How do I change CPU speed in Gnome 3?

[simpleblue]

Are there any programs I can install that would do this in Gnome 3?

[megaloman]

Originally Posted by simpleblue

Are there any programs I can install that would do this in Gnome 3?

according to gnome 3 devs an average user does not need to worry about the cpu speed, hence there is no applet for such a thing.

according to gnome 3 devs you don't need to inhibit your screen either, as an average user won't use it. it does not matter, that I have to sit in front of my computer for 20 minutes moving my mouse every couple of minutes, as my screen gets calibrated. they call it usability improvement - to help you focus on one task (calibrating your monitor) and not to get distracted while you're focused on your task

let's hope some one will write an extension to implement CPU Freq applet or something similar.

[calanor]

you can install cpupowerutils. Then use cpuspeed to control your cpu. Or just let it run as a daemon and it will automatically try to lower your power usage.

[sonoran]

In addition to calanor's recommendation, read the /etc/sysconfig/cpuspeed file - it has F15 info and some user settings.

No idea how GNOME 3 affects this because I don't use it.

[megaloman]

Originally Posted by sonoran

In addition to calanor's recommendation, read the /etc/sysconfig/cpuspeed file - it has F15 info and some user settings.

No idea how GNOME 3 affects this because I don't use it.

I think, question was regarding CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor - a gnome applet, not compatible with Gnome 3. It allowed users to amend cpu scaling governor as well as force particular speed when needed, with a single click.

Gnome 3 brings a massive usability improvement - now instead of one single click, users have to do more clicks and, as a bonus, some command line typing too.

[simpleblue]

Thank you for all the replies.. After much research and fiddling I came up with some code that can change the CPU speed:

* Run at your own risk! *


# Run computer at Minimum CPU frequency/speed

In terminal copy and paste the following:

su -c 'yum -y install cpuspeed cpupowerutils; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/cpuinfo_min_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; /etc/init.d/cpuspeed restart'

# Run computer at Maximum CPU frequency/speed

In terminal copy and paste the following:

su -c 'yum -y install cpuspeed cpupowerutils; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq; yes | cp /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/cpuinfo_max_freq /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq'

This code is good for up to a 4 core machine. Settings 'may' be reset upon resetting.

[AdamW]

there is just about no reason for you ever to mess with this, really.

The kernel has been very good at handling CPU speeds for a while, now. It runs the CPU as fast as any running process can make use of it, and that's the optimal behaviour for just about every situation. No, running your CPU at lower speeds even when CPU-intensive processes are active does *not* save power, because it makes the CPU-intensive processes take longer and hence keeps the CPU non-idle for longer. The goal for ideal power management is always to get the CPU idle, and the best way to do that is to complete processes as fast as possible. So _even for power saving_, you want to run your CPU as fast as possible when it's actually needed.

This can be a bit tricky to understand, but it's really true. Except for very old CPUs which the kernel couldn't really control effectively, there is just about zero reason to set the CPU speed manually or install any third-party tools discussed in this thread any more.

[simpleblue]

Originally Posted by AdamW

there is just about no reason for you ever to mess with this, really.

The kernel has been very good at handling CPU speeds for a while, now. It runs the CPU as fast as any running process can make use of it, and that's the optimal behaviour for just about every situation. No, running your CPU at lower speeds even when CPU-intensive processes are active does *not* save power, because it makes the CPU-intensive processes take longer and hence keeps the CPU non-idle for longer. The goal for ideal power management is always to get the CPU idle, and the best way to do that is to complete processes as fast as possible. So _even for power saving_, you want to run your CPU as fast as possible when it's actually needed.

This can be a bit tricky to understand, but it's really true. Except for very old CPUs which the kernel couldn't really control effectively, there is just about zero reason to set the CPU speed manually or install any third-party tools discussed in this thread any more.

You make a great point.

For what I"m using this for it makes sense: I want to lower the laptops temperature because it freezes when it gets hot (yes, whatever distro, and it even freezes before grub). There is a huge difference in the decrease of heat produced when I do this.

[Wayne]

Less than a minute in the #fedora channel was enough to remind me why Fedora 13 was the last Fedora revision I had burned. I've found that whenever I am foolish enough to ask a question in #fedora, instead of getting help with what I have asked, I am bombarded with questions on why I am trying to do what I am doing.

http://jeffhoogland.blogspot.com/201...ays-wrong.html

[Dan]

Originally Posted by simpleblue

You make a great point.

For what I"m using this for it makes sense: I want to lower the laptops temperature because it freezes when it gets hot (yes, whatever distro, and it even freezes before grub). There is a huge difference in the decrease of heat produced when I do this.

I hesitate to ask ... but ... what make and model of laptop?

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=262259

[simpleblue]

Originally Posted by Dan

I hesitate to ask ... but ... what make and model of laptop?

http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=262259

It's a HP Pavillon dv6-2120a. I saw that thread you mentioned but didn't want to respond until I found out what the problem was. I'll try cleaning it as soon as I get a small enough screwdriver to open it up.

And no, decreasing the power did not work. If the load goes over 30-50% CPU (on 800Mhz, much sooner on full 2200Mhz) then it seemed to eventually trip out. No more HP computers for me.

[Dan]

Dang! I was afraid of that. Some of the dv6 line has the same issues and reputation.

[AdamW]

Yeah, that's about the only valid reason to change the CPU speed manually; it might be nice to have some kind of tool for that specific purpose. I had a similar system myself, once - a Lenovo 3000 V100, it would hit its temp threshold (100 degC!) and reboot if run at full CPU usage for more than 15 minutes or so. What I did was buy one of those laptop cooling pad things - it actually helped a lot (knocked 20 degC off the temps).

[DBelton]

I have an old Dell here (P4 1.8ghz) that the kernel still doesn't seem to be able to control right. However, I have the opposite problem on that one. It sets it to the lower speed, and won't increase it to full speed when needed. It sets it to 1.2GHz and leave it there, no matter what the CPU load is. So I have to go in and set it manually to 1.8GHz if I wish it to run full speed.

It's only on that one system I have ever had a problem with the cpu speed, so I just chalk it up to something flakey in the Dell bios.

[AdamW]

yeah, P4s are around where it gets troublesome. The usual advice with P4s is just to turn off the clock controlling stuff entirely - blacklist the p4_clockmod kernel module...