Trayfreq
From ArchWiki
Contents |
Introduction
Trayfreq (pronounced trayfreek) is a GTK+ application released under GPL that lets you select your CPU's governor or frequency from a tray icon and displays information for your battery. Trayfreq is designed to be desktop-environment-independent so it depends only on GTK+ and a system tray to show its icons. Trayfreq is the perfect addition to Xfce, LXDE, and Window Managers (Openbox, Fluxbox, etc.).
Features
- Displays a icon that shows you the relative current CPU frequency
- When the CPU icon is right-clicked, it provides a menu of available frequencies and governors to choose.
- When the CPU icon is left-clicked, it runs a command (set in config file, default nothing)
- Displays a icon that shows you the status of your Battery (Charging, Discharging, Charged) and its relative current charge (optional)
- Lightweight, Desktop-Environment Independent
Latest Version
0.1.6.3
Installing
Install trayfreq from the AUR. I suggest using one of the AUR Helpers.
System Setup
CPU scaling requires you to have a kernel with the ability already built in or have an appropriate driver module loaded. If the former case represents you, then you do not have to worry. If the latter case represents you, follow the following steps:
Most modern computers use the module acpi-cpufreq. Other options include the p4-clockmod, powernow-k6, powernow-k7, powernow-k8, and speedstep-centrino drivers.
To load the driver, modprobe it:
# modprobe acpi-cpufreq
To load the driver automatically at start up, add the module to /etc/rc.conf:
# MODULES=( ... acpi-cpufreq ... )
CPU Governors Setup
Some CPU governors may not be built into your kernel, but you can add them to /etc/rc.conf to have them automatically load at start up. Again, edit /etc/rc.conf to load the governors' drivers.
# MODULES=( ... cpufreq-powersave cpufreq-userspace cpufreq-ondemand ... )
Trayfreq Setup
Now, let's edit the configuration file for trayfreq.
$ cp /usr/share/trayfreq/trayfreq.config ~/.trayfreq.config $ nano ~/.trayfreq.config
Everything will be commented out; uncomment what you want to use. Let's go through the options
- [battery] – the group battery
- show=1 – 1 to show the battery tray icon, 0 to not show it
- [events] – the group events
- activate=/usr/bin/xterm – this sets the program to launch when the tray icon is activated (left clicked usually)
- [governor] – the group governor
- default=ondemand – this sets the default governor to be set when trayfreq starts
- [frequency] – the group frequency
- default=800000 – this sets the default frequency in hertz to be set when trayfreq starts
Note that, if a default frequency is set, it will override the governor.
Sample File:
[events] activate=/usr/bin/showbatt [governor] default=ondemand [battery] show=1 #[frequency] #default=800000
If you want, you can have a configuration file in your home folder, but it can now set the program to run when the tray icon is activated too. The file should be ~/.trayfreq.config; if it exists, trayfreq will not look at /usr/share/trayfreq/trayfreq.config.
Remarks
A desktop file is installed into /etc/xdg/autostart/. It will automatically start once installed. If you do not want it to start automatically, open the start up manager that comes with your desktop enviroment and uncheck trayfreq.