SYNOPSIS

cpudynd [ -acpi ] [ -asus ] [ ] [ -d ] [ -h dev0[,dev1[,...]] ] [ -i interval in tenths of seconds ] [ -minffrequency ] [ -l state ] [ -ms interval in milliseconds ] [ -nice ] [ -p up down ] [ -t timeout ]

DESCRIPTION

cpudynd controls the CPU's speed in Intel SpeedStep, Pentium 4 Mobile and PowerPC machines with the cpufreq compiled in the kernel. It's compatible with kernel 2.4 plus cpufreq available patches, and kernel > 2.5.69. If no cpufreq is detected, it will try to use ACPI throttling control (nevertheless, if you are really eager to control your CPU and this program cannot do it, think about Linux 2.6, cpufreq is standarised and perfectly integrated with ACPI).

cpudynd is also able to put the discs in standby if there were no I/O operations in a given period (see options -h and -t).

Although it primary oriented to laptops, it also works fine for desktops.

Tested with 2.4 and 2.6, Pentium 3 Speedstep Laptop (Dell Latitude), Pentium 4 Mobile Laptop (Dell Inspiron), Apple iBook, IBM Thinkpad.

I was tired of those complex programs that do everything but simply reduce the processor's speed when it's not needed and increase it to the maximun when it's really needed, as soon as possible.

It works very well even with Journaled File Systems such as Ext3, XFS and ReiserFS.

OPTIONS

-acpi

Don't try to use Linux cpufreq, but directly tries ACPI throttling. Some people say that this mode doesn't disturb audio as cpufreq does in some laptops.

-asus

Enable the use of the asus_acpi kernel module to switch on and off two ASUS Laptops' leds (the mail and wireless leds). On powersave: mail led on and wlan led off. On performance: mail led off and wlan led on. If cpudyn is disbled, mail and wlan leds off. This allows to have a feedback from the software directly on the case, allowing to fine tuning the idle/work ratios to be passed with the -p option.

-d

Daemonize process (run in background)

-h <dev0[,dev1]...>

Specified the disks to spindown, example: -h /dev/hda,/dev/hdc If this option is specified, but not -t, the default is 120 secs.

-i interval

Change interval between idle ratio tests and possible speed change in 1/10 second increments. If -i or -ms are not specified or they are zero, cpufreq control is disabled (default is 0). Useful for people that just want to put disk in standby.

-l state

In case of using ACPI throttling, specify the powersave state. Default is 3. The maximum is 99.

-minf min

Set the minimum CPU's frequency in a value between 0.0 and 1.0.

-ms interval_in_milliseconds

Change interval between idle ratio tests and possible speed change in milliseconds increments. If -i or -ms are not specified or they are zero, cpufreq control is disabled (default is 0). Useful for people that just want to put disk in standby.

-nice

Count also nice CPU usage as load as well. The default is no.

-p [up] [down]

Set CPU idle:work ratios to speed up or down CPU (default is 0.5 0.9).

-t timeout

Set the timeout to put the disk in standby mode if there were no io during that period _Not_ activated by default /dev/hda is assumed if not specified option -h. If option -h is specified, but not -t, the default is 120.

-V

Just print version information and exit.

-?, --help

Print usage information and exit.

EXAMPLES

cpudynd -i 1 -t 60 -h /dev/hda,/dev/hdc

MORE INFO

More info,

http://mnm.uib.es/~gallir/cpudyn

in Spanish, at:

http://bulmalug.net/body.phtml?nIdNoticia=1748

NOTE: at the current version, it behaves similarly when connected or not to the AC. But, is there any difference at all for most cases?

AUTHOR

cpudynd was written by Ricardo Galli Granada.
This man page was written by Tomeu Capó and Ricardo Galli Granada.