Arch Linux

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

I just found that 'cpufreqd' among my installed packages.

But I was not yet able to find out what it actually does.

I have 'cpufreq' (notice the missing d) running in my daemons array. What's the difference now, and what would I do with cpufreqd?

MilosC

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 79

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Cpufreqs is a small utility developed to assist CPU frequency and voltage scaling, a technology used primarily by notebooks which enables the OS to scale the CPU speed and voltage up or down.:)
http://www.archlinux.org/packages/375/
Cpufreqd is Cpufreq Daemon.

Last edited by MilosC (2008-06-14 17:16:51)

jryarch

Member

Registered: 2008-06-09

Posts: 45

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Wiki:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/CPU … cy_Scaling

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Cpufrequtils

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Good job guys...

I know about cpufreq and what I am doing with it. I want to know specifically about cpufreqd. jryarch - none of your links provided anything referring to cpufreqd.

MilosC - I found the same info. Didn't actually prove useful. I am searching for a particular use (sample use) for cpufreqd (please notice the d at the end).

So I am asking yet again: What does cpufreqd actually do?

Bestiapeluda

Member

From: Buenos Aires, Argentina

Registered: 2007-10-16

Posts: 181

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

cpufreqd is the DEAMON who takes care of the scaling, loaded at boot of course.

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

But what would I need the cpufreq daemon (it's in /etc/rc.d/ too, along with cpufreqd) for, then?

JeremyTheWicked

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2008-05-23

Posts: 193

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

That's strange. I only have cpufreq in /etc/rc.d and no cpufreqd. Have you checked what package it belongs to (pacman -Qo /etc/rc.d/cpufreqd) ?

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arch(3) adj amused because you think you understand something better than other people ;P

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Cool, I don't know all those fancy pacman commands ( ), but I had my own means of checking this. You can find cpufreqd in the repositories, and it actually has been updated recently in May 2008.

But here is the output of pacman -Qo:

$ pacman -Qo /etc/rc.d/cpufreqd
/etc/rc.d/cpufreqd is owned by cpufreqd 2.2.1-1

jacko

Member

Registered: 2007-11-23

Posts: 840

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

pacman -Ql cpufreqd
pacman -Ql cpufreq

lets see what else it installs.

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Number one:

$ pacman -Ql cpufreqd
cpufreqd /etc/
cpufreqd /etc/cpufreqd.conf
cpufreqd /etc/rc.d/
cpufreqd /etc/rc.d/cpufreqd
cpufreqd /usr/
cpufreqd /usr/bin/
cpufreqd /usr/bin/cpufreqd-get
cpufreqd /usr/bin/cpufreqd-set
cpufreqd /usr/lib/
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_acpi.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_apm.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_cpu.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_exec.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_governor_parameters.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_nforce2.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_pmu.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_programs.so
cpufreqd /usr/lib/cpufreqd_tau.so
cpufreqd /usr/man/
cpufreqd /usr/man/man1/
cpufreqd /usr/man/man1/cpufreqd-get.1.gz
cpufreqd /usr/man/man1/cpufreqd-set.1.gz
cpufreqd /usr/man/man5/
cpufreqd /usr/man/man5/cpufreqd.conf.5.gz
cpufreqd /usr/man/man8/
cpufreqd /usr/man/man8/cpufreqd.8.gz
cpufreqd /usr/sbin/
cpufreqd /usr/sbin/cpufreqd

And number two (well, there is no separate package 'cpufreq'.. but see yourself):

$ pacman -Qo /etc/rc.d/cpufreq
/etc/rc.d/cpufreq is owned by cpufrequtils 002-3

$ pacman -Ql cpufrequtils
cpufrequtils /etc/
cpufrequtils /etc/conf.d/
cpufrequtils /etc/conf.d/cpufreq
cpufrequtils /etc/rc.d/
cpufrequtils /etc/rc.d/cpufreq
cpufrequtils /usr/
cpufrequtils /usr/bin/
cpufrequtils /usr/bin/cpufreq-info
cpufrequtils /usr/bin/cpufreq-set
cpufrequtils /usr/include/
cpufrequtils /usr/include/cpufreq.h
cpufrequtils /usr/lib/
cpufrequtils /usr/lib/libcpufreq.a
cpufrequtils /usr/lib/libcpufreq.so
cpufrequtils /usr/lib/libcpufreq.so.0
cpufrequtils /usr/lib/libcpufreq.so.0.0.0
cpufrequtils /usr/man/
cpufrequtils /usr/man/man1/
cpufrequtils /usr/man/man1/cpufreq-info.1.gz
cpufrequtils /usr/man/man1/cpufreq-set.1.gz
cpufrequtils /usr/share/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/de/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/cpufrequtils.mo
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/fr/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/fr/LC_MESSAGES/cpufrequtils.mo
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/it/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/it/LC_MESSAGES/
cpufrequtils /usr/share/locale/it/LC_MESSAGES/cpufrequtils.mo

Where do you guys get those cool pacman commands from? The man pages are kinda not so helpful....

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,385

Website

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

They are really just two projects that do very similar things.  This is my take on matters and may be slightly wrong....

cpufrequtils is maintained by the kernel guys (well it is hosted on kernel.org).  Its job is to provide an interface to the cpufreq subsystem in the kernel.  It also provides a simple method of governing cpu freqency through the cpufreq daemon.  This has limited configurability in /etc/conf.d/cpufreq with only a few modes to choose from.

cpufreqd is a layer above cpufreq.  It provides much finer scale configuration options (e.g. http://cpufreqd.sourceforge.net/examples/cpufreqd.conf). In general you would use this if cpufrequtils was too simple for the power scheme you want to achieve.  I personally don't use it.

Hope that helps clear things up.

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD

jacko

Member

Registered: 2007-11-23

Posts: 840

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

if I had to guess, I would say that u definitely need the daemon, so with that said, I would remove cpufrequtils, unless its a dependency of some other package.

pacman -Rs cpufrequtils

But, I don't know because I don't use cpufreq anything.

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,385

Website

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Just going to add that if you want to use cpufreqd, then you need cpufrequtils (it is a dependancy) as cpufreqd is just a layer on top.  My guess is you want only one of the daemons in you /etc/rc.conf.  I recommend just going the  simple way and keep using cpufreq(utils) and uninstall cpufreqd.

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PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD

Stalafin

Member

From: Berlin, Germany

Registered: 2007-10-26

Posts: 617

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Yeah, that's what I thought. Thank you guys, with that obscure daemon.

Doc Angelo

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-11-28

Posts: 52

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Its a little confusing, indeed. I installed the packages (cpufreqd, which needs cpufrequtils) and looked at the installed binaries and manpages.

cpufrequtils
It seems, that cpufrequtils installs the module and 2 tools (cpufreq-info and cpufreq-set) to control the module. This is not really a daemon, if i understood this correctly.

cpufreqd
cpufreqd seems to be a daemon, which monitors the module from the package cpufrequtils. The manpage for cpufreqd says: "cpufreqd is used to monitor the status of the system and adjust the frequency of the CPU according to the user configuration. The behaviour of the daemon is fully configurable. Logs are reported through syslogd."

You can see what manpages are installed by using "pacman -Ql PKGNAME". The pacman commands are all in the manpage for pacman: The big letters are actions, the small letters are options for that action. You can only have one action at a time, but multiple options. Not all options are used for every action, therefore the manpage has sections for every action.

Last edited by Doc Angelo (2008-06-15 14:30:33)

zephyrus17

Member

Registered: 2008-06-15

Posts: 323

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

Do I have to install it specifically? Or will it install by default?

Doc Angelo

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2007-11-28

Posts: 52

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

If you mean if its i a regular Arch install, no, its not installed per default. You have to install at least cpufrequtils.

MilosC

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-06-04

Posts: 79

Re: cpufreqd - What is that and what do I need that for?

If you mean if its i a regular Arch install, no, its not installed per default. You have to install at least cpufrequtils.

...And manually put it to a daemon line in /etc/rc.conf.