[SOLVED] Editing my GPU's power profile (AMD 5870)

[VoodooDali]

Hello:

My GPU (AMD Radeon Mobility HD 5870) runs very hot (about 187 degrees F) while using the open-source "radeon" driver. I could switch to the AMD Catalyst Driver but that no longer works in Netflix, YouTube, ESPN3 and a bunch of other video applications.

I can cool down my GPU by running the following command as root:

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echo low > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

However, this is a temporary fix. Exiting su/root mode causes my sound to cut out. And, next time I reboot, my power profile will be set back to "auto" which runs very hot.

Anyone know how I can *permanently* alter my power profile? (There really needs to be a GUI-based tool for this tweak ) Thanks!

[oj]

Sounds like a job for /etc/rc.d/rc.local. You have to enable rc.local compatibility if your OS uses systemd.

[VoodooDali]

Sounds like a job for /etc/rc.d/rc.local. You have to enable rc.local compatibility if your OS uses systemd.

Is there a command to enable rc.local compatibility? I tried using systemctl to enable the rc-local.service, and got a rather lengthy error message. :/

[sander85]

Sounds like a job for /etc/rc.d/rc.local. You have to enable rc.local compatibility if your OS uses systemd.

Is there a command to enable rc.local compatibility? I tried using systemctl to enable the rc-local.service, and got a rather lengthy error message. :/

It's actually quite easy:

From the systemd unit (/lib/systemd/system/rc-local.service):
# This unit gets pulled automatically into multi-user.target by
# systemd-rc-local-generator if /etc/rc.d/rc.local is executable.

So all you have to do is create /etc/rc.d/rc.local and make it executable.

[VoodooDali]

For the benefit of anyone else trying to do this, here's what worked, step by step.

I had to create a file called rc-local.service with the following contents:

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[Unit]
Description=/etc/rc.local Compatibility
ConditionPathExists=/etc/rc.local

[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/bin/sh /etc/rc.local
TimeoutSec=0
StandardOutput=tty
RemainAfterExit=yes
SysVStartPriority=99

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=rc-local.service

Then I created an rc.local file with the following:

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echo mid > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

I set these files to executable in Dolphin, then moved the files to where they belonged by running the following as root:

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mv rc.local /etc
mv rc-local.service /etc/systemd/system

I changed ownership of the files to root:

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chown root /etc/rc.local
chown root /etc/systemd/system/rc-local.service

I enabled rc.local compatibility in systemd and started the service:

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systemctl enable rc-local.service
systemctl start rc-local.service

I received errors for both the systemctl commands, but when I rebooted, my GPU was running at the cooler temperature, and a check of

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 cat /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_profile

reported the value "mid". Success.

[VoodooDali]

Special thanks to:

-defektz at fedoraforums.org
-TobiSGD at linuxquestions.org
-oj and sander85, right here