Automatically Optimize CPU Speed And Power With Auto-cpufreq In Linux

This guide explains how to automatically optimize CPU speed and power with auto-cpufreq in Linux. Auto-cpufreq is an automatic CPU speed and power optimizer for Linux. As the name says, auto-cpufreq will do the optimizations automatically. You don't need to do any manual changes or constant tweaking. It will actively monitor your battery's state, CPU usage (frequency and temperatures) and system load and recommend you the best tweaks to apply in order to improve your Laptop's battery life. You can then apply the recommended CPU and power optimizations temporarily or permanently.

Features of auto-cpufreq

auto-cpufreq utility comes with the following features:

• Monitoring
  • Displays basic system details
  • CPU frequency
  • CPU temperatures
  • Battery state
  • System load
• CPU frequency scaling, governor and turbo boost management based on
  • Battery state
  • CPU usage
  • System load
• Automatic CPU and power optimization (temporary and persistent).

Install auto-cpufreq in Linux

auto-cpufreq is available in AUR. So the Arch Linux users can install it using AUR helper tools, for example Yay.

$ yay -S auto-cpufreq

On other Linux distributions, make sure you have installed the following necessary prerequisites.

On DEB-based systems:

$ sudo apt install git python3-dev python3-pip python3-distro python3-psutil python3-click python3-power

On RPM-based systems:

$ sudo yum install git python-devel

$ sudo pip3 install psutil click distro power

The Python packages available in the official repositories might be bit old. To update them to their latest version, run:

$ sudo pip3 install --upgrade psutil click distro power

After installing and updating all prerequisites, git clone auto-cpufreq repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/AdnanHodzic/auto-cpufreq.git

Cd into the project's directory:

$ cd auto-cpufreq/

And start using it as described in the below section.

Automatically Optimize CPU Speed And Power With Auto-cpufreq In Linux

To run auto-cpufreq, simply do:

$ sudo python3 auto-cpufreq.py

When running auto-cpufreq without any options, you will see the help section that shows you the example usage and list of available options and modes.

There are three modes available.

1. Monitor
2. live
3. install

Monitor mode

To run auto-cpufreq in monitor mode, run:

$ sudo python3 auto-cpufreq.py --monitor

In the monitor mode, auto-cpufreq will display the basic details of your system and list of CPU optimization suggestions like below.

----------------------------- System information ------------------------------

Linux distro: Ubuntu 18.04 bionic
Linux kernel: 5.3.0-40-generic
Driver: intel_pstate
Architecture: x86_64
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-2350M CPU @ 2.30GHz
Cores: 4

------------------------------ Current CPU states ------------------------------

CPU max frequency: 
2300 MHz

CPU frequency for each core:

CPU0: 1032 MHz
CPU1: 1010 MHz
CPU2: 1050 MHz
CPU3: 1038 MHz

Temperature for each physical core:

CPU0 temp: 62°C
CPU1 temp: 62°C

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

Battery is: charging
Suggesting use of "performance" governor
Currently using: /bin/sh:

Total CPU usage: 8.1 %
Total system load: 0.48 

Currently turbo boost is: off
Suggesting to set turbo boost: on

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

            "auto-cpufreq" refresh in: 5

Optimize CPU Speed And Power With Auto-cpufreq In Linux

The output will keep updating every 5 seconds. Nothing will be changed in your system. It is just a visual demonstration to show you what auto-cpufreq could do differently for your system. To abort this monitoring, simply press CTRL+c.

Live mode

To start auto-cpufreq in live mode, run:

$ sudo python3 auto-cpufreq.py --live

This mode is for evaluation purpose. All necessary changes are temporarily applied to your system. In this mode, you will display how your system would behave after permanently enabling auto-cpufreq. Please note that these changes will be lost on system reboot.

Install mode

If you'd like to automatically enable CPU optimizations across system reboots, run:

$ sudo python3 auto-cpufreq.py --install

This command will create a auto-cpufreq systemd service. The service will run automatically on every system reboot. So, all necessary changes are made will persist on reboots.

You can view the service status using command:

$ systemctl status auto-cpufreq

View logs

To view CPU optimization logs, run:

$ auto-cpufreq --log

Or,

$ sudo python3 auto-cpufreq.py --log

Please note that you have enabled the systemd service to view the logs.

Remove auto-cpufreq service

If you don't wish to permanently enable CPU optimizations across reboots, remove the auto-cpufreq using command:

$ sudo auto-cpufreq --remove

Or,

$ sudo python3 auto-cpufreq.py --remove

All persistent changes will also be removed.

Here is a short visual demo made by the developer.

Of course, there are many tools, such as CPU Power manager, TLP, Laptop Mode Tools and powertop, exists to reduce power consumption and improves overall Laptop battery life in Linux. auto-cpufreq is yet another good tool for improving laptop battery performance. Good thing is it doesn't conflict with TLP. You can use both of them in your Laptop at the same time.

Resource:

• auto-cpufreq GitHub Repository