Problem | ARCH | Thinkpad with Intel Graphics appears to only stay in powersave governor mode when running on battery

[rsramkis]

When using only using battery power on my Thinkpad T450 (Ivy Bridge CPU) in EndeavorOS (Arch Linux) I noticed no matter what load I am applying to the laptop (e.g. playing a 4K video) I notice the laptop will stay in "Setting to use: "powersave" governor" and stay at a speed of "798 MHz" where turbo does turn on.

When the laptop is plugged into power I will see it switch to "Currently using: performance governor" ramp up to speed of "2195 MHz".

The problem is the laptop in battery mode with the slower CPU speed will make it unusable under load (where video will just play audio and video just pauses).

I am at a loss at why the speed is stuck "798 MHz". The articles I sourced below appear to say that the new 'powersave' mode used by the Intel_pstate driver is dynamic for persons using Kernel 5.7 or higher. As I used TLP, I have included this file for review. Thank you.

tlp.conf.txt

Hardware:

System:
  Host: mani Kernel: 5.10.55-1-lts x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: GNOME 40.3
  Distro: EndeavourOS
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: LENOVO ThinkPad T450

Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 17.2 Wh (87.8%) condition: 19.6/23.2 Wh (84.4%)
  ID-2: BAT1 charge: 14.7 Wh (72.1%) condition: 20.4/23.5 Wh (87.0%)
CPU:
  Info: Dual Core Intel Core i5-5300U [MT MCP] speed: 2195 MHz
  min/max: 500/2200 MHz
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 5500 driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Chicony Integrated Camera type: USB driver: uvcvideo
  Display: wayland server: X.org 1.20.13 driver: loaded: i915
Info:
  Processes: 183 Uptime: 8m Memory: 15.51 GiB used: 1.56 GiB (10.0%) Shell: Zsh
  inxi: 3.3.05

System information:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linux distro: EndeavourOS rolling rolling
Linux kernel: 5.10.55-1-lts
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz
Cores: 4
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_cpufreq

------------------------------ Current CPU stats ------------------------------

CPU max frequency: 2200 MHz
CPU min frequency: 500 MHz

Core    Usage   Temperature     Frequency
CPU0:     3.9%     44 °C     2195 MHz
CPU1:     0.0%     44 °C     2195 MHz
CPU2:     2.0%     43 °C     2195 MHz
CPU3:     2.0%     43 °C     2195 MHz

auto-cpufreq version:
fatal: not a git repository (or any of the parent directories): .git
CalledProcessError(128, ['git', 'describe', '--always'])

Python: 3.9.6
psutil package: 5.8.0
platform package: 1.0.8
click package: 8.0.1
/bin/sh: line 1: pip3: command not found
distro package

Computer type: Notebook
Battery is: charging

auto-cpufreq system resource consumption:
cpu usage: 0.0 %
memory use: 0.1 %

Total CPU usage: 1.0 %
Total system load: 0.39
Average temp. of all cores: 43.5 °C

Currently using: performance governor
Currently turbo boost is: off

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---

Sources:

https://linrunner.de/tlp/settings/processor.html https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling#Scaling_governors https://silvae86.github.io/2020/06/13/switching-to-acpi-power/ https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/GRUB https://forum.garudalinux.org/t/guide-configuring-garuda-linux-for-laptop/7685

[AdnanHodzic]

Added Troubleshooting section to README on how to change CPU management driver.

Could you please give this a try as I believe it will resolve your problem. If it doesn't please feel free to re-open this issue.

[rsramkis]

Hi Adnan,

Thanks for your feedback. I did try using ACPI-CPUFreq which was referenced in your Read.me and the two below sources:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling#cpupower https://silvae86.github.io/2020/06/13/switching-to-acpi-power/

Add the “intel_pstate=disable” to the “GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT” configuration line.

FROM:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“resume=UUID=715c2972-1a51-4d73-89a0-86ea7bb5aa7f resume_offset=3127296… apparmor=1 lsm=lockdown,yama,apparmor”

TO:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=“resume=UUID=715c2972-1a51-4d73-89a0-86ea7bb5aa7f resume_offset=3127296… apparmor=1 lsm=lockdown,yama,apparmor intel_pstate=disable”

Unfortunately after I switched to ACPI-CPUFreq from intel_cpufreq I noticed Auto-CPUFreq would only change the govenor to 'powersave' on battery and 'performance' on AC. So no inbetween states. Testing with CPUPower I was able to switch to the various governor states manually.

My workaround now with Kernel 5.7+ kernels is I am now using TLP alone where I use 'Ondemand' for battery and 'Performance' for AC Power.

I created some details notes of my testing (just in case you have some recommendations) in the EndeavourOS forms:

https://forum.endeavouros.com/t/auto-cpufreq-thinkpad-with-intel-graphics-appears-to-only-stay-in-powersave-governor-mode-when-running-on-battery/16384

[rsramkis]

I'd like to re-open this issue (I don't have the permissions to change the status).

[AdnanHodzic]

Sorry, I just re-read what this issue is about.

Problem you're facing is that auto-cpufreq was made not to go to powersave governor while plugged in to power source, hence it'll only stay in this mode when on battery.

This use case fits most users needs. However, once long planned feature to have a settings file #26 is implemented, you will be able to override this (default) behavior.

[rsramkis]

Hi Adnan,

No issue. I tend to write allot of detail in my tickets. Pretty much my usecase was:

Play the following 4k Video while running on battery (without it dropping frames). It would require that the CPU not be restricted to the Batterysave governor only, but ramp up Ondemand (or appropriate setting).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNtJ4HdMavo

My original setup with Auto-CPUFreq was Manjaro Gnome on Kernel LTS 5.4 where I believe Auto-CPUFreq was able to change my governor settings while in battery mode (I could be wrong as I am not always on battery when I am testing).

The new setup on the same laptop with Auto-CPUFreq is EndeavourOS Gnome on Kernel LTS 5.10 where TLP service is disabled and Auto-CPUFreq was able to change my governor settings to:

Battery = Powersave AC - Performance

Since on battery I am stuck at Powersave which restricts the CPU frequencies (turbo turns on) the video will pause or lose audio sync.

Note:

• My setup has hardware acceleration configured (Vaapi) in Firefox and Chromium.
• I have considered switching to Kernel LTS 5.4, but this is kind of a pain as I would have to get it via the AUR and compile it everytime the kernel receives a patch.

This was an article I was reading as I was trying to learn your implementation better. Thought it might interest you as Phoronix always has some interesting points of view with testing to back it up.

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_pstate_linux315&num=1

[AdnanHodzic]

With v1.7.0 release it's now possible to manually define some of the settings instead of leaving everything to be picked up automatically. Could you try tweaking some of the available options and report back on how that worked for you? Thanks

[rsramkis]

Thanks for the feedback Adnan. I'm going to close this issue for now and will revisit with v1.7.0 release after I finish my KDE test project.