Power usage issues with 20.3 on Toshiba Z930

[etoimene]

Dear all,

i have recently installed 20.3 instead of Windows on Toshiba Portege Z930 and have issue with power usage ever since.
Installed battery is 6 months old and I had over 6h battery life with Windows.

Right now, battery monitor reports below 2h.

I played with powertop, tlp and https://github.com/AdnanHodzic/auto-cpufreq (put it in powersave) and managed to lower power baseline by almost 5W but it is still reported above 11W.

I could live with all that but my laptop is very hot and fan working quite loudly.

Powertop says:

Code: Select all

Summary: 631,4 wakeups/second,  0,0 GPU ops/seconds, 0,0 VFS ops/sec and 23,4% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  2.99 W      4,6 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)
  1.39 W      0,0 pkts/s                Device         nic:virbr0
  1.12 W    100,0%                      Device         USB device: USB Optical Mouse (Logitech)
  1.33 W      2,3 ms/s     176,4   Timer          tick_sched_timer
  

I disabled virbr0 with

Code: Select all

sudo ip link set dev virbr0 down

and it's a bit better but I am still seeing incredibly high power usage for basically open browser with 5 tabs.

Code: Select all

:~$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:    Kernel: 5.4.0-121-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.4.0 Desktop: MATE 1.26.0 
           info: mate-panel wm: marco 1.26.0 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una 
           base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: PORTEGE Z930 v: PT235E-03U05PY4 serial: <filter> Chassis: 
           type: 10 v: Version 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: TOSHIBA model: PORTEGE Z930 v: Version A0 serial: <filter> BIOS: TOSHIBA v: Version 7.00 
           date: 08/06/2018 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT1 charge: 24.9 Wh condition: 24.9/32.3 Wh (77%) volts: 15.1/14.8 model: G71C000FH210 
           type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-3437U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Ivy Bridge rev: 9 
           L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 19155 
           Speed: 798 MHz min/max: 768/1901 MHz boost: disabled Core speeds (MHz): 1: 798 2: 798 3: 798 4: 798 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Toshiba driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0166 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa compositor: marco 
           v: 1.26.0 resolution: 1366x768~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 4000 (IVB GT2) v: 4.2 Mesa 21.2.6 compat-v: 3.0 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel 7 Series/C216 Family High Definition Audio vendor: Toshiba driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1b.0 chip ID: 8086:1e20 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-121-generic 
Network:   Device-1: Intel 82579LM Gigabit Network vendor: Toshiba driver: e1000e v: 3.2.6-k port: 2080 
           bus ID: 00:19.0 chip ID: 8086:1502 
           IF: enp0s25 state: down mac: <filter> 
           Device-2: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 2060 bus ID: 02:00.0 
           chip ID: 8086:088e 
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-1: virbr0 state: down mac: <filter> 
           IF-ID-2: virbr0-nic state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 267.91 GiB used: 126.94 GiB (47.4%) 
           ID-1: /dev/mmcblk0 model: SD size: 29.44 GiB serial: <filter> scheme: MBR 
           ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: Micron model: MT-256 size: 238.47 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> 
           rev: 230 temp: 53 C scheme: MBR 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 79.55 GiB used: 18.95 GiB (23.8%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5 
           ID-2: /boot size: 944.6 MiB used: 314.8 MiB (33.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-3: /home size: 139.13 GiB used: 85.23 GiB (61.3%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda7 
           ID-4: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda6 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 64.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:     No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/ubuntu/ focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/anydesk-stable.list 
           1: deb http://deb.anydesk.com/ all main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/deadsnakes-ppa-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/deadsnakes/ppa/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/git-core-ppa-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/git-core/ppa/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/libreoffice-ppa-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/libreoffice/ppa/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/linuxuprising-shutter-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/linuxuprising/shutter/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nextcloud-devs-client-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nextcloud-devs/client/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
           1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com una main upstream import backport
           2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
           3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
           4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
           5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
           6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/pgdg.list 
           1: deb https://apt.postgresql.org/pub/repos/apt/ focal-pgdg main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/phoerious-keepassxc-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/phoerious/keepassxc/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/serge-rider-dbeaver-ce-focal.list 
           1: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/serge-rider/dbeaver-ce/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian focal contrib
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-focal.sources 
           1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/winehq-jammy.sources 
           1: deb [arch=amd64 i386] https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu jammy main
Info:      Processes: 274 Uptime: 1h 01m Memory: 5.68 GiB used: 2.44 GiB (42.9%) Init: systemd v: 245 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.4.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash v: 5.0.17 running in: mate-terminal inxi: 3.0.38

Any suggestions highly appreciated!

Is there a way to reduce mouse and WiFi power usage?

[AZgl1800]

I have not made direct test measurements, but it is my impression that 20.3 is not as efficient as 19.3 was on my laptop.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxxxrz
System:    Kernel: 5.13.0-51-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A Desktop: Cinnamon 5.2.7 wm: muffin 5.2.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
           Distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:   Type: Laptop System: ASUSTeK product: TUF Gaming FX705GM_FX705GM v: 1.0 serial: <filter> 
           Mobo: ASUSTeK model: FX705GM v: 1.0 serial: <filter> UEFI: American Megatrends v: FX705GM.307 date: 05/25/2020 
Battery:   ID-1: BAT0 charge: 50.0 Wh condition: 50.0/64.1 Wh (78%) volts: 16.5/15.6 model: Simplo SDI ICR18650 type: Li-ion 
           serial: <filter> status: Full cycles: 41 
           Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M510 serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) 
           rechargeable: yes status: Discharging 
CPU:       Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i7-8750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake rev: A L2 cache: 9216 KiB 
           flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 52799 
           Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 808 2: 3684 3: 2442 4: 1633 5: 800 6: 1198 7: 800 8: 800 
           9: 800 10: 800 11: 1011 12: 800 

[etoimene]

Not comforting.

BTW, you have much higher kernel version. Maybe that is worth investigating - if I got it correctly, kernel should take care of power usage for WiFi and co.

Kernel upgrade to

Code: Select all

uname -r
5.15.0-33-generic

WiFi power use even worse.
powertop output:

Code: Select all

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  7.37 W      5,3 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)

[etoimene]

Would it be worth investigating "can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control"?
What does that mean?

I think it is loading correct driver.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en ... eless.html

Code: Select all

dmesg | grep iwl
[    6.045226] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: can't disable ASPM; OS doesn't have ASPM control
[    6.110571] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 18.168.6.1 6000g2b-6.ucode op_mode iwldvm
[    6.189832] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUG disabled
[    6.189839] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEBUGFS enabled
[    6.189842] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: CONFIG_IWLWIFI_DEVICE_TRACING enabled
[    6.189845] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Centrino(R) Advanced-N 6235 AGN, REV=0xB0
[    6.231622] ieee80211 phy0: Selected rate control algorithm 'iwl-agn-rs'
[    6.821506] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: renamed from wlan0
[    8.187293] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x2-0x1-0x0
[    8.496775] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x2-0x1-0x0
[ 3236.945769] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x2-0x1-0x0
[ 3237.257478] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Radio type=0x2-0x1-0x0

[etoimene]

This parm: force_cam:force continuously aware mode (no power saving at all) (bool) could be an issue.

Code: Select all

modinfo iwldvm
filename:       /lib/modules/5.15.0-33-generic/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/intel/iwlwifi/dvm/iwldvm.ko
license:        GPL
author:         Intel Corporation <linuxwifi@intel.com>
description:    Intel(R) Wireless WiFi Link AGN driver for Linux
srcversion:     88AC24AEB384187BC2DA43E
depends:        mac80211,iwlwifi,cfg80211
retpoline:      Y
intree:         Y
name:           iwldvm
vermagic:       5.15.0-33-generic SMP mod_unload modversions 
sig_id:         PKCS#7
signer:         Build time autogenerated kernel key
....
parm:           force_cam:force continuously aware mode (no power saving at all) (bool)

[etoimene]

https://wireless.wiki.kernel.org/en/use ... rs/iwlwifi

Power management
Starting from 3.17, power management has been disabled in iwldvm because users reported it improved the behavior and was a valid work around for issues. The commit that disabled power management is here.

To enable manually power management, you can set the following module parameters to these values: iwlwifi.power_save=Y and iwldvm.force_cam=N.

[Marie SWE]

Thanks Marie!

I tried autocpufreq and doesn't help much with WiFi.

You might want to chime in at viewtopic.php?f=18&t=376766

The problem is that I don't use Mint myself, I run Debian stable.. so there is a lot of things that is destro specific that I'm outdated... the last Mint distro I used was Mint 18.3 and LMDE3 and now it is 20.3 and LMDE5.. so a lot of things have changed.

When it comes to your mouse is it an external or the touchpad? . If it is an external then it is up to the hardware circuits how much current they draw.. so that will be the same in Win and Linux..

For the wifi.. I don't use wifi myself, i disable my wificards in Bios.. I only use Lan cable at home and when I am away then I use a mobile internet as public hotspots is a security risk.
I don't know if Mint have some sort of wifi card management for powersaving.. but you have a lot of Mint Gurus in here that have that knowledge.

I did take a look at you laptops manual and from page 81 and forwards there was some short mention about some sort of power saving settings in bios
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/59426 ... =81#manual
I don't know if that can be of some help

Then you need to keep in mind.. Linux isn't windows.. almost all manufacturers as HP, Dell, Nvidia, Logitech and so on and so on they make their drivers and software for windows.. a small amount of exceptions is what make the rule. So Linux is using more power then windows as the powersaving drivers from the manufacturers is to windows.
Then Linux is a server OS and all the distributions are build on that.. just that you have a Desktop environment and a lot of apps/packages to make it to a Desktop OS.

I do see that your CPU is running on 64C
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 64.0 C mobo: N/A
So on that i wonder if you have something that is using the CPU.. that you can see in system monitor.
If your cpu is idling and you have 64C is a bit hot in my opinion..... It can be dust, or it can be old cooling paste.
When I started using Mint i notice that Mate was running hot and i switched to Xfce to solve it.
Here is my Mint thread on that one. viewtopic.php?f=49&t=275132 I was soooo new on Linux then.

I'm sorry that I can't contribute more to your thread. I will follow your thread and see if you solves it.
Good luck
//Marie

[etoimene]

Thanks! Many good pointers.

I also think CPU is a bit hot but I don't see anything using a lot of it (htop)
At least I managed to get that bit down so the fan is not going wild any more.

Mouse is external - less W used when I unplug it. It just surprised me.

I'll open it and clean and maybe replace thermal paste. Got that suggestion from some other sources too.

I'll also see how it behaves with xfce.

Power saving in BIOS is set to dynamic from day one. Not much else I could do there.

Regarding driver, it is mostly Intel, and if I got that correctly Intel works on it's drivers for Linux.

Right now, powertop identfies WiFi as the main culprit. I'll dig in there.

[etoimene]

Tried xfce.

powertop shows slighly better CPU use

Code: Select all

Summary: 824,6 wakeups/second,  0,0 GPU ops/seconds, 0,0 VFS ops/sec and 10,9% CPU use

Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi) shows mW
but had to shut down virbr0 which was consuming 2-3W.

auto-cpufreq still shows high CPU temperature.

Code: Select all

Total CPU usage: 6.3 %
Total system load: 0.63
Average temp. of all cores: 65.50 °C 

No fan can be heard so it was maybe that high with Windows too but I don't remember it beeing that hot (and the whole keyboard is rather warm).

Next step fan cleaning and thermal paste change.

[etoimene]

I've noticed that no matter what I do my CPUs frequency rarely drops below max 1901 MHz, even with machine totally idle.

I have chosen performance governor in my config file, but only performance and powersave governors were available when I checked (don't remember which commmand.

According to auto-cpufreq config file example https://github.com/AdnanHodzic/auto-cpufreq
it can be

Code: Select all

:~/auto-cpufreq/scripts$ cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors
conservative ondemand userspace powersave performance schedutil 

I am going to try ondemand.

Code: Select all

:~$ sudo auto-cpufreq --debug

Using settings defined in /etc/auto-cpufreq.conf file

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linux distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una
Linux kernel: 5.15.0-33-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3437U CPU @ 1.90GHz
Cores: 4
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: acpi-cpufreq

------------------------------ Current CPU stats ------------------------------

CPU max frequency: 1901 MHz
CPU min frequency: 768 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	  2.0%     58 °C     1901 MHz
CPU1:	  2.0%     58 °C     1901 MHz
CPU2:	  2.0%     52 °C     1405 MHz
CPU3:	  0.0%     52 °C     1901 MHz

auto-cpufreq version: 1.9.4

Python: 3.8.10
psutil package: 5.9.1
platform package: 1.0.8
click package: 8.1.3
distro package: 1.7.0

Computer type: Notebook
Battery is: charging

auto-cpufreq system resource consumption:
cpu usage: 0.0 %
memory use: 0.36 %

Total CPU usage: 1.8 %
Total system load: 0.07
Average temp. of all cores: 55.00 °C 

Currently using: performance governor
Currently turbo boost is: off

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[etoimene]

Looks like CPU part of consumption is resolved. CPUs changing frequency now.

I can still see noticable difference with WiFi on or off.

Code: Select all

sudo auto-cpufreq --debug

Using settings defined in /etc/auto-cpufreq.conf file

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Linux distro: Linux Mint 20.3 Una
Linux kernel: 5.15.0-33-generic
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-3437U CPU @ 1.90GHz
Cores: 4
Architecture: x86_64
Driver: acpi-cpufreq

------------------------------ Current CPU stats ------------------------------

CPU max frequency: 1901 MHz
CPU min frequency: 768 MHz

Core	Usage	Temperature	Frequency
CPU0:	  2.0%     56 °C      800 MHz
CPU1:	  1.0%     56 °C      871 MHz
CPU2:	  1.0%     49 °C      800 MHz
CPU3:	  1.0%     49 °C      900 MHz

auto-cpufreq version: 1.9.4

Python: 3.8.10
psutil package: 5.9.1
platform package: 1.0.8
click package: 8.1.3
distro package: 1.7.0

Computer type: Notebook
Battery is: charging

auto-cpufreq system resource consumption:
cpu usage: 0.0 %
memory use: 0.36 %

Total CPU usage: 2.3 %
Total system load: 0.25
Average temp. of all cores: 52.50 °C 

Currently using: ondemand governor
Currently turbo boost is: on

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[etoimene]

I have chosen performance governor in my config file, but only performance and powersave governors were available when I checked (don't remember which commmand.

https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/ ... state.html says
"There are two P-state selection algorithms provided by intel_pstate in the active mode: powersave and performance. "

[etoimene]

WiFi keeps coming back.

Code: Select all

Summary: 752,5 wakeups/second,  0,0 GPU ops/seconds, 0,0 VFS ops/sec and 21,2% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  9.01 W      7,4 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)

[Petermint]

Interesting problem. I did not see anything like that on a Z830 which is almost identical. I used Cinnamon with effects switched off. The Wifi did eat some extra power but I usually had the machine near the Wifi source and the Wifi ran at a minimal setting. The Wifi chip in your machine appears to be one of the few differences. I suspect that when you get the right settings working for the Wifi, you can remove all the CPU fiddles.

One of the things I found useful for similar power problems on other machines is to clean boot then run dmesg and look for any messages in red. You might see config problems.

After that, look at the tasks running. System Monitor. Processes. Then start applications one at a time to see if an application starts something in the background. For Web browsing, I use Noscript and equivalents to stop Javascript spyware swamping every CPU core.

[etoimene]

I have still not figured out why WiFi is reporting so much power usage.

Also, despite CPU use being low, I can feel it's rather warm so not 100% sure this could not be better.

[etoimene]

I am getting much lower WiFi power usage lately. Backlight took over.

Code: Select all

Summary: 400,8 wakeups/second,  0,0 GPU ops/seconds, 0,0 VFS ops/sec and 16,0% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  9.00 W     20,0%                      Device         Display backlight
  207 mW      1,9 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)

I have done nothing I am aware of. There were some installs/removes for some file managers and image viewers.

[Petermint]

better reception? Wifi and Bluetooth can adjust broadcast power when reception is good.

[etoimene]

Hm, based on what? I am at the same position.
Bluetooth is turned off, BTW.

[etoimene]

Some new discoveries.

https://hobo.house/2015/12/18/linux-lap ... -powertop/
tuned-adm
cpupower (from linux-intel-iotg-5.15-tools-common)
Disable your ethernet kernel module

I'll experiment with these and report back here.

[etoimene]

Might be relevant to someone.
Fan was blocked, so it was very hot around the heat sink.
viewtopic.php?p=2248555#p2248555

Power consumption around 10W.

I found that i915 support isn't that great so that might be a culprit too.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 9#p1037029
Tried playing with kernel parameters but not much difference.