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    Use of PowerD

    General pfSense Questions
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    • stephenw10S
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by stephenw10

      Yup it can save you some Watts / heat on hardware that supports a cpufreq driver such as EIST (speedstep).

      [2.4.5-RELEASE][admin@8860.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq_levels
      dev.cpu.0.freq_levels: 2400/8 2200/0 2000/0 1800/0 1600/0 1400/0 1200/0
      [2.4.5-RELEASE][admin@8860.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq
      dev.cpu.0.freq: 1200
      [2.4.5-RELEASE][admin@8860.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl dev.est
      dev.est.3.freq_settings: 2400/8 2200/0 2000/0 1800/0 1600/0 1400/0 1200/0
      dev.est.3.%parent: cpu3
      dev.est.3.%pnpinfo: 
      dev.est.3.%location: 
      dev.est.3.%driver: est
      dev.est.3.%desc: Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control
      dev.est.2.freq_settings: 2400/8 2200/0 2000/0 1800/0 1600/0 1400/0 1200/0
      dev.est.2.%parent: cpu2
      dev.est.2.%pnpinfo: 
      dev.est.2.%location: 
      dev.est.2.%driver: est
      dev.est.2.%desc: Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control
      dev.est.1.freq_settings: 2400/8 2200/0 2000/0 1800/0 1600/0 1400/0 1200/0
      dev.est.1.%parent: cpu1
      dev.est.1.%pnpinfo: 
      dev.est.1.%location: 
      dev.est.1.%driver: est
      dev.est.1.%desc: Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control
      dev.est.0.freq_settings: 2400/8 2200/0 2000/0 1800/0 1600/0 1400/0 1200/0
      dev.est.0.%parent: cpu0
      dev.est.0.%pnpinfo: 
      dev.est.0.%location: 
      dev.est.0.%driver: est
      dev.est.0.%desc: Enhanced SpeedStep Frequency Control
      dev.est.%parent: 
      

      There are some systems that require it to reach all their available speeds. Such as that SG box which otherwise defaults to 1200MHz and some that will not use 'Turbo' without powerd.

      It's less of an issue on newer hardware where C states largely overwhelm the savings P states offer.

      Steve

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      • A
        akuma1x
        last edited by

        So, what settings would be recommended for an SG-8860 and SG-4860 box?

        8860 all 3 (AC, battery, unknown) are set at Hiadaptive right now. Don't know about 4860, not powered up right now.

        Jeff

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        • stephenw10S
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          Powerd enabled and all on HiAdaptive is the default on the SG series and works best.

          Steve

          NollipfSenseN A S 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • NollipfSenseN
            NollipfSense @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10 Interesting ... just enabled powerd on mine with the default hiadaptive, thanks for sharing.

            pfSense+ 23.09 Lenovo Thinkcentre M93P SFF Quadcore i7 dual Raid-ZFS 128GB-SSD 32GB-RAM PCI-Intel i350-t4 NIC, -Intel QAT 8950.
            pfSense+ 23.09 VM-Proxmox, Dell Precision Xeon-W2155 Nvme 500GB-ZFS 128GB-RAM PCIe-Intel i350-t4, Intel QAT-8950, P-cloud.

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            • J
              jeff3820
              last edited by jeff3820

              I have Powerd enabled for the bulk of today and all runs fine...I see no difference in performance at all so if this save a few watts I'm pleased.

              I have noticed under System Information, CPU Type that the Current: CPU frequency is visible about 75% of the time. Sometimes the Current: CPU frequency line disappears but it seems to return in a few seconds. Does anyone else observe the same thing? Not a big deal...just curious.

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              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by stephenw10

                That's the expected behaviour. It only shows that line when the CPU is running at less than maximum speed.
                So either:

                Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU C2558 @ 2.40GHz
                4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
                AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (inactive) 
                

                or

                Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU C2558 @ 2.40GHz
                Current: 2200 MHz, Max: 2400 MHz
                4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
                AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (inactive)
                

                Steve

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                • A
                  akuma1x @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10 said in Use of PowerD:

                  Powerd enabled and all on HiAdaptive is the default on the SG series and works best.

                  Steve

                  OK, thanks for the info!

                  Jeff

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • S
                    SteveITS Galactic Empire @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 said in Use of PowerD:

                    Powerd enabled and all on HiAdaptive is the default on the SG series

                    Some SGs? https://forum.netgate.com/topic/143189/powerd-on-sg-3100 ("PowerD is not used on our ARM devices") or did that change at some point?

                    Pre-2.7.2/23.09: Only install packages for your version, or risk breaking it. Select your branch in System/Update/Update Settings.
                    When upgrading, allow 10-15 minutes to restart, or more depending on packages and device speed.
                    Upvote 👍 helpful posts!

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                    • stephenw10S
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      Sorry, indeed. It's default on the SG-2220/2440/4860/8860.

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                      • B
                        bcruze
                        last edited by bcruze

                        i just noticed this on my sg3100 after the update. maybe it was there before: i did have power D enabled. i've turned it off now

                        Jun 9 14:21:27 php-cgi rc.bootup: The command '/usr/sbin/powerd -b 'hadp' -a 'hadp' -n 'hadp'' returned exit code '69', the output was 'powerd: no cpufreq(4) support -- aborting: No such file or directory'

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                        • stephenw10S
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          Yes it should not be enabled on the SG-3100 because, as it says, there is no driver cpufreq can use for the ARM processor there. It does not hurt trying to start it though beyond that error message.

                          Steve

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