Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

This is the small core Atom style: new Celeron N4020, not the Core style CPU.

I noticed that before I added the "intel_pstate=disable" line to the linux grub lines, CPU Frequency Tool did not say the Frequency, it just said "Core" and "performance" then told me it was using 2800MHz fixed rate (which means turbo was always on, at least according to the program). It also seemed like the battery was draining much faster.

After I added the "intel_pstate=disable" line, it showed my two cores as always using between 800MHz and 1100MHz and said "ondemand". Not sure if that means it's never using the turbo (without turbo it can go up to 1.1GHz, with turbo it can go up to 2.8GHz, according to the specs). The battery life was way better after, my laptop can last for over 12 hours now. But I'm wondering, if intel_pstate=disable disables the turbo completely? It's still much better at 800MHz-1100MHz than it was at a fixed rate of 2800MHz, if I'm understanding this correctly.

Anyone with a Celeron or Pentium N-Series chip know anything about how this works or if adding this line was a good idea?

I have a Celeron N3150 (Braswell)

A better option to try first is to change to the intel pstate powersave governor.

With pstate active, you can try this by typing the following in a terminal:
echo powersave > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

With powersave my processor frequency varies between 480MHz and 2080MHz which is max turbo.

To make this permanent you can edit /etc/rc.d/rc.local and add the above command so that it is run automatically at startup.

If you want to use the ondemand governor, you should use: intel_pstate=passive. This allows the pstate driver to configure processor before handing over to the ondemand governor.

I am using it on a Intel N4000 CPU.

The intel_pstate driver is designed by Intel for the Intel CPU's.
So, if anyone knows how to code the driver, it should be Intel.
Plus it can use all the features the CPU has, because Intel coded it.
There was issues in the past with older versions intel_pstate (minor stuff), but the driver that is in Fossapup64 9.5 is the latest one and seems to be working good.

Do not disable intel_pstate.

Run CPU Frequency Scaling Tool
Set to use intel_pstate.
Set the governor to powersave.
That should give you the control you want.

The CPU Frequency Scaling Tool offers governors for all the different possible drivers.
So it shows governors that the driver you use may not use.

The Intel_pstate driver has two governors.
performance
powersave

Performance sets the CPU to run at max speed all the time.
powersave works like on demand governor does. (auto adjusts as required)
Low speed if not doing high demand stuff, but jumps to higher speeds as you put more demand on CPU.

Note:
The CPU Frequency Scaling Tool is not an information program.
It is a program to change settings.
It will only show the settings you make.

For info use Pup-Sysinfo->Mainboard->CPU.
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