Intel Low Power Mode Daemon

Intel Low Power Mode Daemon (lpmd) is a Linux daemon designed to optimize active idle power. It selects the most power-efficient CPUs based on a configuration file or CPU topology. Depending on system utilization and other hints, it puts the system into Low Power Mode by activating the power-efficient CPUs and disabling the rest, and restores the system from Low Power Mode by activating all CPUs.

Before You Start

Please note that the installed configuration files serve as templates of best practices for specific platform models and disable lpmd by default.

Dynamic CPU Selection and Power Settings

By default, some global power settings are enabled even if intel_lpmd is not active. However, dynamic CPU selection is not enabled by default; the reason being some benchmarks only use CPUs which are present when started, which may be restricted to a smaller cgroup cpuset.

To drive dynamic CPU selection and power settings, there are two options:

Option 1: Enable Permanently (Configuration File)

Configure the desired mode in the XML configuration file. For example, to configure behavior in Balanced mode, set <BalancedDef>:

<!--
    Default behavior when Balanced power setting is used:
    -1: Force off (never enter Low Power Mode)
     1: Force on (always stay in Low Power Mode)
     0: Auto (opportunistic Low Power Mode enter/exit)
     2: Process-CPU affinity based Low Power Mode enter/exit
-->
<BalancedDef>0</BalancedDef>

Refer to the man pages for command line arguments and XML configurations:

```sh
man intel_lpmd
man intel_lpmd_control
man intel_lpmd_config.xml

Install Dependencies

Fedora

dnf install automake autoconf-archive gcc glib2-devel libxml2-devel libnl3-devel systemd-devel gtk-doc upower-devel

Ubuntu

sudo apt install autoconf autoconf-archive gcc libglib2.0-dev libdbus-1-dev libxml2-dev libnl-3-dev libnl-genl-3-dev libsystemd-dev gtk-doc-tools libupower-glib-dev

OpenSUSE

zypper in automake gcc

Build and Install

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

The generated artifacts are copied to respective directories under /usr/local. If a custom install path is preferred other than system default, make sure --localstatedir and --sysconfdir are set to the right path that the system can understand. If installed via RPM then artifacts would be under /usr.

Example command for installation using prefix under /opt/lpmd_install dir with --localstatedir and --sysconfdir set to system default

./autogen.sh prefix=/opt/lpmd_install --localstatedir=/var --sysconfdir=/etc

Run

Start Service

sudo systemctl start intel_lpmd.service

Get Status

sudo systemctl status intel_lpmd.service

Stop Service

sudo systemctl stop intel_lpmd.service

Terminate using DBUS Interface

sudo tests/lpm_test_interface.sh 1

Testing Installation from Source

Launch lpmd in no-daemon mode:

./intel_lpmd --no-daemon --dbus-enable --loglevel=debug

Start lpmd using:

sudo sh tests/lpm_test_interface.sh 4

Run a workload and monitor lpmd to ensure it puts the system in the appropriate state based on the load.

Releases

Release 0.1.1 (Test release)

• Add per-process CPU affinity support: processes are classified (user interactive, user initiated, utility, background, realtime, game and custom profiles) and confined to a selected set of CPUs with a new PROCESS-PRECONFIG mode and shipped process classification config files.
• Add a desktop focus helper for KDE based distribution for foreground application.
• Add per-class and per-state tuning knobs: uclamp min/max, min/max performance percentage per core type, Intel P-State mode and graphics IA bias.
• Allow HFI to specify CPUs and use with other state based configurations
• Improve graphics utilization detection with load hysteresis and separate exit thresholds.
• Extend the DBus interface and intel_lpmd_control with state query, process classification and cpuset management commands, restricted to root.'

Release 0.1.0

• Add support for Panther Lake

Release 0.0.9

• Fix lpmd from processing HFI/WLT updates when it is not in auto mode.
• Improve README and other documents.
• Add support for graphics utilization detection.
• Add support for config states based on both WLT and graphics utilization.
• Introduce LunarLake platform specific config file.
• Minor fixes and cleanups.

Release 0.0.8

• Introduce workload type proxy support.
• Add support for model/sku specific config file.
• Add detection for AC/DC status.
• Honor power profile daemon default EPP when restoring.
• Introduce MeteorLake-P platform specific config file.
• Minor fixes and cleanups.

Release 0.0.7

• Change lpmd description from "Low Power Mode Daemon" to "Energy Optimizer (lpmd)" because it covers more scenarios.
• Fix invalid cgroup setting during probe, in case lpmd doesn't quit smoothly and cleanups are not done properly in the previous run.
• Introduce a new parameter --ignore-platform-check.
• Provide more detailed information when lpmd fails to probe on an unvalidated platform.
• Various fixes for array bound check, potential memory leak, etc.
• Autotool improvements.

Release 0.0.6

• Remove automake and autoconf improvements due to a regression.
• Deprecate the dbus-glib dependency.

Release 0.0.5

• Fix compiling errors with -Wall.
• Remove unintended default config file change to keep it unchanged since v0.0.3.

Release 0.0.4

• Enhance HFI monitor to handle back-to-back HFI LPM hints.
• Enhance HFI monitor to handle HFI hints for banned CPUs.
• Introduce support for multiple Low Power states.
• Introduce support for workload type hint.
• Allow change EPP during Low Power modes transition.
• Minor fixes and cleanups.

Release 0.0.3

• Convert from glib-dbus to GDBus.
• Add handling for CPU hotplug.
• Use strict CPU model check to allow intel_lpmd to run on validated platforms only, including ADL/RPL/MTL for now.
• CPUID.7 Hybrid bit is set
• /sys/firmware/acpi/pm_profile returns 2 (mobile platform)
• Use cpuid() to detect Lcores instead of using cache sysfs.
• Enhance Ecore module detection.
• Fix pthread error handling, suggested by ColinIanKing.
• Werror fixes from aekoroglu.

Release 0.0.2

• Various fixes and cleanups.

Release 0.0.1

• Add initial lpmd support.

Security

See Intel's Security Center for information on how to report a potential security issue or vulnerability.

See also: Security Policy