Orange Pi PC with 19.11.3: temperature and performance problems

[kimidare]

I've been happily running orangepipc with armbian (buster, 4.19.62-sunxi) as an openvpn gateway for my home devices for some time. Here are some details:

 

• I have a remote openvpn server
• the pi runs an openvpn client and connects to the server
• the pi has ipv4 packets forwarding enabled
• my wifi router provides the pi's ip as the default gateway via dhcp

 

So when I connect to wifi with my phone, all phone traffic will be routed through the remote openvpn server without need to install the openvpn client on the phone itself.

 

With this setup the pi can easily saturate my 30mbit cable connection when downloading torrents for example.

 

Just now I tried to upgrade the kernel to 5.3.9 as is outlined here https://forum.armbian.com/topic/12210-armbian-1911y-release-notes/

 

So first I tried "linux-image-current-sunxi=19.11.3 5.3.9-sunxi"

 

After reboot I noticed the cpu got +10C more hot: 35 vs 45 idle. The cpu freq settings /etc/default/cpufrequtils were missing and the cpu was running 480-1368MHZ. So I created /etc/default/cpufrequtils using the same settings from the 4.19.62-sunxi kernel (408-1296MHZ) and restarted the cpufrequtils service. Nothing changed much, the temp was still like +10C higher than previously.

 

Next I tried "linux-image-legacy-sunxi=19.11.3 4.19.84-sunxi"

 

After reboot the cpu was still hot. But I noticed another problem. I started a torrent and it was hardly hitting 1Mb/s instead of usual 3Mb/s. Openvpn process was at 70% cpu and some kernel process was at 20% some. I guess both processes used the same cpu core and the downloading of 1MB/s was because of the core bottleneck. I think the same problem comes with "linux-image-current-sunxi=19.11.3 5.3.9-sunxi", but I mostly payed attention to the temparature trying that.

 

Next I rolled back to "linux-image-next-sunxi=5.92 4.19.62-sunxi"

 

After reboot the cpu was back to the normal temperature. The torrent download speed was over 3Mb/s while the openvpn process was only using like 40% cpu core and there was no kernel process eating much cpu in "top" output. Cpu temperature was up to 42-43C during that - it was lower than idle temp for "linux-image-current-sunxi=19.11.3 5.3.9-sunxi" and "linux-image-legacy-sunxi=19.11.3 4.19.84-sunxi" !

 

 

Is this (more heat and performance problem) a well-known problem with 19.11.3 (both 5.3.9-sunxi and 4.19.84-sunxi) for orangepipc|H3 ?

[Igor]

1 hour ago, kimidare said:

a well-known problem with

Upgrading kernels is always pros and cons. Nothing is well known at this point and that's why we provide an easy option to stay back.

 

Thank you for your input.

[kimidare]

KK. I'll try a clean install on another sdcard later and report the results here then.

[kimidare]

So, with a clean install of Armbian_19.11.3_Orangepipc_buster_current_5.3.9 there is no performance problem outlined above. The pi saturates 30mbit connection when dowloading a torrent over openvpn, cpu usage is the same 40% as with my older setup.

 

But the cpu temperature shown is still much higher with armbian 19.11.3.

 

Idle stats armbian 5.92 kernel 4.19.62 vs 19.11.3 kernel 5.3.9

 

 

Torrent downloading at 30mbit over openvpn link stats 5.92 kernel 4.19.62 vs 19.11.3 kernel 5.3.9

 

 

I wonder if there mby was some change in temp reporting for H3 in the kernel? Mby readings for 4.19.62 are actually wrong? Ambient temp is slightly over 20C, the chip has an aluminium heatsink installed, the board is enclosed in the official orangepi pc case