# powersave governour defunct in 4.10.X

## Roman_Gruber

It seems for some reason for quite a while 4.10.x does not respect the following command anymore

```
cpupower frequency-set -g powersave

```

I pulled out my backup, and reverted back to 4.9.20-gentoo-08-04-2017. 

I copied kernel 4.9.20-gentoo-08-04-2017, build date 8th april 2017, from my backup to boot and booted without the module directory. The powersave governour worked.

I changed /usr/src/linux to 4.10.16 branch

cp /proc/config.gz > .config

make oldconfig

checked if name was 08-04, was, updated datestring to today.

powersave governour is broken.

---

~ Around 2 weeks the powersave governour is broken. I suspected too many changes to my kernel config. So I reverted back to a month old config to see if 4.9.x was affected and how the old config behaves with recent kernels.

---

In my humble opinion it is the kernel fault, as my old kernel worked regarding the powersave issue.

--

cpu is i7-3610qm, ivybridge.

--

afaik 4.11.0 does not work with the nvidia-binary, so i have it masked as of now! I am not fond of using epatches!

--

Is htis a known issue regarding ivybrdige and governours?

--

I doubt it is an issue with i7z wrongly displaying its values.

When i update my world with powersave enalbed on 4.10.x i hear the fan quite after a while. the cpu is not downclocked to the lowest value 1200 as it hsould be.

The hardware hardly used the fan with powersave enabled on previous kernels when doing a world update.

and it is not a thermal paste issue. that was redone around xmas.

i7z reports more than the lowest value, it seems i7z reports the behaviours of ondemand governour as the expected powersave governour.

--

box is ~amd64 with stable gcc. I will not use 6.3.x gcc for a while. too much fuss most likely.

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## jburns

4.11.1 works with the nvidia-binary.

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## Jaglover

There is no powersave governor with Intel P-states driver. It all is done in hardware AFAIK.

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## The_Great_Sephiroth

I thought we were supposed to use the ACPI driver on newer Intel chips? I use it and the powersave governor works.

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## tuggbuss

 *Jaglover wrote:*   

> There is no powersave governor with Intel P-states driver. It all is done in hardware AFAIK.

 

I have Intel P-state enabled in kernel, and emerged cpupower yesterday, and added service to run @ boot. I edited conf.d/cpupower to run "performance"

I'll check if it's working when i get home

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## Ant P.

 *The_Great_Sephiroth wrote:*   

> I thought we were supposed to use the ACPI driver on newer Intel chips? I use it and the powersave governor works.

 

ACPI driver is for new AMD chips, P-state driver for new Intel chips. The latter has built in governors called "performance" and "powersave" which work very differently to the kernel software governors. Don't enable the in-kernel powersave option for any reason other than coping with defective hardware, clamping a chip to run at minimum speed isn't a very useful thing to do.

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## tuggbuss

Checked, but my CPU states 3200 max

```
gentoo@gentoo ~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "MHz"

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

cpu MHz      : 3201.000

```

Last edited by tuggbuss on Fri May 19, 2017 10:30 pm; edited 1 time in total

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## tuggbuss

Using Arch Linux my governor works on my overclocked system (running 4.1 GHz) but in gentoo i "only" get 3.2 GHz. 

Is there a way (enable/disable modules/options) in kernel to get it to work for me (up to 4.1 GHz)?

Am i hijacking this thread now?

E: I didn't have Intel P-state enabled in kernel. I enabled it, now i have a working ondemand and performance mode.

```
gentoo@gentoo ~ $ cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "MHz"

cpu MHz      : 4100.000

cpu MHz      : 4102.148

cpu MHz      : 4099.804

cpu MHz      : 4100.000

cpu MHz      : 4099.609

cpu MHz      : 4099.804

cpu MHz      : 4107.226

cpu MHz      : 4105.468

cpu MHz      : 4100.000

cpu MHz      : 4099.804

cpu MHz      : 4093.750

cpu MHz      : 4099.804

cpu MHz      : 4099.609

cpu MHz      : 4100.585

cpu MHz      : 4100.000

cpu MHz      : 4101.562

gentoo@gentoo ~ $ 

```

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