Q4OS Forum

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

prevent cpu step down

Hi all
Firstly I hope you all had a good Christmas
Secondly I have an old Toshiba laptop (satellite L350-145) which suffers from the problem of shutting down/freezing when plugged in to mains power, this itself isn't unusual as I have read about many people suffering the same fate. I have found a workaround in my main system (debian Xfce) which is to install cpufrequtils and then create file /etc/default/cpufrequtils with the content :-

GOVERNOR="performance"

This results in the cpu remaining in high frequency, however this doesn't seem to work with q4os, I can set the frequency manually with :-

sudo cpufreq-set -c 0 -g performance
sudo cpufreq-set -c 1 -g performance

and this works for the current session, but when restarting the laptop I have to manually enter this again. It is not the end of the world and I daresay i could just put it in a startup script, but was wondering if anyone could shed some light as to why the workaround for debian isn't working here.

Any help or guidance appreciated

Dai

P.s. The option to set both processors at the same time (-r) doesn't work either, although the man-page says it is ignored in kernels prior to 2.6.29 but that shouldn't be relevant here (3.16.0-4-amd64).

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

Another silly post on my part, I found the solution, It was in the TDEpowersave settings just set CPU Frequency policy to performance and job done!!!

Thanks anyway and wishing you all a happy new year

Dai

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

@CC The problem with the laptop is that changing cpu frequency while on mains power causes freezing it isn't a heat issue as my temps are all good, it is a fairly common problem with these laptops and the workaround (which does work) is to prevent frequency change.

The bios settings are dynamic or low, so I cannot set it to stay on high and leaving it on low reduces capabilities (not desired).

I have debian xfce as my main system and it runs without issue with governor set to performance whether on mains or battery.
The root of the problem is the NEC/TOLKIN chip, but I think replacing it would not be cost effective on this age of machine.

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

It previously belonged to a friend of mine until it went wrong, he then donated it to me and I have been searching for fixes ever since. Now it's working again I shall be using it to see if the problem comes back. My laptop is a dell and although a bit old now it has never given me a problem (he says touching something wooden )

Dai

steadi

Member

Registered: 2020-04-10

Posts: 7

Re: prevent cpu step down

Another silly post on my part, I found the solution, It was in the TDEpowersave settings just set CPU Frequency policy to performance and job done!!!

Thanks anyway and wishing you all a happy new year

Dai

Hello!
I installed today your system in a Asus eee PC 701
It's very good but I'm experiencing some slow down on Chrome browsing

I noticed the processor is fixed on 600mhz,

How to set it to 900mhz (his maximum frequency)?
If you can please better explain, because I don't find TDE powersave settings...
Thanks

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

You can check if tdepowersave-trinity is installed

apt policy tdepowersave-trinity

and install it if not

sudo apt install tdepowersave-trinity

and then start it

tdepowersave

Now you should have an icon appear in your task-bar, in this example it is the plug as it is not a laptop Yours might show a battery symbol, the options are all available from the right click menu.

steadi

Member

Registered: 2020-04-10

Posts: 7

Re: prevent cpu step down

Thanks
I installed powersave but I don't find where to see CPU clock
Can you help me?

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

right click the tdepowersave icon shown in my previous post and select "Configure TDEPowersave", in the window that opens select the "General Settings" tab and then select the "Default Schemes" section, make sure both ac and battery schemes are set to "performance"

if you have any problems with these instructions (icons not clickable) please install inxi (if not installed already) and post here the output of

inxi -C

steadi

Member

Registered: 2020-04-10

Posts: 7

Re: prevent cpu step down

i did it
But in system properties it still says CPU frequency 630mhz...

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

if you have any problems with these instructions (icons not clickable) please install inxi (if not installed already) and post here the output of

inxi -C

steadi

Member

Registered: 2020-04-10

Posts: 7

Re: prevent cpu step down

here's the output:

vittoria@q4os-desktop:~/Scrivania$ inxi -c
CPU: Single Core Intel Celeron M (-MCP-) speed: 630 MHz
Kernel: 4.19.0-6-686-pae i686 Up: 11m Mem: 433.5/929.6 MiB (46.6%)
Storage: 5.62 GiB (36.2% used) Procs: 123 Shell: bash 5.0.3 inxi: 3.0.32
vittoria@q4os-desktop:~/Scrivania$ ^C

steadi

Member

Registered: 2020-04-10

Posts: 7

Re: prevent cpu step down

in pheriperials - hardware device manager if i click on CPU it says 630 mhz but there'so no other values in frequencies cascade menù

Dai_trying

Member

From: UK

Registered: 2015-12-14

Posts: 2,993

Re: prevent cpu step down

You do not appear to have any variable frequency on that cpu, there might be a hack around available like there is for raspberry Pi's, but this procedure (cpu step down/up) will not allow this.

steadi

Member

Registered: 2020-04-10

Posts: 7

Re: prevent cpu step down

I founded another user who reached it
https://www.q4os.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2173
But for the moment I didn't have success