No control over CPU speed, Ubuntu Mate 16.04

okok · 10-15-2016, 04:36 AM

I am running Ubuntu Mate 16.04 on a laptop with a tendency to overheat and with a noisy fan.

Until recently I was using the previous LTS, 14.04, and there the CPUfreq notiication area applet gave me a variety of CPU frequencies to choose from, as well as four named options (performance, powersave, on-demand, conservative). I used to reduce the speed to keep the computer quiet when speed was not necessary and it worked well.

Since I switched to 16.04 the same applet gives me only two options (performance, powersave), and none of them seems to make any difference. In both conditions the CPU speed seems to be changing automatically as needed, and reaching maximum speed (heat, fan noise).

Why can't I control the CPU speed as I could before? Can I do anything to change it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

rokytnji · 10-15-2016, 09:58 AM

Have you installed lm-sensors yet?
Then run sensors-detect
acpi-support may not be bad to have on board also.

Code:

harry@biker:~
$ apt search lm-sensors
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
fancontrol/stable 1:3.3.5-2 all
  utilities to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors

libsensors4/stable,now 1:3.3.5-2 i386 [installed,automatic]
  library to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors

libsensors4-dev/stable 1:3.3.5-2 i386
  lm-sensors development kit

lm-sensors/stable,now 1:3.3.5-2 i386 [installed]
  utilities to read temperature/voltage/fan sensors

mate-sensors-applet/stable 1.8.0+dfsg1-1 i386
  Display readings from hardware sensors in your MATE panel

mrtgutils-sensors/stable 0.8.1 i386
  Utilities to generate statistics for mrtg (from lm-sensors)

nagios-plugins-contrib/stable 14.20141104 i386
  Plugins for nagios compatible monitoring systems

phpsysinfo/stable 3.0.17-1 all
  PHP based host information

psensor/stable 1.1.3-2 i386
  display graphs for monitoring hardware temperature

psensor-server/stable 1.1.3-2 i386
  Psensor server for monitoring hardware sensors remotely

sensord/stable 1:3.3.5-2 i386
  hardware sensor information logging daemon

sensors-applet/stable 3.0.0+git4-4 i386
  Display readings from hardware sensors in your Gnome panel

xfce4-goodies/stable 4.10 i386
  enhancements for the Xfce4 Desktop Environment

harry@biker:~
$ apt search acpi
Sorting... Done
Full Text Search... Done
acpi/stable,now 1.7-1 i386 [installed]
  displays information on ACPI devices

acpi-call-dkms/stable 1.1.0-2 all
  Kernel module that enables you to call ACPI methods

acpi-fakekey/stable 0.142-6 i386
  tool to generate fake key events

acpi-support/stable,now 0.142-6 all [installed]
  scripts for handling many ACPI events

acpi-support-base/stable,now 0.142-6 all [installed]
  scripts for handling base ACPI events such as the power button

acpica-tools/stable 20140926-1 i386
  ACPICA tools for the development and debug of ACPI tables

acpid/stable,now 1:2.0.23-2 i386 [installed]
  Advanced Configuration and Power Interface event daemon

acpidump/stable 20140926-1 all
  transitional dummy package

acpitail/stable 0.1-4 i386
  Show ACPI information in a tail-like style

acpitool/stable 0.5.1-3 i386
  command line ACPI client

acpitool-dbg/stable 0.5.1-3 i386
  command line ACPI client (debug)

apmd/stable 3.2.2-15 i386
  Utilities for Advanced Power Management (APM)

athcool/stable 0.3.12-3 i386
  tool to enable powersaving mode for Athlon/Duron processors

bbswitch-dkms/stable 0.8-1 i386
  Interface for toggling the power on NVIDIA Optimus video cards

bbswitch-source/stable 0.8-1 i386
  Interface for toggling the power on NVIDIA Optimus video cards

cairo-dock-powermanager-plug-in/stable 3.4.0-1+b1 i386
  Powermanager plug-in for Cairo-dock

claws-mail-acpi-notifier/jessie 3.13.0-1mx150+1 i386
  Laptop's Mail LED control for Claws Mail

collectd-core/stable 5.4.1-6+deb8u1 i386
  statistics collection and monitoring daemon (core system)

cpufreqd/stable 2.4.2-2 i386
  fully configurable daemon for dynamic frequency and voltage scaling

eeepc-acpi-scripts/stable 1.1.12 all
  Scripts to support suspend and hotkeys on the Asus Eee PC laptop

fdpowermon/stable 1.13 all
  simple battery power monitor for laptops with ACPI

fglrx-atieventsd/stable 1:15.9-4~deb8u2 i386
  events daemon for the non-free ATI/AMD RadeonHD display driver

fnfxd/stable 0.3-14 i386
  ACPI and hotkey daemon for Toshiba laptops

gkrellm-ibam/stable 1:0.5.2-2.1 i386
  Advanced battery monitor for laptops - gkrellm plugin

gkrellm-x86info/stable 0.0.2-9 i386
  gkrellm plugin displaying the current processor speed

hdapsd/stable 1:20141203-1 i386
  HDAPS daemon for various laptops with motion sensors

hibernate/stable 2.0+15+g88d54a8-1 all
  smartly puts your computer to sleep (suspend to RAM or disk)

ibam/stable 1:0.5.2-2.1 i386
  Advanced battery monitor for laptops

kacpimon/stable 1:2.0.23-2 i386
  Kernel ACPI Event Monitor

libacpi-dev/stable 0.2-4 i386
  development files for libacpi

libacpi0/stable 0.2-4 i386
  general purpose library for ACPI

mactelnet-client/stable 0.4.0-1 i386
  Console tools for telneting and pinging via MAC addresses

mate-sensors-applet/stable 1.8.0+dfsg1-1 i386
  Display readings from hardware sensors in your MATE panel

pidgin-blinklight/stable 0.11.1-2 i386
  Blinks your ThinkPad's ThinkLight upon new messages

powermgmt-base/stable,now 1.31+nmu1 all [installed]
  Common utils and configs for power management

procmeter3/stable 3.6-1 i386
  graphical system status monitor

sensors-applet/stable 3.0.0+git4-4 i386
  Display readings from hardware sensors in your Gnome panel

shutdown-at-night/stable 0.15 all
  System to shut down clients at night, and wake them in the morning

sleepd/stable 2.08 i386
  puts an inactive or low battery laptop to sleep

toshset/stable,now 1.76-4 i386 [installed]
  Access much of the Toshiba laptop hardware interface

wmacpi/stable 2.2-1 i386
  ACPI battery monitor for WindowMaker

xbattbar/stable 1.4.5-1 i386
  Display battery status in X11

xfce4-battery-plugin/stable 1.0.5-4 i386
  battery monitor plugin for the Xfce4 panel

yacpi/stable 3.0-2 i386
  ncurses based acpi monitor for text mode

harry@biker:~
$

I don't run Ubuntu Mate 16.04 so take my current post with a grain of salt.
We are all volunteers here and do this out of the kindness of our hearts.

For detailed specifications showed in your threads. It would benefit you also to install inxi in Ubuntu also.

Example on my laptop

Code:

harry@biker:~
$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: biker Kernel: 4.8.1-antix.1-686-smp-pae i686 (32 bit gcc: 4.9.3) Desktop: IceWM 1.3.8
           Distro: antiX-15-V_386-full Killah P 30 June 2015
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Latitude E4310 v: 0001
           Mobo: Dell model: 0T6M8G v: A01 Bios: Dell v: A03 date: 07/08/2010
Battery    BAT0: charge: 44.0 Wh 103.9% condition: 42.3/44.0 Wh (96%)
           model: Samsung SDI DELL RM6618A status: Full
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core i5 M 520 (-HT-MCP-) cache: 3072 KB
           flags: (lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 9575
           clock speeds: max: 2400 MHz 1: 1199 MHz 2: 1599 MHz 3: 1866 MHz 4: 1199 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.16.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.00hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ironlake Mobile x86/MMX/SSE2
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 10.3.2 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 5 Series/3400 Series High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.8.1-antix.1-686-smp-pae
Network:   Card-1: Intel 82577LM Gigabit Network Connection driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 6040 bus-ID: 00:19.0
           IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6200 driver: iwlwifi bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 60.0GB (46.3% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: KINGSTON_SV300S3 size: 60.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 7.6G used: 3.7G (52%) fs: ext3 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-2: /home size: 48G used: 23G (50%) fs: ext3 dev: /dev/sda1
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 59.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 192 Uptime: 1:41 Memory: 444.8/8021.7MB Init: SysVinit runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 4.9.2
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.301) inxi: 2.3.0 
harry@biker:~

Lastly, I'll leave with this. So you can help yourself with this problem

Link

okok · 10-15-2016, 10:18 AM

Tank you very much. Applications that report things like speed and temperature work fine on my computer. The computer also seems to be controlling the CPU and fan speed automatically, raising it under load and reducing it when idle.

My problem is that I no longer have the control I used to have over the CPU frequency. Both the notification area's built-in applet and the CPU Frequency Scaling Monitor applet show the changing speed of my CPU. But choosing "powersave" or "performance" in either of them makes no difference (besides the additional change that previously I used to have a range of speeds to choose from, while now I have only these two).

ondoho · 10-16-2016, 06:44 AM

i will hazard a guess, that this might be a kernel problem.

a wild guess!
- your hardware is pretty old
- 16.04's default kernel is too new (yes, it can happen)

some more info on those 2 points?

okok · 10-16-2016, 07:09 AM

Thank you ondoho,

My hardware is not new, but not terribly old either: a Dell laptop from 2012 with an i5-2450M CPU. The kernel is 4.4.0-43-generic x86_64.

I would guess that lack of support in the kernel for my hardware is not the problem, also because the CPU frequency seems to be managed automatically and changed constantly as necessary (and I can monitor the speed, temperature etc.). The problem is that it seems to be stuck in a more or less "optimal" scheme and does not allow me to limit the speed anymore.

(I think, but am not sure, that immediately after the installation of 16.04, choosing between "performance" and "powersave" did make a difference, and that this changed following one of the first updates I got.)

Tomlinux · 01-05-2017, 07:07 AM

hello, just noticed your problem with cpu speed, i installed synaptic package manager, searched for

indicator-cpufreq once it is installed, it should be located in control center - startup applications
highlight it and click edit.
add setsid to the beginning of the command box, click save log out and back in and you should be able to see the new icon by the volume area, hope this helps

PS... you can test this also in terminal, command in terminal> setsid indicator-cpufreq
if you use the command without setsid, the icon will appear in the panel..BUT..
when you close terminal so will the icon and program
if you use setsid indicator-cpufreq in terminal, icon will appear on panel and you can close terminal

let me know how it works out....Peace..

okok · 01-14-2017, 02:26 AM

Hello Tomlinux, belated thanks for your answer. I tried your solution, and it still doesn't seem to change the actual speed of the CPU. Back when it still worked, the indicator app also had a choice between several speeds, while now it has only "performance" and "powersave".

ondoho · 01-14-2017, 03:17 AM

whatever the app indicator shows, it just gets its information from some underlying functionlaity.
fix that, and (maybe) the app indicator will have more options again.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=ubuntu+man...+cpu+frequency

you will have to sift your way through that.

beware, some of the articles might be extremely old.

i'm not sure why, but manually setting the cpu frequency seems to be a thing of the past.
i personally never worry about it.
maybe if you told us WHY you think you need that?

Tomlinux · 01-14-2017, 10:07 PM

okok... not sure why it didn't work for you, did you see the icon in you panel ? i have been using it for some time now with my AMD A10 with 4 cores and i have 4 listings for power and 6 listings for speed settings. i used synaptic, not sure if there is another program listed in software manager
( whatever there calling it these days ), had MATE installed until a few hours ago and switched to mint 18 kde on the laptop. not sure i am liking kde
on it with no speed setting GUI program, fan is going fast and slow to much, more distro hopping.....
you're i5 has multiple speeds also...If your fan is that noisy perhaps it needs a cleaning ?

ondoho, i'm not sure why, but manually setting the cpu frequency seems to be a thing of the past.
i personally never worry about it.
maybe if you told us WHY you think you need that?

for me, i like to slow down the CPU speeds on low when my laptop is not plugged in and i am just reading on the web to save power before i have to plug it back in, or when on youtube i will bring it up a bit to like 2.00Ghz, thats why i use the program myself....cheers

ondoho · 01-15-2017, 03:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tomlinux

for me, i like to slow down the CPU speeds on low when my laptop is not plugged in and i am just reading on the web to save power before i have to plug it back in, or when on youtube i will bring it up a bit to like 2.00Ghz, thats why i use the program myself.

of course, but the kernel is doing all that all by itself!
i recommend getting yourself a conky with detailed cpu readings, and you will see that the cpu is always at its lowest setting until demand rises.

seasons · 01-24-2017, 04:24 PM

Ubuntu disabled the intel_pstate driver in the original 3.13.x kernel series that Trusty used: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...x/+bug/1188647
So Trusty used the old ACPI cpufreq module. The OP is confused because the newer intel_pstate driver found in Ubuntu 16.04 only gives two options - powersave and performance. Whereas "powersave" essentially meant "locked to min frequency" with the old cpufreq module, Intel considers it something different in their pstate driver. They enable the CPU to ramp up under load so it can finish a task more quickly and get back to a deeper sleep state. The practical upshot of that is that it will maximize battery life, but it will probably ramp up the fan at the same time. This can be very annoying, and some folks would be willing to sacrifice some battery life for peace and quiet. Fortunately, it is possible to use the older methods:
http://unix.stackexchange.com/questi...r-conservative

ondoho · 01-25-2017, 01:09 PM

^ i read somewhere very recently that the new intel cpus actual handle frequency scaling internally, so even if you are able to set the governor, the cpu will still do its thing.
of course this might not affect the fan...