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| Downloads: 2061
| Submitted: Mar 10 2011
Updated: Jun 20 2012
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Description:
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.
Changelog:
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
License: GPL
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