 live-DVD on that machine, but it failed 
to run.

I tried Ubuntu/Unity 13.10 i386 on it, and it (like Lubuntu) ends up 
with only one CPU.

On that last attempt, I looked at the system log.

I noticed (in particular) "NX (executive disable) is active".

Also, in the log, I extracted the following section, which seems 
relevant to the multi-processor problem:

Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020314] CPU: Physical Processor ID: 0
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020316] CPU: Processor Core ID: 0
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020321] mce: CPU supports 6 MCE banks
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020332] CPU0: Thermal monitoring 
enabled (TM2)
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020347] Last level iTLB entries: 
4KB 128, 2MB 4, 4MB 4
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020347] Last level dTLB entries: 
4KB 256, 2MB 0, 4MB 32
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020347] tlb_flushall_shift: -1
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.020791] Freeing SMP alternatives 
memory: 28K (c1a3e000 - c1a45000)
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.024023] ACPI: Core revision 20130517
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.031484] ACPI: All ACPI Tables 
successfully acquired
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.031762] ftrace: allocating 27134 
entries in 53 pages
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.044112] Enabling APIC mode: Flat.  
Using 1 I/O APICs
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.044586] ..TIMER: vector=0x30 
apic1=0 pin1=2 apic2=-1 pin2=-1
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.084546] smpboot: CPU0: Intel(R) 
Core(TM)2 Duo CPU     P7350  @ 2.00GHz (fam: 06, model: 17, stepping: 0a)
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] Performance Events: PEBS 
fmt0+, 4-deep LBR, Core2 events, Intel PMU driver.
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... version:                2
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... bit width:              40
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... generic registers:      2
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... value 
mask:             000000ffffffffff
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... max 
period:             000000007fffffff
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... fixed-purpose events:   3
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] ... event 
mask:             0000000700000003
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] CPU 1 irqstacks, 
hard=f50e6000 soft=f50f0000
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    0.088000] smpboot: Booting Node   0, 
Processors  #1 OK
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    5.178391] smpboot: CPU1: Not responding
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    5.178411] Brought up 1 CPUs
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    5.178414] smpboot: Total of 1 
processors activated (3979.99 BogoMIPS)
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    5.178532] NMI watchdog: enabled on 
all CPUs, permanently consumes one hw-PMU counter.
Oct 24 21:05:35 ubuntu kernel: [    5.180156] devtmpfs: initialized

-- 
Sincerely,
Aere