[SOLVED] userspace governor not working

Maiya78 · 2013-08-04 04:34:08

Hello! I'm trying to get granola set up on my computer. As a requirement for this, I have to change my CPU governor to 'userspace'. I've spent quite awhile trying to do this, but nothing so far has worked.

Here's what I've tried to do so far: ('sudo' omitted for brevity)

Manually load the userspace governor
# modprobe cpufreq_userspace

Attempt to set governor to userspace via configuration file
# nano /etc/default/cpupower

Enable cpupower to preserve settings across reboots
# systemctl enable cpupower
# systemctl start cpupower
## It fails to start if "governor='userspace'" is in /etc/default/cpupower

Set CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_USERSPACE=y
# nano /etc/default/grub
# grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

...and here's where things are failing:

# systemctl start cpupower  ## Only fails if "governor='userspace'" is in /etc/default/cpupower
# cpupower frequency-set --governor userspace
# granola -d

Here's the output of lsmod, after I modprobe cpufreq_userspace:

# lsmod | grep cpufreq
2:cpufreq_userspace       3296  0

...So I suppose none of the others are even loaded?

Here's the output of cpupower frequency-info:

# cpupower frequency-info --governors        
analyzing CPU 0:
performance powersave

Judging by the errors that "granola -d" and "cpupower frequency-set --governor userspace" are throwing at me, it almost seems that the userspace governor isn't even available on my system. The fact that I can set my governor to performance seems to confirm this. I couldn't see any packages seeming to contain the userspace governor, though. I know it's a kmod, if that helps any.

tl;dr, I can't get the userspace governor to work. In fact, it doesn't even seem available on my system.

I'm running Arch Linux (ofc), arch=x86_64, Intel i5K Sandy Bridge.

If someone is able to assist me with this, I would be quite appreciative!

Last edited by Maiya78 (2013-08-04 05:39:45)

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-04 05:13:34

If you have a sandy bridge then this is not surprising. Please search the forums for intel_pstate, as this has been covered a number of times.

Maiya78 · 2013-08-04 05:22:54

Ah! Alrighty. Thanks. I remember reading about intel_pstate in the wiki, but I'd misinterpreted it as being separate from the typical governors, and hadn't considered it as the reason for my trouble.

For anyone else Googling about this issue...
The way you disable intel_pstate is by adding "CONFIG_X86_INTEL_PSTATE=n" to your grub configuration. From what I understand, though, that's not particularly recommended, at least with the non-userspace governors. The userspace one may or may not be more effective than intel_pstate; there's no way to tell overall because userspace is inherently user-defined.
Source: https://plus.google.com/117091380454742 … vEekAsG2QT

I'll go ahead and mark this as solved, then. Thanks!

Last edited by Maiya78 (2013-08-04 05:41:27)

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-04 05:27:35

That is not how you disable it. That is a kernel configuration. You should try running with the intel_pstate driver, as it is superior to the old method of doing things. And indeed it is a separate from the other governors, but it is compiled into the kernel instead of as a module, so when the kernel detects that you have compatible hardware, it will use that instead.

This new driver is very new though, so as with all new software it is not without its bugs. But the development has been very active, and said bugs are being ironed out all the time. So unless you experience real issues with it, just let it do its thing.

You can choose either powersave or performance, though on my machine at least, I cannot really tell any difference between the two. The default is powersave.

Maiya78 · 2013-08-04 05:32:00

Thanks! Good to know.

WonderWoofy · 2013-08-04 05:34:13

Don't forget to mark the thread as [Solved] lik you said you were going to do.

Maiya78 · 2013-08-04 05:40:03

Done!

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-04 04:34:08

[SOLVED] userspace governor not working

#2 2013-08-04 05:13:34

Re: [SOLVED] userspace governor not working

#3 2013-08-04 05:22:54

Re: [SOLVED] userspace governor not working

#4 2013-08-04 05:27:35

Re: [SOLVED] userspace governor not working

#5 2013-08-04 05:32:00

Re: [SOLVED] userspace governor not working

#6 2013-08-04 05:34:13

Re: [SOLVED] userspace governor not working

#7 2013-08-04 05:40:03

Re: [SOLVED] userspace governor not working

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