Confusion around powerprofilesctl in i3wm

[nickbrandt]

Hello,

I installed EOS using with i3wm, and by default had powerprofilesctl and an associated script for using via i3’s bar, but I am having some confusion around this setup.

I am running on a desktop machine where I almost never have a need to enter a lower power state, so I am curious if a power profile is even something that is necessary in this scenario or whether it is meant more for laptops or other setups utilizing battery power. Likewise, when I search for info regarding powerprofilesctl, I see examples that include a Performance mode which is not an option for when I run the command / access via i3 (I just have Energy Saver and Balanced, toggling between the two seems to do nothing). Am I safe to uninstall powerprofilesctl, or am I missing something?

Sorry if this is documented somewhere, but I couldn’t seem to find information answering this specifically in eos welcome.

Thanks!

[ddnn]

From the Arch Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/CPU_frequency_scaling#power-profiles-daemon

The powerprofilesctl command-line tool from power-profiles-daemon handles power profiles (e.g. balanced, power-saver, performance) through the power-profiles-daemon service. GNOME and KDE also provide graphical interfaces for profile switching; see the following:

• GNOME#Power modes
• KDE#Power management

See the project’s README for more information on usage, use cases, and comparisons with similar projects.

Start/enable the power-profiles-daemon service. Note that when powerprofilesctl is launched, it also attempts to start the service (see the unit status of dbus.service).

Then on to the package’s official page: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upower/power-profiles-daemon#power-profiles-daemon

Try:

powerprofilesctl list 

OR just

powerprofilesctl

And set a mode with "set"

powerprofilesctl set performance

However, it seems the modes available vary per device, which I think is strange.