Sacaling governor and EPP is not set if amd_pstate=active is activated

Hi, I have a Thinkpad T14s Gen3 AMD witch archlinux running on 6.3.1 and power-profiles-daemon 0.13-1. I was using amd_pstate_passive before and switched now to active and installed the power-profiles-daemon. The Service is enabled and running, but it seems not to change anything. FN+H and FN+L works, I checked the output.

When I tried to debug i run into the issue that: sudo: /usr/libexec/power-profiles-daemon: command not found

After searching where it is located and changing it to: sudo: /usr/lib/power-profiles-daemon: command not found it worked.

Here is the output:

sudo G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all /usr/lib/power-profiles-daemon -r -v
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.980: Starting power-profiles-daemon version 0.13
(power-profiles-daemon:6083): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 11:33:38.981: Using cross-namespace EXTERNAL authentication (this will deadlock if server is GDBus < 2.73.3)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.985: Handling driver 'fake'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.985: probe() failed for driver fake, skipping
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.985: Handling driver 'platform_profile'
(power-profiles-daemon:6083): GLib-GIO-DEBUG: 11:33:38.987: _g_io_module_get_default: Found default implementation local (GLocalVfs) for ‘gio-vfs’
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Monitoring file /sys/devices/platform/thinkpad_acpi/dytc_lapmode for changes
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: ACPI performance_profile is now l, so profile is detected as power-saver
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Found a dytc_lapmode sysfs attribute to thinkpad_acpi
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Handling driver 'intel_pstate'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Driver 'platform_profile' already probed, skipping driver 'intel_pstate'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Handling driver 'amd_pstate'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Driver 'platform_profile' already probed, skipping driver 'amd_pstate'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Handling driver 'placeholder'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Driver 'platform_profile' already probed, skipping driver 'placeholder'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Handling action 'trickle_charge'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Applying profile 'power-saver' from configuration file
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Setting active profile 'power-saver' for reason 'reset' (current: 'power-saver')
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:33:38.992: Can't switch to power-saver mode, already there
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.185: Transitioning active profile from 'power-saver' to 'balanced' by user request
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.185: Setting active profile 'balanced' for reason 'user' (current: 'power-saver')
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.185: Writing 'balanced' to '/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.198: Successfully switched to profile balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.202: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.202: ACPI performance_profile is now b, so profile is detected as balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.202: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.202: ACPI performance_profile is now b, so profile is detected as balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.202: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (1)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:11.203: ACPI performance_profile is now b, so profile is detected as balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.049: Transitioning active profile from 'balanced' to 'performance' by user request
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.049: Setting active profile 'performance' for reason 'user' (current: 'balanced')
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.049: Writing 'performance' to '/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.059: Successfully switched to profile performance
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.063: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.063: ACPI performance_profile is now p, so profile is detected as performance
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.063: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.063: ACPI performance_profile is now p, so profile is detected as performance
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.063: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (1)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:25.063: ACPI performance_profile is now p, so profile is detected as performance
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.219: Transitioning active profile from 'performance' to 'balanced' by user request
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.219: Setting active profile 'balanced' for reason 'user' (current: 'performance')
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.219: Writing 'balanced' to '/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.231: Successfully switched to profile balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.235: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.235: ACPI performance_profile is now b, so profile is detected as balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.235: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.235: ACPI performance_profile is now b, so profile is detected as balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.235: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (1)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:28.235: ACPI performance_profile is now b, so profile is detected as balanced
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.202: Transitioning active profile from 'balanced' to 'power-saver' by user request
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.202: Setting active profile 'power-saver' for reason 'user' (current: 'balanced')
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.202: Writing 'low-power' to '/sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile'
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.215: Successfully switched to profile power-saver
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.219: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.219: ACPI performance_profile is now l, so profile is detected as power-saver
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.219: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (0)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.219: ACPI performance_profile is now l, so profile is detected as power-saver
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.219: /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile changed (1)
** (power-profiles-daemon:6083): DEBUG: 11:34:31.219: ACPI performance_profile is now l, so profile is detected as power-saver

Setting the wanted mode manual with: echo balance_performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/*/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference works as well, of course only until reboot.

I had, shame on me, tlp, powertop and cpupower installed in the past because of curiosity. I removed them all before installing PPD. I saw that rfkill was masked, I unmasked it properly.

Is that helpful information to debug the issue here? Any ideas what could cause the problem?

changed the description

I noticed this too. The documentation says about power-profiles-daemon with AMD P-State EPP: "It is only used if a platform_profile driver isn't available for the system [...]"

As my Thinkpad T14s Gen3 AMD provides a platform profile (check via cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices), powerprofilesctl only sets the platform_profile and does not change the EPP.

But, my question is: does this make sense? Shouldn't powerprofilesctl set the platform_profile and EPP/governor in case amd_pstate is active and a platform_profile driver is available?

Yes, good point. I checked cat /sys/firmware/acpi/platform_profile_choices before but did not set that in relation to the documentation. I think it should change both platform_profile and EPP/governor. Because as of now it does not change anything then the "visible" print in the control-center.

Agreed. I am running into the same issue, and I think this would make the most sense. That way, there is one option to optimize for performance or battery life.

changed the description

Implementing this would require having both drivers running at the same time. That's what's discussed in: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/hadess/power-profiles-daemon/-/issues/107

Okay,thanks! I'll have a look at that :)

I am also having the same issue. Seeing that issue #107 (closed) hasn't been fixed in the last 8 months, I am wondering what alternatives we have?

Replacing power-profiles-daemon with TLP? Using power-profiles-daemon together custom scripts to change CPU & scaling governor?

I don't think replacing it with TLP is a good idea. You can manually use the cpupower tool together with power-profiles-daemon.

CPUPower doesn't help much.

I switched to a custom script that I call via a udev rule based on AC connected or not. Very hacky wacky and will potentially fight against power-profiles-daemon once it finally supports EPP.

See my solution here in the Archwiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_ThinkPad_T14s_(AMD)_Gen_3#AMD_Pstate_EPP

You need to apply this series: https://lore.kernel.org/linux-pm/20230619190503.4061-1-wyes.karny@amd.com/

Oh okay. It hasn't been released yet on Arch it seems?

Would be even better if.power-profiles-daemon would update/adapt.

Oh okay. It hasn't been released yet on Arch it seems?

No; it's still under review. You can use a tool like b4 to download the series and patch your kernel though until it's merged.

Would be even better if.power-profiles-daemon would update/adapt.

There's a draft PR open for this.

mentioned in issue #129 (closed)

mentioned in merge request !127 (merged)

mentioned in commit superm1/power-profiles-daemon@3a398f54

mentioned in commit superm1/power-profiles-daemon@7dea996b

mentioned in commit superm1/power-profiles-daemon@ab3f69f5

mentioned in commit superm1/power-profiles-daemon@6b063134

mentioned in commit superm1/power-profiles-daemon@30d6e604

This can be closed now as the fix for it was merged into main.

This issue is fixed in main and will be in the upcoming 0.14 release.

closed