Add support for configuring/overriding "Energy Performance Preference (EPP)"

[murbot]

These changes add support for configuring the energy performance preference value to be used when on charger and battery, via the auto-cpufreq config file. I've updated the readme and example config with examples.

[AdnanHodzic]

I love what's happening here, and instead of having it as "improvement" I want to have this as one of the features for next release. I could already merge it as it is, but I have another small request/suggestion which would make it perfect.

Could you as part of this PR, make it visible as part of output what value is used, i.e Energy Performance Preference (EPP) in use: balance_performance. It could be added under CPU frequency scaling section, ideally under i.e: Average temp. of all cores field. Think it would be of great value to have this.

What do you think, would this be possible from your side?

[murbot]

I'm glad that you like the additions, @AdnanHodzic ! I see your suggestion is already present under --stats (CLI) as well as in the GUI. They both have the following line:

Setting to use: "power" EPP

Do you have another change in mind?

[AdnanHodzic]

Setting to use: "power" EPP

Do you have another change in mind?

Yes, this line could be re-used for this purpose. Reason why I mentioned it is because I used to see this line. Now with latest change I don't see anything being displayed as part of it.

This is what --stats looks like with change on your branch, even after using config file (same thing in GUI of course) and explicitly defining EPP override.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linux distro: Ubuntu 23.10 Mantic Minotaur
Linux kernel: 6.5.0-14-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-8565U CPU @ 1.80GHz
Cores: 8
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: intel_pstate

------------------------------ Current CPU stats ------------------------------

CPU max frequency: 1800 MHz
CPU min frequency: 400 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0      4.0%        35 °C      1800 MHz
CPU1      3.0%        36 °C      1800 MHz
CPU2      2.0%        34 °C       400 MHz
CPU3     11.2%        36 °C      1800 MHz
CPU4      6.9%        35 °C      1800 MHz
CPU5     25.7%        36 °C      1800 MHz
CPU6      5.9%        34 °C      1800 MHz
CPU7      7.1%        36 °C      1801 MHz

CPU fan speed: 0 RPM

---------------------------- CPU frequency scaling ----------------------------

Battery is: charging

Setting to use: "performance" governor

Total CPU usage: 2.9 %
Total system load: 0.92
Average temp. of all cores: 35.25 °C 

High CPU load (load average: 0.92, 1.86, 2.08)
setting turbo boost: on

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Also on this topic, let's make small changes to config file, so in front of # EPP: see available preferences by running lines it says # EPP: see available preferences by running

[murbot]

@AdnanHodzic - I assume you're not seeing the EPP output because the following condition evaluates to false. Note, that this condition was in the code prior to my additions. In short, it is not shown because you're on an Intel processor, whereas I'm on AMD.

    if (
        Path("/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference").exists()
        and Path("/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/hwp_dynamic_boost").exists() is False
    ):

I pushed a new commit adding the "EPP: " to the config file comments.

[AdnanHodzic]

I pushed a new commit adding the "EPP: " to the config file comments.

👍

Note, that this condition was in the code prior to my additions.

I'm aware, it's just now that I realized now I'm no longer seeing it.

I assume you're not seeing the EPP output because the following condition evaluates to false.
In short, it is not shown because you're on an Intel processor, whereas I'm on AMD.

if (
    Path("/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference").exists()
    and Path("/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/hwp_dynamic_boost").exists() is False
):

Indeed /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/hwp_dynamic_boost will return 0 in my case.

Then let's do this, since by default "EPP" line will come as enabled (not commented) in config file. Where in this case, EPP is not showing up, let's extend the code to something like:

if (
    os.path.exists("/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference")
    and not os.path.exists("/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/hwp_dynamic_boost")
):
    value = int(
        os.popen("cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/hwp_dynamic_boost").read()
    )
    if value == 0:
        print("(EPP) in use: dynamic boost is disabled")
    else:
        print("(EPP) in use: {epp}")
else:
    print("(EPP) in use: Dynamic boost is not supported")

Feel free to amend code block, it's just the first thing I could think of.

[murbot]

@AdnanHodzic , I've added a message to be printed when EPP is not applicable:

else: print('Not setting EPP (not supported by system)')

[AdnanHodzic]

LGTM, thank you for your contribution, you will be credited for your work as part of future release.

[murbot]

Thank you!

…

On Thu, Dec 28, 2023 at 11:11 PM Adnan Hodzic ***@***.***> wrote: LGTM, thank you for your contribution, you will be credited for your work as part of future release <https://github.com/AdnanHodzic/auto-cpufreq/releases>. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#619 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AE6S2GPFESVCM5WVHEPBLF3YLZUK3AVCNFSM6AAAAABAYUK23OVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMYTQNZRHAYDANRXGM> . You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>