I am having an issue on my laptop running latest Arch Linux with the nvidia-powerd.service systemd unit failing. My laptop should support Dynamic Boost as proven by the specifications provided below. I’ve checked the documentation to verify that the configuration of nvidia-powerd.service is indeed correct on my system.
The system is a laptop MSI Pulse GL66 11UEK with Nvidia 3060 Laptop GPU.
Linux (KDE) Info:
Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.3.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.13.0
Qt Version: 6.9.0
Kernel Version: 6.14.4-arch1-2 (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 16 × 11th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz
Memory: 31.0 GiB of RAM
Graphics Processor 1: Intel® UHD Graphics
Graphics Processor 2: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
Nvidia Info:
/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0000:01:00.0/information
Model: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
IRQ: 180
GPU UUID: GPU-98ecba1d-446c-db2e-e6f9-29f6cd8ac9e8
Video BIOS: 94.06.16.00.4b
Bus Type: PCIe
DMA Size: 47 bits
DMA Mask: 0x7fffffffffff
Bus Location: 0000:01:00.0
Device Minor: 0
GPU Firmware: 570.144
GPU Excluded: No
/proc/driver/nvidia/gpus/0000:01:00.0/power
Runtime D3 status: Enabled (fine-grained)
Video Memory: Off
GPU Hardware Support:
Video Memory Self Refresh: Supported
Video Memory Off: Supported
S0ix Power Management:
Platform Support: Not Supported
Status: Disabled
Notebook Dynamic Boost: Supported
The systemd unit status reports the following:
× nvidia-powerd.service - nvidia-powerd service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/nvidia-powerd.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
Active: failed (Result: core-dump) since Wed 2025-04-30 22:45:58 CEST; 24s ago
Duration: 1.712s
Invocation: e3e728545401496592dc0355c2f6f5f1
Process: 867 ExecStart=/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd (code=dumped, signal=ABRT)
Main PID: 867 (code=dumped, signal=ABRT)
Mem peak: 1.7M
CPU: 28ms
Apr 30 22:45:56 generalg systemd[1]: Started nvidia-powerd service.
Apr 30 22:45:56 generalg /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd[867]: nvidia-powerd version:1.0(build 1)
Apr 30 22:45:57 generalg /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd[867]: Error, could not open file for reading CPU frequency.0
Apr 30 22:45:57 generalg /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd[867]: Error, could not open file for reading CPU frequency.0
Apr 30 22:45:57 generalg nvidia-powerd[867]: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::runtime_error'
Apr 30 22:45:57 generalg nvidia-powerd[867]: what(): cpuid_error
Apr 30 22:45:58 generalg systemd-coredump[1208]: [🡕] Process 867 (nvidia-powerd) of user 0 dumped core.
Module /usr/bin/nvidia-powerd without build-id.
Stack trace of thread 1206:
#0 0x000076b8c381374c n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x9774c)
#1 0x000076b8c37b9dc0 raise (libc.so.6 + 0x3ddc0)
#2 0x000076b8c37a157a abort (libc.so.6 + 0x2557a)
#3 0x000000000041d445 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x1d445)
#4 0x000000000041bdc6 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x1bdc6)
#5 0x000000000041be01 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x1be01)
#6 0x000000000041bca3 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x1bca3)
#7 0x000000000040e00f n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0xe00f)
#8 0x000000000040e36f n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0xe36f)
#9 0x00000000004052d2 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x52d2)
#10 0x000076b8c38117eb n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x957eb)
#11 0x000076b8c389518c n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x11918c)
Stack trace of thread 1205:
#0 0x000076b8c3b0470b n/a (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0x2470b)
#1 0x000076b8c3aee04f n/a (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0xe04f)
#2 0x000076b8c3aecb9b n/a (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0xcb9b)
#3 0x000076b8c3ae2416 _dl_catch_exception (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0x2416)
#4 0x000076b8c3aec03c n/a (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0xc03c)
#5 0x000076b8c3ae2416 _dl_catch_exception (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0x2416)
#6 0x000076b8c3aec4de n/a (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0xc4de)
#7 0x000076b8c380db34 n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x91b34)
#8 0x000076b8c3ae2416 _dl_catch_exception (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0x2416)
#9 0x000076b8c3ae2569 n/a (ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 + 0x2569)
#10 0x000076b8c380d623 n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x91623)
#11 0x000076b8c380dbeb dlopen (libc.so.6 + 0x91beb)
#12 0x0000000000407302 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x7302)
#13 0x00000000004070aa n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x70aa)
#14 0x0000000000407181 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x7181)
#15 0x000076b8c38117eb n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x957eb)
#16 0x000076b8c389518c n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x11918c)
Stack trace of thread 867:
#0 0x000076b8c3890ecd ioctl (libc.so.6 + 0x114ecd)
#1 0x0000000000411299 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x11299)
#2 0x0000000000412572 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x12572)
#3 0x000000000041346b n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x1346b)
#4 0x0000000000404360 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x4360)
#5 0x00000000004031ca n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x31ca)
#6 0x000000000040362f n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x362f)
#7 0x000000000040302d n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x302d)
#8 0x000000000040299e n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x299e)
#9 0x000076b8c37a36b5 n/a (libc.so.6 + 0x276b5)
#10 0x000076b8c37a3769 __libc_start_main (libc.so.6 + 0x27769)
#11 0x0000000000402b35 n/a (/usr/bin/nvidia-powerd + 0x2b35)
ELF object binary architecture: AMD x86-64
Apr 30 22:45:58 generalg systemd[1]: nvidia-powerd.service: Main process exited, code=dumped, status=6/ABRT
Apr 30 22:45:58 generalg systemd[1]: nvidia-powerd.service: Failed with result 'core-dump'.