Archives For November 30, 1999

Auto-cpufreq, automatic CPU speed & power optimizer, now is at version 2.0.0 release!

This is a popular free open-source tool that monitors Linux laptop’s battery state, CPU usage, temperature and system load. And, automatically switches CPU profile between “power saving” and “performance mode” according to whether power supply is plugged. It also automatically turn on/off CPU turbo boost according to system load.

By releasing 2.0.0 version, it has a graphical GTK3 user interface, making the things easy for beginners! As well, it now has Nix Flake and better NixOS support

Auto-cpufreq graphical interface.

How to Install Auto-CpuFreq in Ubuntu Linux

NOTE 1: In Ubuntu with default GNOME desktop, there’s already an extension can do similar job. So, you may only need this on Ubuntu flavors such as XUbuntu, Ubuntu MATE, KUbuntu, etc.

NOTE  2: Ubuntu Software (or App Center) includes auto-cpurfreq package, though it’s Snap package that so far does not support GUI, due to sandbox permission issue.

NOTE 3: Installing auto-cpufreq in GNOME Desktop will disable the default power profile daemon.

1. First, download the source code (ZIP or Tar.gz) from github releases page:

2. After downloading the source, open your “Downloads” folder and extract the tarball. Then, right-click on extracted folder and select “Open in Terminal“.

3. In pop-up terminal window, run command to start the official installer, and answer “i” to start installing the tool.

sudo ./auto-cpufreq-installer

It will automatically install auto-cpufreq as well as download and installing all required dependencies on your system. If everything goes OK, you’ll be able to launch it from applications menu or ‘Activities’ overview.

And, first launch will prompt to click install and run the daemon. Just click ‘Install’ and re-launch the tool. Finally, you should be able to see the main UI like the top screenshot shows you.

Then, just leave it there to automatically change power profile depends on power state and CPU load. Or, you can manually switch to Power-save or Performance as you need.

Uninstall Auto-CPUFreq

To remove the tool, simply re-run the previous steps, but answer ‘r‘ while running the installer script in terminal window.

Want to change CPU frequency scaling in Ubuntu 20.04? There’s a gnome shell extension can do the job.

CPU Power Manager is a Gnome-Shell extension for intel-pstate driver. If you have an Intel Core i CPU, the extension will offer an indicator menu for changing CPU frequency scaling.

To install the extension, simply do following steps one by one:

1.) Open terminal and install chrome-gnome-shell package if you’re first time installing a Gnome shell extension:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2. Go to extension page in your web browser. If you don’t see the toggle icon, click link to install browser extension:

3. Finally refresh the web page (see the link in step 2), toggle on and install the extension.

Once installed, you’ll see the indicator applet in system tray area. To make it work, you have to click “Attempt installation” option, type user password and hit Enter.

(Optional) To remove this gnome shell extension, either go to link in step 2 and turn it off, or use Extensions tool.

This simple tutorial shows you how to easily change the CPU frequency via indicator applet in Ubuntu 13.10, Ubuntu 13.04, Ubuntu 12.10, Ubuntu 12.04 and their derivatives, such as Linux Mint and Elementary OS.

Indicator-freq is an applet for displaying and change cpu frequency on the fly. Also it allows to choose powersaving mode to save power.

To install this indicator, open Ubuntu Software Center and search for and install the indicator-cpufreq package.

That’s it. Enjoy!