Not respecting the config file

[Hikandy]

Here is my debug output

`Using settings defined in /etc/auto-cpufreq.conf file

---

Linux distro: Arch Linux
Linux kernel: 5.16.1-arch1-g14-2
Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800U with Radeon Graphics
Cores: 16
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: amd-pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 1901 MHz
CPU min frequency: 1600 MHz

Core Usage Temperature Frequency
CPU0: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU1: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU2: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU3: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU4: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU5: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU6: 1.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU7: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU8: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU9: 1.0% 37 °C 1563 MHz
CPU10: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU11: 1.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU12: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU13: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU14: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz
CPU15: 0.0% 37 °C 1600 MHz

auto-cpufreq version: Version : 1.9.1-3

Python: 3.10.2
psutil package: 5.9.0
platform package: 1.0.8
click package: 8.0.3
distro package: 1.6.0

Computer type: Notebook
Battery is: discharging

auto-cpufreq system resource consumption:
cpu usage: 0.0 %
memory use: 0.15 %

Total CPU usage: 0.9 %
Total system load: 0.94
Average temp. of all cores: 37.125 °C

Currently using: powersave governor
Currently turbo boost is: off
`

this is my config file

`
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
1 │ # settings for when connected to a power source
2 │ [charger]
3 │ # see available governors by running: cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
4 │ # preferred governor.
5 │ governor = performance
6 │
7 │ # minimum cpu frequency (in kHz)
8 │ # example: for 800 MHz = 800000 kHz --> scaling_min_freq = 800000
9 │ # see conversion info: https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/frequency/mhz-to-hz.html
10 │ # to use this feature, uncomment the following line and set the value accordingly
11 │ # scaling_min_freq = 800000
12 │
13 │ # maximum cpu frequency (in kHz)
14 │ # example: for 1GHz = 1000 MHz = 1000000 kHz -> scaling_max_freq = 1000000
15 │ # see conversion info: https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/frequency/mhz-to-hz.html
16 │ # to use this feature, uncomment the following line and set the value accordingly
17 │ # scaling_max_freq = 1000000
18 │
19 │ # turbo boost setting. possible values: always, auto, never
20 │ turbo = auto
21 │
22 │ # settings for when using battery power
23 │ [battery]
24 │ # see available governors by running: cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
25 │ # preferred governor
26 │ governor = powersave
27 │
28 │ # minimum cpu frequency (in kHz)
29 │ # example: for 800 MHz = 800000 kHz --> scaling_min_freq = 800000
30 │ # see conversion info: https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/frequency/mhz-to-hz.html
31 │ # to use this feature, uncomment the following line and set the value accordingly
32 │ scaling_min_freq = 1600000
33 │
34 │ # maximum cpu frequency (in kHz)
35 │ # see conversion info: https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/frequency/mhz-to-hz.html
36 │ # example: for 1GHz = 1000 MHz = 1000000 kHz -> scaling_max_freq = 1000000
37 │ # to use this feature, uncomment the following line and set the value accordingly
38 │ scaling_max_freq = 3000000
39 │
40 │ # turbo boost setting. possible values: always, auto, never
41 │ turbo = auto

`

i want to set the max freq as 3ghz but its stuck at 1900

[varaki]

Try setting turbo boost to 'always', if turbo boost is off, your system limits the max frequently.

[Hikandy]

Try setting turbo boost to 'always', if turbo boost is off, your system limits the max frequently.

can enabling that setting eat battery life?

[Hikandy]

Try setting turbo boost to 'always', if turbo boost is off, your system limits the max frequently.
Didn't work, still the same output as before 1600 and 1900. Another weird thing that i noticed was that when i gave the stress command to stress 9 cpu threads to 100%, the frequency was always 1600, it never went to 1900.

[AdnanHodzic]

Another weird thing that i noticed was that when i gave the stress command to stress 9 cpu threads to 100%, the frequency was always 1600, it never went to 1900.

I see this confirmed here, I also saw another mentioned of this in another bug report, as this is a regression which I originally mentioned this to @bobslept as part of his #349 PR. In a nutshell, what was happening before and what was displayed as part of auto-cpufreq demo on Youtube is not happening for me anymore. Hence, if my CPU usage in % starts to increase and is above >= 70 or even in 100% range, instead of cores kicking in to their max, they'll never get there anymore.

This is what my CPU stats look like while I'm stressing all of my cores: stress --cpu 8 --io 4 --vm 4 --timeout 60

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     70 °C     1900 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     69 °C     1900 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     70 °C     1900 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     72 °C     1900 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     70 °C     1900 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     69 °C     1900 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     70 °C     1900 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     72 °C     1900 MHz

I haven't had a time to look into this, but I'm sure one of the conditions as part of set_performance function is messing something up.

In meantime, if anyone has time to look into this and make a code contribution that would be great!

[bobslept]

While building a kernel.
My max turbo on all cores is 3.2ghz, exactly like the specs from my cpu.

CPU max frequency: 1800 MHz
CPU min frequency: 1400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     83 °C     3198 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     83 °C     3198 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     83 °C     3198 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     83 °C     3198 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     83 °C     3198 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU6:	 99.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU8:	100.0%     83 °C     3198 MHz
CPU9:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU10:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU11:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU12:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU13:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU14:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz
CPU15:	100.0%     83 °C     3197 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 99.9 %
Total system load: 18.35
Average temp. of all cores: 82.875 °C

High CPU load
setting turbo boost: on

On battery with powersave governor it locks on 1400mhz. If change governor to shedutil on battery I hit max speeds.

[AdnanHodzic]

@bobslept yea I remember that it worked for you when I initially mentioned this issue. Can you confirm you're also not using the auto-cpufreq config file?

While I'm running on Intel ...

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 (Impish Indri)
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

... it doesn't seem to be an Intel only thing as @Hikandy is running on Ryzen 7 and has this problem. Really hard to pinpoint what exactly is causing this behavior ...

[bobslept]

I'm not using the config file normally.

He says speed is not going higher then 1600mhz. Which is exactly the same behavior I have using the powersave governor on battery, instead it's 1400mhz on my Ryzen.

So to get max speed when I need it on battery, I switch to schedutil governor. But I think performance governor would also work. powersave just locks the speed on cpu min frequency. Even when turbo is enabled. At least on my system.

Why I chose schedutil over performance I think was that it would clock down to min frequency instead of max frequency when on performance. But most of the time I'm not heavy lifting when on battery, so I prefer powersave.

Btw @AdnanHodzic to pinpoint this, did you try set the stuff manually instead of letting auto-cpufreq do it? See if you get different results. Then you can really be sure it's something auto-cpufreq does wrong or there is something else going on.

Did you look into platform profiles that controls your power level? Added since 5.12. I mean if I set my profile to low-power it has a max of 20 watts to use if I'm correct. Then I never reach my 3.2ghz no matter how hard I try. That's why we made sure it was on balanced before stopping the power-profiles-daemon. I reach max speeds on that mode. But the performance mode is adding 10 watts extra vs balanced in my case. It wouldn't suprise me if it has something todo with that.

cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices to see what profiles are available for your system.

[AdnanHodzic]

@bobslept

I'm not using the config file normally.

Neither am I, as I like auto-cpufreq to automatically figure what it needs to do. Regardless, I just configured auto-cpufreq config file to:

[charger]
governor = performance
turbo = always
[battery]
governor = powersave
turbo = auto

output during regular workload is better then it is when CPU is put under pressure ...

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	  1.0%     59 °C     3897 MHz
CPU1:	  1.0%     56 °C     4517 MHz
CPU2:	  1.0%     58 °C     2000 MHz
CPU3:	  2.0%     58 °C     2000 MHz
CPU4:	  0.0%     59 °C     2000 MHz
CPU5:	  4.9%     56 °C     2000 MHz
CPU6:	  1.0%     58 °C     2000 MHz
CPU7:	  1.0%     58 °C     2000 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 3.1 %
Total system load: 10.29
Average temp. of all cores: 57.75 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

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

			"auto-cpufreq" refresh in: 2

then I ran: stress --cpu 8 --io 4 --vm 4 --timeout 60 and frequency was limited to 1400 Mhz

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     61 °C     1400 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     60 °C     1400 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     59 °C     1400 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     62 °C     1400 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     61 °C     1400 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     60 °C     1400 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     59 °C     1400 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     62 °C     1400 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 100.0 %
Total system load: 8.79
Average temp. of all cores: 60.5 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

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

			"auto-cpufreq" refresh in: 4

Then, I set for performance governor to be used on battery as well:

[charger]
governor = performance
turbo = always
[battery]
governor = performance
turbo = always

Ran stress test and during first iteration frequencies were unlocked and went really high (as they should in this scenario)

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     93 °C     3458 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     90 °C     3459 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     91 °C     3459 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     97 °C     3459 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     93 °C     3459 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     90 °C     3459 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     91 °C     3459 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     97 °C     3459 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 100.0 %
Total system load: 3.68
Average temp. of all cores: 92.75 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

and next iteration they went lower

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     70 °C     2000 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     70 °C     2000 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     70 °C     2000 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     74 °C     2000 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     70 °C     2000 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     70 °C     2000 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     70 °C     2000 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     74 °C     2000 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 100.0 %
Total system load: 4.75
Average temp. of all cores: 71.0 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

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

and they ended up settling on 1400Mhz, but were ranging between 1400 to 1700Mhz

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     66 °C     1400 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     65 °C     1400 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     65 °C     1400 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     68 °C     1400 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     66 °C     1400 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     65 °C     1400 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     65 °C     1400 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     68 °C     1400 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 100.0 %
Total system load: 7.32
Average temp. of all cores: 66.0 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

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

I also performed stress test while laptop was discharging ... and same behavior in terms of frequencies while it was charging.

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     64 °C     1700 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     63 °C     1700 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     63 °C     1700 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     65 °C     1700 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     64 °C     1700 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     63 °C     1700 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     63 °C     1700 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     65 °C     1700 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: discharging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 100.0 %
Total system load: 12.78
Average temp. of all cores: 63.75 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

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

			"auto-cpufreq" refresh in: 5

Finally, I changed both call(["powerprofilesctl", "set", "balanced"]) to call(["powerprofilesctl", "set", "performance"]) as part of gnome_power_stop_live & gnome_power_svc_disable functions. Ran same stress test and frequencies were as they should (still not at absolute maximum, but way better then it is now) be under so much workload:

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     92 °C     3206 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     88 °C     3206 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     90 °C     3206 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     97 °C     3206 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     92 °C     3206 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     88 °C     3206 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     90 °C     3206 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     97 °C     3206 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 99.9 %
Total system load: 6.45
Average temp. of all cores: 91.75 °C
Configuration file enforces turbo boost
setting turbo boost: on

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

			"auto-cpufreq" refresh in: 4

I then even removed the auto-cpufreq config file, ran same stress test and results were again as they should be:

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

Linux distro: Ubuntu 21.10 impish
Linux kernel: 5.13.0-28-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4600 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	100.0%     92 °C     3149 MHz
CPU1:	100.0%     88 °C     3149 MHz
CPU2:	100.0%     91 °C     3149 MHz
CPU3:	100.0%     97 °C     3149 MHz
CPU4:	100.0%     92 °C     3150 MHz
CPU5:	100.0%     88 °C     3150 MHz
CPU6:	100.0%     91 °C     3150 MHz
CPU7:	100.0%     97 °C     3150 MHz

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 99.9 %
Total system load: 4.65
Average temp. of all cores: 92.0 °C

High CPU load
setting turbo boost: on

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

			"auto-cpufreq" refresh in: 3

There we have it, using team work we managed to pinpoint the problem and that's what caps the frequencies on some hardware. Here's my suggestion how we could resolve this so it works as it should for everybody.

1: Leave power-profiles-daemon to be set to "balanced" before its disabled.
2: If user sets "performance" to be used as a governor as part of auto-cpufreq config file. New functionality should be added to auto-cpufreq, where it'll read this from config file, and if performance is set to call a new parameter as part of power_helper.py script (example: --gnome_power_disable_performance) which will:
2.1: run --gnome_power_enable to enable power-profiles-daemon
2.2: run --gnome_power_disable_performance which will disable power-profiles-daemon with performance governor.

Other option is to instruct people to change code and re-install auto-cpufreq (as I did) which is incredibly ugly and not really a solution. Would love to hear your thoughts.

3. I'm baffled why in current setup with balanced my frequencies started of good/high (as they should) and then they were lowered in each iteration ...

Btwcat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices returns low-power balanced performance

[Hikandy]

@AdnanHodzic I don't use power-profiles-daemon though so I don't think i can resolve it via your suggestions

[bobslept]

@AdnanHodzic
Why would you reinstall the application, or modify it? Just let the user specify the platform profile. We stop power-profiles-daemon on balanced mode, their 'default' setting.

If that profile does not fit the user they could set the system profile themselfs? If they have support for it.

To get supported profiles from your system:
cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices

Set it to performance profile for example:
echo performance > /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile

I would not set it automatic to performance. Let the user be responsible for it. But that's my opinion.

@Hikandy You are correct this stuff is all unrelated to your issue.

[AdnanHodzic]

@Hikandy correct, I genuinely apologize for hijacking this issue.

@bobslept please take a look at comment I made in #361

P.S: I might be wrong but is #358 related to this issue?

[tnfru]

My settings are sadly not respected either. Turbo is set to never but it turns on all the time when a charger is plugged in.
In the debug output it says that turbo is on, while it is turned off in the config and running auto-cpufreq --stats also says its turned off:

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 1.4 %
Total system load: 1.36
Average temp. of all cores: 63.25 °C 

Configuration file disables turbo boost
setting turbo boost: off

Debug output:

Using settings defined in /etc/auto-cpufreq.conf file

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

Linux distro: Pop!_OS 22.04 jammy
Linux kernel: 5.16.19-051619-generic
Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1165G7 @ 2.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

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

CPU max frequency: 4700 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	  0.0%     66 °C     2800 MHz
CPU1:	  1.0%     66 °C     2800 MHz
CPU2:	  0.0%     64 °C     2800 MHz
CPU3:	  0.0%     64 °C     2800 MHz
CPU4:	  0.0%     64 °C     1492 MHz
CPU5:	  0.0%     64 °C     2800 MHz
CPU6:	  1.0%     66 °C     2800 MHz
CPU7:	  0.0%     66 °C     2800 MHz

auto-cpufreq version: 1.9.4

Python: 3.10.4
psutil package: 5.9.1
platform package: 1.0.8
click package: 8.1.3
distro package: 1.7.0

Computer type: Laptop
Battery is: charging

auto-cpufreq system resource consumption:
cpu usage: 0.0 %
memory use: 0.09 %

Total CPU usage: 1.0 %
Total system load: 0.95
Average temp. of all cores: 65.00 °C 

Currently using: performance governor
Currently turbo boost is: on

[AdnanHodzic]

Can you confirm if this is related to: #398

[tnfru]

@AdnanHodzic Pretty sure this is a different issue. I'm also on intel, not amd.

[AdnanHodzic]

If there are any changes that could be made please give it a try and contribute to the project and you will be credited for your work as part of future release.

In meantime closing the issue due to inactivity.