Anderson Lizardo’s Blog

This article explains how to run Intel’s Processor Frequency ID “Bootable Version” on Linux. This utility is useful to check whether the Intel CPU you bought is running at the specified Processor/Bus speeds (i.e. it is not overclocked). This article will explain how to run the “Bootable Version” using GRUB and Syslinux’s memdisk image to boot a floppy image. It was tested on a Ubuntu 6.06 LTS PC with a Pentium III processor.

Download the utility from http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/frequencyid/ (bootable version)

Unpack the self-extracting .exe file:

unzip -Ld intel_freqid bfid_e25.exe

Create a blank floppy-sized image:

dd if=/dev/zero of=intel_freqid.img bs=1440K count=1

The following instructions need to be run as root.

We now need to associate the image with a loopback device so we could manipulate it. To do so, check the name of the first available loopback device:

losetup -f

This device will be referred in the rest of this article as $lo_dev. Now associate the image with a free loopack device:

losetup $lo_dev intel_freqid.img

Format image with FAT:

mkdosfs $lo_dev

Mount the image:

mount $lo_dev /mnt

Copy files to the image:

cp intel_freqid/_comtmp.fid /mnt/command.com
cp intel_freqid/_dostmp.fid /mnt/dos.sys
cp intel_freqid/_autotmp.fid /mnt/autoexec.bat
cp intel_freqid/bfreqid?.com /mnt/

Umount image:

umount /mnt

Write bootsector to image file:

dd if=intel_freqid/bootsect.img of=$lo_dev

Dettach loop device from image:

losetup -d $lo_dev

Copy image to /boot:

cp intel_freqid.img /boot/

Install syslinux (used for booting the floppy image):

apt-get install syslinux

Add the following lines to /boot/grub/menu.lst:

title           Intel(R) Frequency ID Utility
root            (hd0,0)
kernel          /usr/lib/syslinux/memdisk
initrd          /boot/intel_freqid.img
boot