[Feature] D-Bus Interface like PPD

[Panda-Code-Master]

First of all, thank you for developing auto-cpufreq — it’s an excellent tool for dynamic CPU frequency scaling.

Currently, several desktop environments (DEs) provide a power mode/slider integration in their system tray or settings panels. These sliders usually work with power-profiles-daemon or tuned-ppd, allowing users to switch between modes such as Performance, Balanced, and Power Saver.

It would be great if auto-cpufreq could integrate with these power sliders across DEs.

Benefits

• Unified user experience across desktop environments.
• Quick and intuitive switching between auto-cpufreq profiles without relying on CLI.
• Encourages wider adoption since many users prefer GUI-driven controls.

Examples of DE Integration Points

• KDE Plasma – System Tray Power Management Slider (via powerdevil).
• GNOME – Settings → Power Mode toggle (exposed via power-profiles-daemon).
• XFCE – Power Manager panel plugin.
• Cinnamon / MATE / Budgie – Power applets that already use PPD as backend.

Possible Implementation Approaches

• Allow auto-cpufreq to expose its profiles via D-Bus, making them visible to DEs in the same way as power-profiles-daemon.
• Provide an optional compatibility layer that lets DEs treat auto-cpufreq as if it were power-profiles-daemon or tuned-ppd.
• Offer a configurable mapping of auto-cpufreq modes to standard power profiles.

References

• KDE Plasma PowerDevil: https://invent.kde.org/plasma/powerdevil
• GNOME Power Profiles: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upower/power-profiles-daemon

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Feature Request Summary

Add integration between auto-cpufreq and desktop environment power sliders (KDE, GNOME, XFCE, etc.) by exposing profiles through a standard interface (e.g., D-Bus, PPD compatibility), similar to how power-profiles-daemon and tuned-ppd work. I just really like the look and feel of KDE's powerdevil

[AdnanHodzic]

Thank you, much appreciated.

Regarding your suggestion, I love it ☺️ Especially since 2021 I'm hoping someone with more experience in this, could contribute such functionality.

In meantime GNOME extension was crated and there's a PR for it #863, however at this point it's not quite where I would want it to be in before I merge it and endorse it from auto-cpufreq POV.

Regarding KDE, there was some discussion about this on auto-cpufreq Discord community,, and @JuanR4140 was working on it as part of #729, but I'm not sure what's the latest status.

It would be ideal if 2 of you could perhaps join forces to make it happen?

As always, I encourage you to give it a try in implementing this functionality, please give it a try and contribute to the project and you will be credited for your work as part of future release.

[Panda-Code-Master]

That sounds awesome! I’m not particularly experienced with building the implementation myself, but I’d love to help out with testing. I’m happy to contribute in any way I can to make sure everything works smoothly. Let me know if there’s anything specific you need tested! 😊

[AdnanHodzic]

In that case I think it's the best if you reach out to @JuanR4140 :)

[JuanR4140]

@Panda-Code-Master Hi! I'm currently working on a KDE widget for auto-cpufreq. It features a summary view of your cores/usage/temp/frequencies, fan speed, what settings you're on, and allows you to change them.

This might vary hardware to hardware, though (and there might be edge cases), which is why I want to test this before putting it on a repo. If you're willing to test this out on your machine, I'd really appreciate it!

Doing something related to PPD is something I want to look more into as it was the first idea I had before just creating a widget....

[Panda-Code-Master]

@JuanR4140 Sorry for the late reply

This might vary hardware to hardware, though (and there might be edge cases), which is why I want to test this before putting it on a repo. If you're willing to test this out on your machine, I'd really appreciate it!

I would love to test it out, please let me know what needs to be done

Doing something related to PPD is something I want to look more into as it was the first idea I had before just creating a widget....

Ya I thought of creating a widget but after pondering on it a little more I think it would be better to implement something like tuned-ppd as it would allow all DEs that support power-profiles-daemon to take advantage of it