Radeon Power Management
Source (link to git-repo or to original if based on someone elses unmodified work): Add the source-code for this project on opencode.net
INTRODUCTION
This Javascript applet allows for controlling and monitoring the power management mode and temperature of AMD/ATI graphics cards.
It only works with the free Xorg radeon driver and requires at least a 2.6.35 kernel.
It does NOT work with the proprietary fglrx driver.
INSTALLATION
Before installing/using the applet, some system configuration steps must be accomplished. As root (or with sudo), the following files must be made writable for all users. This will allow any user to change the power management settings of the card :
chmod a+w /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
chmod a+w /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile
Also as root, you must mount the debug file system. This will allow the applet to display frequencies and voltage information (if it doesn't work, you may need to make sure that normal users can navigate and read the debug file system) :
mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
On some systems, the following permissions can be necessary :
chmod a+x /sys/kernel/debug
chmod a+x /sys/kernel/debug/dri
chmod a+x /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0
chmod a+r /sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/radeon_pm_info
To make the above configurations persistent, you can put those command lines in /etc/rc.local or, for OpenSUSE users, in /etc/init.d/boot.local
The following commands must be passed as a normal user (ie. not root).
If you installed a previous version, you must first close all instances of the applet, and uninstall it :
plasmapkg -r radeon-pm
You can now install the applet :
plasmapkg -t plasmoid -i radeon-pm.plasmoid
CONFIGURATION
The buttons allow you to select the power management mode for your card. Here are their meaning (from the Xorg wiki, http://wiki.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature) :
- Dynamic : dynamically changes the clocks based on the number of pending fences, so performance is ramped up when running GPU intensive apps, and ramped down when the GPU is idle. The reclocking is attemped during vertical blanking periods, but due to the timing of the reclocking functions, doesn't not always complete in the blanking period, which can lead to flicker in the display. Due to this, dynpm only works when a single head is active.
- Low : forces the gpu to be in the low power state all the time. Note that low can cause display problems on some laptops; this is why auto does not use low when displays are active.
- Mid : forces the gpu to be in the mid power state all the time. The low power state is selected when the monitors are in the dpms off state.
- High : forces the gpu to be in the high power state all the time. The low power state is selected when the monitors are in the dpms off state.
- Automatic : selects between mid and high power states based on the whether the system is on battery power or not. The low power state are selected when the monitors are in the dpms off state.
- Default : uses the default clocks and does not change the power state. This is the default behavior.
In the applet settings dialog, you can set the following values :
- Radeon PM info path : path to the kernel debug file (named radeon_pm_info) which contains the power state informations (frequencies, voltage).
- Device directory : path to the device directory. This directory must contain the power_method and power_profile files. This directory should also contain a hwmon subdirectory for temperature monitoring.
- Temperature monitor path : path to the temperature monitor file. This file should be in a sub-subdirectory of the device directory (something like hwmon/hwmon0), and is usually called temp1_input (or something like that...).
- Show low power mode button : since this mode can cause display problems, use it at your own risk.
- Delay between updates : this sets the elapsed time (in seconds) between updates.
- Remember power mode : if checked, the last selected power management mode will be applied the next time the applet is loaded. This can be tricky for some setups (like mine) where the lowest power mode does not work well when the laptop is docked and hooked up to an external screen.
7 years ago
1.7
Corrected a bug with some non persistent configuration options
1.6
Made the script a bit more robust when dealing with incomplete radeon_pm_info data
1.5
Tried to consolidate some workarounds. If you don't have problems, there's no need to update.
1.4
worked around a problem with some settings being forgotten under KDE 4.6.x (if you don't have this problem, you may want to stick to the 1.3 version, which is also included in the download) and added X-Plasma-NotificationArea=true (the plasmoid can now be added to the notification area).
1.3
added actual low power mode (optional) and updated readme with power mode descriptions from Xorg
1.2
frequencies are now displayed in MHz (suggested by Fisiu. It does look much better indeed).
1.15
corrected a bug which prevented the applet to work for KDE 4.6+
1.1
added setting for temperature monitor path.
1.0
initial release
7 years ago
1.7
Corrected a bug with some non persistent configuration options
1.6
Made the script a bit more robust when dealing with incomplete radeon_pm_info data
1.5
Tried to consolidate some workarounds. If you don't have problems, there's no need to update.
1.4
worked around a problem with some settings being forgotten under KDE 4.6.x (if you don't have this problem, you may want to stick to the 1.3 version, which is also included in the download) and added X-Plasma-NotificationArea=true (the plasmoid can now be added to the notification area).
1.3
added actual low power mode (optional) and updated readme with power mode descriptions from Xorg
1.2
frequencies are now displayed in MHz (suggested by Fisiu. It does look much better indeed).
1.15
corrected a bug which prevented the applet to work for KDE 4.6+
1.1
added setting for temperature monitor path.
1.0
initial release
Base: 4 x 5.0 Ratings
alvanx
Jan 10 2013
erpera
Nov 01 2011
poomerang
Aug 31 2011
tcat
Jul 14 2011
varanus
Jun 05 2011
Gilde
Apr 09 2011
Fisiu
Mar 11 2011
jemino
8 years ago
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jaxxed
8 years ago
Your plasmooid works well for me, if I install it manually, not from the kde automatic downloader, and as long as I followed your instructions above.
Please note that additionally, I had to overwrite the setting for the temperature monitor (different card integer)
I am writing to ask for help with the other information values. How can I get the memory and power information to work.
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jemino
8 years ago
mount -t debugfs none /sys/kernel/debug
Then you must find the radeon_pm_info file and paste the resulting path in the corresponding setting :
find /sys/kernel/debug -name radeon_pm_info
About the KDE downloader, I admit I haven't tested this. I'll have a look at it when I'm back from my vacations.
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jaxxed
8 years ago
Following your instructions i realized that my current user didn't have permissions to access the debug fs.
I changed the owner group for the fs to adm (chown -R adm), added read and navigate permissions to the group (chmode -R g+rX),and made sure that my user was in adm, then restarted the widget : now everything works.
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jemino
8 years ago
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msledziona
8 years ago
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jemino
8 years ago
On the other hand, back when I used it, the one thing that seemed to work right was power management, so I'm not sure that a fglrx-aware plasmoid would be that useful.
If you want to fiddle with frequencies, there's always this utility (although it's not a plasmoid) :
http://amdovdrvctrl.sourceforge.net
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
I installed your script (no errors) but I can see nothing showing in plasmoïds?
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jemino
8 years ago
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
Nothing shows in the plasmoïds.
I'm going to try your new version.
But installation gave no error message and went flawlessly???
Thx for th e work !
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
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jemino
8 years ago
When adding it to the desktop though, only 1.3 seems to work. 1.4 doesn't (I'm going to investigate that).
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
Problème curieux, je peux choisir "Dynamic" sur l'applet, mais lorsque j'entre dans les réglages il plante.
De plus, une fois choisi le mode "Dynamic" (je n'utilise pas de laptop mais un pc de bureau), les variations de la vitesse d'horloge et la consommation de la carte ne changent pas (749Mhz et 798Mhz, 1000Mv).
Paradoxalement, la T° du GPU a baissé d'1°C (de 56°C à 55°C)... et l'affichage de KDE est plus fluide (jusqu'ici avec le pilote Radeon il était parfois un peu...lent).
Il me semble que sur le site du pilote libre ma carte n'ets pas supportée entièrement (et pas par le pilote radeonHD).
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jemino
8 years ago
Quand au problème de plantage lors de l'ouverture des réglages, je n'arrive pas à le reproduire (quel que soit le mode sélectionné).
Sinon, le pilote radeonHD est obsolète. Toutes les cartes ATI/AMD utilisent maintenant le pilote radeon, récentes comme anciennes.
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
Hem hem... je l'avais installé en root...
En user le 1.4 marche parfaitement chez moi!
Désolée pour le dérangement !
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jemino
8 years ago
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jemino
8 years ago
You can use this command to check if the plasmoid is installed :
plasmapkg --list | grep radeon-pm
You can also check that everything is in place by running this command :
find $HOME/.kde -name radeon-pm -exec ls -lR '{}' \;
I'm now downloading Mepis. I'll keep you posted if I find out why it doesn't show up for you.
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
Fisrt, thanks for your time !
When I run your command I get that :
Jess@mepis1:~$ plasmapkg --list | grep radeon-pm
plasmapkg(4572)/libplasma Plasma::PackageStructurePrivate::createPackageMetadata: No metadata file in the package, expected it at: ""
Uho!
And :
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jemino
8 years ago
Just in case, did you install the plasmoid as root ? If you did, you shouldn't have, since the default behaviour of plasmapkg is to use the user's profile for installation (meaning that the plasmoid would have been installed in root's profile).
Aside from this, since I can't reproduce it, I have to admit I'm out of ideas.
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BatriceSells
8 years ago
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jemino
8 years ago
BTW, the plasmoid should appear in the "System Information" category.
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hemathor
8 years ago
/sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
/sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile
any ideas?
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jemino
8 years ago
uname -a
dmesg | grep drm
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hemathor
8 years ago
Linux sunshine 2.6.34.7-0.7-desktop #1 SMP PREEMPT 2010-12-13 11:13:53 +0100 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
since my uptime apparently seems too long to keep anything for dmesg, i give you a 'grep drm /var/log/boot.msg' at http://pastebin.com/E3vCUXJn instead. if that's not sufficient, i will have to reboot...
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jemino
8 years ago
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