Questions tagged [powertop]
powertop is a script for reducing power consumption on laptops and desktops running Ubuntu.
86
questions
90
votes
11
answers
131k
views
How do I make Powertop changes permanent?
I'm on a Compaq 615 and it's fan is loud. Not much you can do about that but I'm trying to keep the CPU/GPU as cool as possible. This is what Powertop has to say:
If I change all of them to "good", ...
- 2,401
27
votes
6
answers
89k
views
How can I disable USB autosuspend for a specific device?
This is related to the issue discussed in Wireless mouse temporarily freezes (sleeps) on battery power.
Summary: the mouse freezes when operating on battery since it is autosuspended after a certain ...
- 874
23
votes
4
answers
25k
views
100.0% usage by Audio codec hwC0D0: Realtek
I ran powertop, and it says that the Realtek audio codec is using 100.0% of the cpu. Is this a problem?
I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit on Intel® Core™ i7 CPU M 640 @ 2.80GHz × 4 Sony VAIO laptop.
- 993
19
votes
2
answers
17k
views
Do 'Tunables' in 'PowerTop' help on battery life?
I installed PowerTOP 1.97 and i got many Bad in Tunables, I know i can press enter to toggle but does it really change anything? and if it does will it still be changed when i reboot? If i get ...
- 3,062
16
votes
4
answers
27k
views
What should VM writeback timeout be set to for a laptop?
I am using powertop to check that my machine is setup in a way that will give me good battery life. After installing laptop-mode-tools all of the "Tunables" section shows "Good" except VM writeback ...
- 655
12
votes
1
answer
19k
views
PowerTOP "cpufreq_stats failed" and "Devfreq not enabled" running --auto-tone
Basically, I'm trying to reduce the thermals of an Ubuntu install and trying everything. Quiet as can be in Windows 10 except for gaming, as it should be; Ubuntu fans rev up to 75-100% doing simple ...
- 457
11
votes
1
answer
1k
views
How to determine identity of obscure `nic:br-` devices in powertop?
Currently, the powertop output from my computer (a thinkpad with skylake i7-6600U running ubuntu 16.04) looks like
The battery reports a discharge rate of 6.90 W
The estimated remaining time is 2 ...
- 211
11
votes
3
answers
10k
views
How to permanently save powertop's suggestions?
I run powertop then it suggests that I should disable xy, etc. However, after I exit powertop, reboot the pc, and start it again[powertop], it brings up the same tips again! So how can I permanently ...
- 1,055
9
votes
3
answers
12k
views
`powertop --auto-tune` without messing with USB and touchpad
I like powertop --auto-tune because the speakers of my laptop are soughing when not being used and powertop disables the speakers completely when they're not used, stopping the noise.
However, my ...
- 5,710
9
votes
3
answers
14k
views
Missed power est. column in powertop?
I used powertop v.2.1 under Ubuntu 12.04 but it missed the power est. column.
It's the same situation as described here and that bug is supposed to be fixed already.
I tried lm_sensors but it didn'...
- 123
9
votes
3
answers
10k
views
What are ms/s units in Powertop and how can I get power consumption in watts?
When I use the powertop command I get the following result:
Summary: 1089.0 wakeups/second, 0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 27.2% CPU use
Usage Events/s Category ...
- 91
7
votes
2
answers
7k
views
Can and should I try enabling the CONFIG_INOTIFY kernel configuration option?
PowerTOP just offered the following suggestion:
Suggestion: Enable the CONFIG_INOTIFY
kernel configuration option. This
option allows programs to wait for
changes in files and directories
...
- 76.8k
7
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Ubuntu 19.04 high power consumption with intel integrated graphics
Aero 17 laptop w/ 9750H processor, nvidia gtx 1660ti, 1080P 144hz monitor
Windows 10 reports 8 hours of battery life
Ubuntu 19.04 reports 2 hours
In Ubuntu 19.04, reporting sky-high 30-40 watt ...
- 91
7
votes
0
answers
3k
views
How to make powertop "Device Power Management" suggestion permanent? [duplicate]
When I run powertop on my laptop I get following suggestion:
Suggestion: Enable Device Power Management by pressing the P key
Doing this results in considerable saving in power usage and I would ...
- 5,645
6
votes
0
answers
2k
views
(13.04) PowerTOP reports lots of usage by USB2.0-CRW, but autosuspend is on
I used to be able to keep my power usage under 10 watts without WLAN on but now that rarely happens. One reason might be this, reported by PowerTOP all of the time:
Power est. Usage ...
- 1,468
5
votes
2
answers
5k
views
How do I install Powertop 2.1 in 12.04?
I have installed Powertop from the Ubuntu Software Center and just realized that a new version is available. However this new version is not yet available in the Ubuntu Software Center. How do I then ...
- 12k
5
votes
1
answer
11k
views
How to tweak Powertop to reduce power consumption?
I am a completely new user to Linux/Ubuntu. I looked through tips on battery issues and PowerTOP but failed to find clear tips on how to tweak PowerTOP except for Toggle Tunable.
Could someone look ...
- 201
4
votes
1
answer
614
views
I have problems with compiling powertop on Ubuntu Precise
I tried to compile the latest release of powertop from github.
I get some errors and I dont know what to do to fix this.
make[3]: Leaving directory `/root/powertop/src'
make[2]: Leaving directory `/...
- 185
4
votes
1
answer
8k
views
How do I autosuspend a usb device?
I am trying to follow the instructions on Lesswatts, to enable usb autosuspend.
When I run powertop, it says, that I have a device (USB device 2-6 : 2.4G Multimedia Wireless Kit (Chicony)) that is ...
- 3,351
4
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Why do I get this unusual PowerTop readings?
I'm using PowerTop v2.1 in Ubuntu 13.04 and I'm getting some pretty strange readings. I've already run powertop --calibrate too. The main screen reads this:
As you can see, the power estimates do add ...
- 1,468
4
votes
1
answer
894
views
systemd service unit fails on startup
I wanted to change certain powertop params on Ubuntu 17.04 startup, therefore I created a shell script in /usr/sbin/ and made it executable:
#!/bin/sh
echo 'min_power' > '/sys/class/scsi_host/...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
206
views
Fingerprint Reader Power Consumption
I have fingerprint-gui working in Ubuntu 16.04 on my Lenovo x260. The problem is that powertop indicates that it is constantly using about 50-100mW of power even when I am logged in and it should be ...
- 91
4
votes
1
answer
2k
views
High number of interrupts on Ubuntu 15.04 on Dell XPS 13 2015 (9343)
In powertop I noticed a high number of interrupts 'INT3432', which I think would be either the touchpad or sound card.
I am concerned on the effect on the power consumption and battery life.
FYI I ...
- 41
4
votes
1
answer
774
views
Why do some of my powertop commands not work
I'm trying to make my powertop tweaks permanent. I ran sudo powertop --html and the I have a list of the commands I need to add to /etc/rc.local. I added them to /etc/rc.local and most of them work, ...
- 141
3
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Powertop autotune error - Cannot load from file
I'm trying to perform --auto-tune in powertop, however I get the following error
Cannot load from file /var/cache/powertop/saved_parameters.powertop
If I browse to that directory the file does ...
- 515
3
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Sound system is eating away the battery
In my laptop the sound code is running at 100% even when I am not playing anything. It is causing my palm rest to hit significantly. While I do not face the issue on windows machine where I am using ...
- 1,629
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Battery is drained too quickly
I'm getting really low battery life under ubuntu, not even close to windows. I tried powertop, and I saw that my laptop is consuming in idle nearly 20 watts (a bit more).
I tried to install laptop-...
- 133
3
votes
1
answer
3k
views
PowerTOP: why sum of "Power est" values is much less than discharge rate?
I'm running Ubuntu 13.10 on a MSI gs70 Stealth laptop. When I run powertop 2.4, I see:
The battery reports a discharge rate of 38.1 W The estimated remaining time is 0 hours, 5 minutes
Summary: 1524,...
- 537
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Battery time decreased on an HP ProBook 4530s
I have HP ProBook 4530s. In Windows 7 after installing all HP drivers the 6-Cell battery works perfectly for 2+ hours but in Ubuntu 11.10 and now in 12.04 the battery time is not sufficient. It works ...
- 151
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Intel 7260 bluetooth device (usb-device-8087-07dc) at 100% usage
My Intel 7260 bluetooth device is constanly draining battery. As per powertop:
13.9 W 100.0% Device USB device: usb-device-8087-07dc
I have both bluetooth and NFC ...
- 558
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
PowerTOP: what is "System baseline power"?
I'm running Ubuntu 13.10 on a MSI gs70 Stealth laptop. When I run powertop 2.4 it tells that (Device stats tab):
The battery reports a discharge rate of 39.8 W
System baseline power is estimated at ...
- 537
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Why does powertop think I have two displays?
Ok, so in powertop (version 1.97), in both the "overview" and "device stats" sections, I see two devices, each called "display backlight". One shows the correct percentage of use, e.g. if I lower ...
- 7,562
3
votes
1
answer
1k
views
USB Device Power Usage
I've been searching and messing around with powertop, tlp, and general power settings for a few days now and just can't seem to get rid of this ridiculous power drainage from a usb device. (Color ...
3
votes
1
answer
147
views
powertop color codes
I am running powertop in Ubuntu 10.04. It shows a horizontal bar near the top that displays something like:
Wakeups-from-idle per second : 723.6 interval: 10.0s
My question is, why is the ...
- 133
3
votes
2
answers
884
views
How to limit apps from writing too often and logging too much to disk?
Are there ways to keep this at a minimum or to limit it to only when necessary?
This is from powertop.
I suppose with Firefox there is not much that can be done unless history/cookies/cache/etc are ...
- 1,531
3
votes
1
answer
5k
views
How to enable the CONFIG_PM_ADVANCED_DEBUG kernel configuration option [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What is kernel configuration?
I'm trying to save the battery power. For that i'm using powertop and one suggestion is "Enable the CONFIG_PM_ADVANCED_DEBUG kernel configuration ...
- 1,919
2
votes
3
answers
8k
views
How to change the value of dirty_writeback_centisecs?
I would like to change the value of dirty_writeback_centisecs. After seeing the Tunables in Powertop, there seems to be a problem with the value which is 6000 which is considered to be bad by Powertop....
- 411
2
votes
2
answers
9k
views
Can't "auto tune" Powertop
I installed powertop and tried to run --auto-tune as I've seen that seems to be the suggested options, however I'm pretty sure it's not actually running.
I'm on a fresh Ubuntu installation and I'm ...
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How to resolve "unknown op" error with Powertop on Ubuntu 16.04?
when I type:
sudo powertop
I got the following error:
unknown op '{'
Model-specific registers (MSR) not found (try enabling CONFIG_X86_MSR).
read_msr ...
2
votes
3
answers
6k
views
How can I disable asus-nb-wmi when using battery power mode?
I'm trying to improve the battery life of my Asus U32U notebook. I'm running Ubuntu 12.04 64bit and using powertop it shows the following:
PowerTOP 1.97 Overview Idle stats Frequency stats ...
- 133
2
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Powertop systemd service failed to load
After my installing of powertop and calibrating it, I create systemd service with following text:
[Unit]
Description=Powertop tunings
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/powertop --auto-tune
[...
- 21
2
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Powertop is reporting 0 wakeups/second - can this be right? [closed]
I'm investigating tweaking my power consumption performance on Ubuntu. When I run Powertop, the output seems strange, and not much like any of the screenshots I see on the web. That might be ...
- 1,387
2
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Ubuntu 16.04 Skylake overheating
I recently bought a laptop boarding a skylake i7-6700hq processor, and I managed to install Ubuntu 16.04, however, I noticed that the laptop was overheating resulting to a very short battery life ...
- 51
2
votes
1
answer
350
views
Usage unit in Powertop
When I use the powertop utility, the Usage column values are measured in ms/s or us/s.
I'd assume the second s is second but what is the first s?
- 153
2
votes
1
answer
172
views
16.04 kernel Update breaks power saving - how to fix?
I used to have 7-9 hours of battery life on my system running 16.04LTS. But, recently, I noticed battery life halving to around 4.5 hours. It seems this has been going on since around May '18.
...
- 303
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
¨USB device: card reader¨ is draining the battery even if it is not used
I`ve installed Ubuntu on my MacBook Pro Retina 13 and I am trying to get the best battery life possible. I'm using PowerTop to manage what needs to be changed and pm-utils to save power.
PowerTop ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
521
views
Buggy powersave in Bionic 18.04
I'm having problems with the powersave mode, I hope someone can help ;D
PREVIEW INFO:
I have installed: tlp, powertop, nvidia privative drivers
When I start the laptop on battery mode the graphic ...
- 129
2
votes
1
answer
115
views
Processor Tunable status according to Powertop
I am absolutely new to the LINUX platform, since I just migrated to Ubuntu 13.10 from Windows8. I installed powertop so that I could assess my processor. The Tunables window of the output returned by ...
- 289
2
votes
3
answers
3k
views
Why does battery power drain quicker in Ubuntu compared to WIndows in Dell Inspiron? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why does my computer get less battery life with Ubuntu compared to Windows?
When I used Windows 7 with Dell Inspiron, I got a battery life of 2 hours. But ever since I ...
- 401
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Why shouldn't you enable laptop-mode when on AC power?
I'm looking at ways to reduce the amount of power used by my laptop, and one of the things I came across was enabling laptop-mode. Apparently this is enabled when I'm not on AC power, but I'd like to ...
- 2,228