speedstep / cpu frequency control on 6-stable?

[Vince]

Torfinn Ingolfsen wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> What ids the current way to control cpu speed (and power consumption)
> in FreeBSD 6-stable?
> Before, est was one way, but all traces of est has disappeared
> from /etc/defaults/rc.conf and thereabouts.
> I find something about powerd and power_profile, but they don't seem to
> work, and I can't seem to find out what variables / configuration items
> to set. 'man cpufreq' isn't much help in that regard either.
In what way does powerd not work for you?
(jhary at prawn)$grep powerd /etc/defaults/rc.conf
powerd_enable="NO"      # Run powerd to lower our power usage.
powerd_flags=""         # Flags to powerd (if enabled).

read man powerd for flags
 and try
powerd -v
this should give an indication of what happens, for example I get
{root at prawn}#powerd -v
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1666 MHz to 1457 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1457 MHz to 1249 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1249 MHz to 1041 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 1041 MHz to 833 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 833 MHz to 624 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 624 MHz to 416 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 416 MHz to 208 MHz
idle time < 65%, increasing clock speed from 208 MHz to 624 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 624 MHz to 416 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 416 MHz to 208 MHz
idle time < 65%, increasing clock speed from 208 MHz to 624 MHz
idle time > 90%, decreasing clock speed from 624 MHz to 416 MHz

which is a pain if i'm running X on mains so I tend to use
-a maximum -b adaptive
as my powerd flags as it defaults to adaptive even if your on mains power.

> 
> Do I need working acpi to use a power control method?
Umm not sure as mine works, but probably, since my dmesg says I have
acpi_throttle0: <ACPI CPU Throttling>

{root at prawn}#dmesg | grep -i cpu
CPU: Genuine Intel(R) CPU           T2300  @ 1.66GHz (1662.51-MHz
686-class CPU)
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 2 CPUs
 cpu0 (BSP): APIC ID:  0
 cpu1 (AP): APIC ID:  1
cpu0: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
acpi_throttle0: <ACPI CPU Throttling> on cpu0
cpu1: <ACPI CPU> on acpi0
acpi_throttle1: <ACPI CPU Throttling> on cpu1
SMP: AP CPU #1 Launched!


Vince