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—cpufreq [2013/04/10 17:03] (current) – created - external edit 127.0.0.1
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 +======= cpufreq =======
 +===== Synopsis ======
 +<nowiki>Configuring FreeBSD 6.x and later to use Intel SpeedStep or AMD PowerNow/Cool'n'Quiet</nowiki>
  
 +====== Intro ======
 +
 +<nowiki>After helping several people with this, I decided to set up a small page detailing how to configure your FreeBSD to enable power savings, this is done via the cpufreq kernel module and the powerd program.</nowiki>
 +
 +====== cpufreq ======
 +
 +To control the cpustate you need to load the [[http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=cpufreq&sektion=4|cpufreq(4)]] kernel module, this is done by running ''/sbin/kldload cpufreq.ko''.
 +NOTE: You cannot load kernel modules if in securelevel 1 or above, see below on how to enable the kernel module on the next reboot.
 +
 +You can check if the module is loaded by using the kldstat utility
 +
 +Output of kldstat should be something like this.
 +
 +<code>
 +Id Refs Address    Size     Name
 + 1    7 0xc0400000 4a4970   kernel
 + 2    1 0xc08bb000 a504     cpufreq.ko
 +</code>
 +
 +This will however only work until the next reboot, so you want to add the following line to /etc/loader.conf: 
 +<code>
 +cpufreq_load="YES"
 +</code>
 +
 +This will allow you to view and set the CPU Frequency manually.
 +
 +This is done via the following sysctl's:
 +
 +| dev.cpu.n.freq | The Current CPU Frequency in MHz ((n is the CPU number (starting at 0))).
 +| dev.cpu.n.freq_levels | CPU Frequency levels available in MHz/mW ((milliwatts)). |
 +
 +On some systems the latter part may be -1 for undefined.
 +====== Sample ======
 +
 +Pentium 4 2.8 GHz
 +<code>
 +$ sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq dev.cpu.0.freq_levels
 +dev.cpu.0.freq: 1050
 +dev.cpu.0.freq_levels: 2801/-1 2450/-1 2100/-1 1750/-1 1400/-1 1050/-1 700/-1 350/-1
 +</code>
 +
 +====== Setting CPU speed ======
 +
 +dev.cpu.0.freq can be used to view and/or set the current CPU speed, to view the cpuspeed just run sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq, to set the speed to something specific use sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq=350 (350 is selected from dev.cpu.0.freq_levels, select something available on your platform.
 +
 +====== Using powerd ======
 +
 +You can use powerd(8) to control the CPU speed automatically, lets face it - who wants to change the cpu speed manually every time you want to do the sligtest thing on most pc's (this can be good for some solutions however).
 +
 +insert the following line into ''/etc/rc.conf'' ((or ''/etc/rc.conf.local''))
 +<file txt rc.conf>
 +powerd_enable="YES"
 +</file>
 +
 +Next, run ''/etc/rc.d/powerd'' start This will start powerd, you should now see a powerd process running
 +Example:
 +
 +<code>
 +# ps -ax |grep powerd
 + 2759  ??  Ss     4:38.18 /usr/sbin/powerd
 +</code>
 +
 +====== Verifying the CPU Speed ====== 
 +
 +You can now see the CPU speed constantly changing with the load of the machine by monitoring dev.cpu.n.freq sysctl.