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From:   "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rjw@rjwysocki.net>
To:     Doug Smythies <dsmythies@telus.net>
Cc:     "'Rafael J. Wysocki'" <rafael@kernel.org>,
        'Linux Documentation' <linux-doc@vger.kernel.org>,
        'LKML' <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>,
        'Peter Zijlstra' <peterz@infradead.org>,
        'Srinivas Pandruvada' <srinivas.pandruvada@linux.intel.com>,
        'Giovanni Gherdovich' <ggherdovich@suse.cz>,
        'Francisco Jerez' <francisco.jerez.plata@intel.com>,
        'Linux PM' <linux-pm@vger.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH] cpufreq: intel_pstate: Implement passive mode with HWP enabled
Date:   Mon, 03 Aug 2020 19:08:38 +0200
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On Sunday, August 2, 2020 5:17:39 PM CEST Doug Smythies wrote:
> Hi Rafael,
> 
> On 2020.07.19 04:43 Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 17, 2020 at 3:37 PM Doug Smythies <dsmythies@telus.net> wrote:
> > > On 2020.07.16 05:08 Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> > > > On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 10:39 PM Doug Smythies <dsmythies@telus.net> wrote:
> > > >> On 2020.07.14 11:16 Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> > > >> >
> > > >> > From: Rafael J. Wysocki <rafael.j.wysocki@intel.com>
> > > >> ...
> > > >> > Since the passive mode hasn't worked with HWP at all, and it is not going to
> > > >> > the default for HWP systems anyway, I don't see any drawbacks related to making
> > > >> > this change, so I would consider this as 5.9 material unless there are any
> > > >> > serious objections.
> > > >>
> > > >> Good point.
> > >
> > > Actually, for those users that default to passive mode upon boot,
> > > this would mean they would find themselves using this.
> > > Also, it isn't obvious, from the typical "what driver and what governor"
> > > inquiry.
> > 
> > So the change in behavior is that after this patch
> > intel_pstate=passive doesn't imply no_hwp any more.
> > 
> > That's a very minor difference though and I'm not aware of any adverse
> > effects it can cause on HWP systems anyway.
> 
> My point was, that it will now default to something where
> testing has not been completed.
> 
> > The "what governor" is straightforward in the passive mode: that's
> > whatever cpufreq governor has been selected.
> 
> I think you might have missed my point.
> From the normal methods of inquiry one does not know
> if HWP is being used or not. Why? Because with
> or without HWP one gets the same answers under:
> 
> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_driver
> /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Yes, but this is also the case in the active mode, isn't it?

Thanks!