You are not logged in.

#1 2020-05-27 18:19:28

pknox
Member
Registered: 2018-08-10
Posts: 11

[SOLVED] Display backlight consumes too much battery power

I use Arch Linux on Mi Notebook 13.3 2016, here's its Arch Wiki page.

I also use powertop to watch battery usage by hardware/process.

Here's powertop output:

The battery reports a discharge rate of 8.35 W
The power consumed was 161 J
The estimated remaining time is 2 hours, 52 minutes

Summary: 371.4 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 43.0% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  6.29 W     15.1%                      Device         Display backlight
  972 mW    343.0 ms/s       4.7        kWork          intel_atomic_commit_work
  247 mW      4.2 ms/s      82.6        Timer          tick_sched_timer
  213 mW      1.0 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)
  189 mW      2.1 ms/s      64.4        Interrupt      PS/2 Touchpad / Keyboard / Mouse
 97.0 mW      3.4 ms/s      30.7        Process        [PID 1064] /usr/bin/plasmashell
 93.6 mW     17.7 ms/s      15.5        Process        [PID 6140] spectacle
...

And here's another:

The battery reports a discharge rate of 12.8 W
The power consumed was 0.00 J
The estimated remaining time is 2 hours, 19 minutes

Summary: 1658.5 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 103.2% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  6.38 W     25.0%                      Device         Display backlight
  2.98 W    354.6 ms/s     829.7        Process        [PID 1093] /usr/bin/kwin_x11 -session 10148d0dbda000158611717500000006640006_1590513136_792683
  572 mW     11.2 ms/s     226.1        Timer          tick_sched_timer
  542 mW    166.0 ms/s      32.4        Process        [PID 1988] /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
  441 mW    136.0 ms/s      25.6        Process        [PID 793] /usr/lib/Xorg -nolisten tcp -auth /var/run/sddm/{fa0f9a91-1ed3-4f22-8c32-2c7bb87771e8} -background none -noreset -dis
...

The problem is that my laptop used to consume the battery with a rate of 4-5W with the same setup (you can also check this link to see other people are also able to get this much of battery usage). If its battery was 100% full, it was running up to 10 hours. No joke. I don't understand what's wrong with this Arch setup but it consumes too much power for display backlight. I installed this Arch with the same commands I use (same packages, same way, same ssd tables, everything is the same).

I tried a few solution that shared on various Arch forum topics, none of them helped. I tried to set acpi_backlight kernel parameter with the values vendor, video, native, none. My laptop has nvidia and intel gpus and I disabled nvidia with your helps.

$ cat /proc/modules  | grep -i nvidia
# nothing..

and:

$ ls /sys/class/backlight/
intel_backlight@

If I use acpi_backlight kernel parameter, for the video and vendor values the command above returns both the intel_backlight and the acpi_backlight (if I remember correctly. Since I have to reboot my laptop for each change to see the effect, I just trying to write what I remember, sorry).

I also tried to turn off the screen manually with this command:

xset dpms force off

Waited 30 seconds and then turned on the screen and checked the powertop results immediately to see how much battery is the "display backlight" consuming. Interesting results are here:

The battery reports a discharge rate of 7.56 W
The power consumed was 161 J
The estimated remaining time is 2 hours, 54 minutes

Summary: 204.2 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 1.5% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  178 mW      2.9 ms/s      61.0        Process        [PID 935] /usr/bin/plasmashell
  174 mW      0.8 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)
 76.3 mW    174.9 µs/s      26.7        Timer          tick_sched_timer
 23.2 mW    462.2 µs/s       7.9        Process        [PID 2055] /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
 16.1 mW      1.3 ms/s       5.0        Process        [PID 2046] /usr/lib/firefox/firefox
 12.0 mW     22.7 µs/s       4.2        kWork          psi_avgs_work
...

As you can see, the "display backlight" does not appear in the results above, so I guess I can assume powertop shows the amount of consumption of the display backlight correctly. But please check this line: "The battery reports a discharge rate of 7.56 W". There's nothing with high consumption on the list but it says there's still a rate of 7.56W consumption...

Can anyone please assist me to understand why the battery consumption of the device and the display backlight is high for this installation of my Arch Linux?

Note: I also use tlp with my custom configurations. I tried watching the battery with tlp disabled, there was a little increase in the consumption, no another change as I remember.

Last edited by pknox (2020-05-28 09:36:35)

Offline

#2 2020-05-28 00:44:08

sabroad
Member
Registered: 2015-05-24
Posts: 242

Re: [SOLVED] Display backlight consumes too much battery power

pknox wrote:

Can anyone please assist me to understand why the battery consumption of the device and the display backlight is high for this installation of my Arch Linux?

The "Power est." is just an estimate based on apportioning battery reported discharge rate to system activity. Calibrate powertop to improve this estimate with data points.

Once calibrated, check the CPU package is reaching pc6 states.

Last edited by sabroad (2020-05-28 00:46:03)


--
saint_abroad

Offline

#3 2020-05-28 01:02:04

sabroad
Member
Registered: 2015-05-24
Posts: 242

Re: [SOLVED] Display backlight consumes too much battery power

pknox wrote:

My laptop has nvidia and intel gpus and I disabled nvidia with your helps.

$ cat /proc/modules  | grep -i nvidia
# nothing..

It's not enough to disable the driver, because the BIOS has already enabled the GPU. Use bbswitch to fully power down the GPU.


--
saint_abroad

Offline

#4 2020-05-28 06:41:53

pknox
Member
Registered: 2018-08-10
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Display backlight consumes too much battery power

Hi @sabroad,

sabroad wrote:

It's not enough to disable the driver, because the BIOS has already enabled the GPU. Use bbswitch to fully power down the GPU.

I already used bbswitch actually. But there was some problems aabout it and I asked for help in another topic, I got a suggestion to disable nvidia modules with the configuration below which helped. After this post, I'll continue working on it by reading the wiki link you provided.

# /etc/modprobe.d/nvidia-blacklist.conf
install nvidia /usr/bin/true
install nvidia_modeset /usr/bin/true
install nvidia_drm /usr/bin/true
sabroad wrote:

The "Power est." is just an estimate based on apportioning battery reported discharge rate to system activity. Calibrate powertop to improve this estimate with data points.

Once calibrated, check the CPU package is reaching pc6 states.

I calibrated the powertop again (--calibrate) and used --auto-tune and created a systemd service for it to run on startup. It helped a bit to descrease battery usage.

I think it can't reach pc6 states. Here's the powertop results about that:

           Pkg(HW)  |            Core(HW) |            CPU(OS) 0
                    |                     | C0 active   3.0%
                    |                     | POLL        0.0%    0.0 ms
                    |                     | C1          0.1%    0.1 ms
C2 (pc2)   13.0%    |                     |
C3 (pc3)    2.3%    | C3 (cc3)    0.1%    | C3          0.2%    0.1 ms
C6 (pc6)    1.4%    | C6 (cc6)    2.5%    | C6          2.8%    0.5 ms
C7 (pc7)    0.0%    | C7 (cc7)   88.2%    | C7s         0.0%    0.9 ms
C8 (pc8)   69.0%    |                     | C8         13.1%    1.1 ms
C9 (pc9)    0.0%    |                     | C9          5.3%    1.7 ms
C10 (pc10)  0.0%    |                     |
                    |                     | C10        71.4%    5.1 ms
                    |                     | C1E         0.4%    0.3 ms

                    |            Core(HW) |            CPU(OS) 1
                    |                     | C0 active   2.6%
                    |                     | POLL        0.0%    0.0 ms
                    |                     | C1          0.1%    0.7 ms
                    |                     |
                    | C3 (cc3)    0.1%    | C3          0.1%    0.2 ms
                    | C6 (cc6)    1.8%    | C6          2.0%    0.5 ms
                    | C7 (cc7)   90.9%    | C7s         0.0%    0.0 ms
                    |                     | C8          8.2%    1.2 ms
                    |                     | C9          0.2%    3.4 ms
                    |                     |
                    |                     | C10        83.3%   15.3 ms
                    |                     | C1E         0.7%    0.5 ms

                    |             GPU     |
                    |                     |
                    | Powered On  4.5%    |
                    | RC6        95.5%    |
                    | RC6p        0.0%    |
                    | RC6pp       0.0%    |
                    |                     |
                    |                     |
                    |                     |
                    |                     |
                    |                     |

I don't really understand what it means. I started to read about it but a bit confusing for me. Can you please explain why did you ask about pc6 state and what's wrong about it for my installation? Here's my tlp-stat:

$ sudo tlp-stat
--- TLP 1.3.1 --------------------------------------------

+++ Configured Settings:
/etc/tlp.conf L0026: TLP_ENABLE="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0038: TLP_PERSISTENT_DEFAULT="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0050: DISK_IDLE_SECS_ON_AC="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0051: DISK_IDLE_SECS_ON_BAT="2"
/etc/tlp.conf L0056: MAX_LOST_WORK_SECS_ON_AC="15"
/etc/tlp.conf L0057: MAX_LOST_WORK_SECS_ON_BAT="60"
defaults.conf L0010: CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_AC="balance_performance"
defaults.conf L0011: CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_BAT="balance_power"
/etc/tlp.conf L0128: SCHED_POWERSAVE_ON_AC="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0129: SCHED_POWERSAVE_ON_BAT="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0135: NMI_WATCHDOG="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0150: DISK_DEVICES="nvme0n1 sda"
/etc/tlp.conf L0158: DISK_APM_LEVEL_ON_AC="254 254"
/etc/tlp.conf L0159: DISK_APM_LEVEL_ON_BAT="128 128"
defaults.conf L0018: DISK_IOSCHED="keep keep"
/etc/tlp.conf L0198: SATA_LINKPWR_ON_AC="med_power_with_dipm max_performance"
/etc/tlp.conf L0199: SATA_LINKPWR_ON_BAT="med_power_with_dipm min_power"
defaults.conf L0021: AHCI_RUNTIME_PM_TIMEOUT="15"
defaults.conf L0022: PCIE_ASPM_ON_AC="default"
defaults.conf L0023: PCIE_ASPM_ON_BAT="default"
defaults.conf L0024: RADEON_POWER_PROFILE_ON_AC="default"
defaults.conf L0025: RADEON_POWER_PROFILE_ON_BAT="default"
defaults.conf L0026: RADEON_DPM_PERF_LEVEL_ON_AC="auto"
defaults.conf L0027: RADEON_DPM_PERF_LEVEL_ON_BAT="auto"
/etc/tlp.conf L0264: WIFI_PWR_ON_AC="off"
/etc/tlp.conf L0265: WIFI_PWR_ON_BAT="on"
/etc/tlp.conf L0270: WOL_DISABLE="Y"
/etc/tlp.conf L0276: SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_AC="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0277: SOUND_POWER_SAVE_ON_BAT="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0283: SOUND_POWER_SAVE_CONTROLLER="Y"
defaults.conf L0034: BAY_POWEROFF_ON_AC="0"
defaults.conf L0035: BAY_POWEROFF_ON_BAT="0"
defaults.conf L0036: BAY_DEVICE="sr0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0302: RUNTIME_PM_ON_AC="on"
/etc/tlp.conf L0303: RUNTIME_PM_ON_BAT="auto"
/etc/tlp.conf L0318: RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_BLACKLIST="nouveau nvidia"
/etc/tlp.conf L0323: USB_AUTOSUSPEND="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0336: USB_BLACKLIST_BTUSB="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0342: USB_BLACKLIST_PHONE="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0348: USB_BLACKLIST_PRINTER="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0354: USB_BLACKLIST_WWAN="0"
defaults.conf L0045: USB_AUTOSUSPEND_DISABLE_ON_SHUTDOWN="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0374: RESTORE_DEVICE_STATE_ON_STARTUP="0"
defaults.conf L0047: RESTORE_THRESHOLDS_ON_BAT="0"
defaults.conf L0048: NATACPI_ENABLE="1"
defaults.conf L0049: TPACPI_ENABLE="1"
defaults.conf L0050: TPSMAPI_ENABLE="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0032: TLP_DEFAULT_MODE="BAT"
/etc/tlp.conf L0076: CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_AC="powersave"
/etc/tlp.conf L0077: CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT="powersave"
/etc/tlp.conf L0086: CPU_SCALING_MIN_FREQ_ON_BAT="200000"
/etc/tlp.conf L0087: CPU_SCALING_MAX_FREQ_ON_BAT="1500000"
/etc/tlp.conf L0111: CPU_MIN_PERF_ON_BAT="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0112: CPU_MAX_PERF_ON_BAT="30"
/etc/tlp.conf L0121: CPU_BOOST_ON_AC="1"
/etc/tlp.conf L0122: CPU_BOOST_ON_BAT="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0235: INTEL_GPU_MIN_FREQ_ON_BAT="0"
/etc/tlp.conf L0237: INTEL_GPU_MAX_FREQ_ON_BAT="600"
/etc/tlp.conf L0239: INTEL_GPU_BOOST_FREQ_ON_BAT="800"
/etc/tlp.conf L0380: DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP="bluetooth wwan"
/etc/tlp.conf L0408: DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_BAT="bluetooth wwan"
/etc/tlp.conf L0414: DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_BAT_NOT_IN_USE="bluetooth wifi wwan"
/etc/tlp.conf L0456: DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_WIFI_CONNECT="wwan"

+++ System Info
System         = Timi A07 TM1613
BIOS           = A07
Kernel         = 5.6.4-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT Mon, 13 Apr 2020 12:21:19 +0000 x86_64
/proc/cmdline  = BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/mapper/volgroup0-root rw cryptdevice=UUID=11b8dd40eb15-edf3-49cd-8b42-11b8dd40eb15:cryptlvm root=/dev/volgroup0/root resume=/dev/volgroup0/swap loglevel=3 l1tf=full,force mds=full,nosmt mitigations=auto,nosmt nosmt=force quiet
Init system    = systemd 
Boot mode      = UEFI

+++ TLP Status
State          = enabled
RDW state      = enabled
Last run       = 08:53:24 AM,   2508 sec(s) ago
Mode           = battery (persistent)
Power source   = battery

+++ Processor
CPU model      = Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-6200U CPU @ 2.30GHz

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_driver    = intel_pstate
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor  = powersave
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors = performance powersave
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq  =   400000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq  =   400000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference = balance_power [HWP.EPP]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/energy_performance_available_preferences = default performance balance_performance balance_power power 

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_driver    = intel_pstate
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor  = powersave
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_available_governors = performance powersave
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_min_freq  =   400000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_max_freq  =  1500000 [kHz]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/energy_performance_preference = balance_power [HWP.EPP]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/energy_performance_available_preferences = default performance balance_performance balance_power power 

/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/min_perf_pct      =  14 [%]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/max_perf_pct      =  30 [%]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/no_turbo          =   1
/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/turbo_pct         =  21 [%]
/sys/devices/system/cpu/intel_pstate/num_pstates       =  25

/sys/module/workqueue/parameters/power_efficient       = Y
/proc/sys/kernel/nmi_watchdog                          = 0

+++ Temperatures
CPU temp               =    43 [°C]
Fan speed              = (not available)

+++ File System
/proc/sys/vm/laptop_mode               =     2
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_writeback_centisecs =  1500
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_expire_centisecs    =  6000
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_ratio               =    20
/proc/sys/vm/dirty_background_ratio    =    10

+++ Storage Devices
Devices = nvme0n1 sda

/dev/nvme0n1:
  Type      = NVMe
  Model     = SAMSUNG MZVLW256HEHP-00000              
  Firmware  = CXB7401Q
  Scheduler = [none] mq-deadline kyber bfq (multi queue)

  Runtime PM: control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = (not available)

  SMART info:
    Critical Warning:                   0x00
    Temperature:                        32 Celsius
    Available Spare:                    100%
    Available Spare Threshold:          10%
    Percentage Used:                    0%
    Data Units Written:                 5,226,775 [2.67 TB]
    Power Cycles:                       1,801
    Power On Hours:                     286
    Unsafe Shutdowns:                   97
    Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0

/dev/sda: not present.

+++ AHCI Link Power Management (ALPM)
/sys/class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policy  = min_power
/sys/class/scsi_host/host1/link_power_management_policy  = min_power

+++ AHCI Host Controller Runtime Power Management
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:17.0/ata1/power/control = auto
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:17.0/ata2/power/control = auto

+++ Intel Graphics
/sys/module/i915/parameters/enable_dc        = -1 (use per-chip default)
/sys/module/i915/parameters/enable_fbc       =  1 (enabled)
/sys/module/i915/parameters/enable_psr       = -1 (use per-chip default)
/sys/module/i915/parameters/modeset          = -1 (use per-chip default)

/sys/class/drm/card0/gt_min_freq_mhz         =   300 [MHz]
/sys/class/drm/card0/gt_max_freq_mhz         =   600 [MHz]
/sys/class/drm/card0/gt_boost_freq_mhz       =   800 [MHz]
/sys/kernel/debug/dri/0/i915_ring_freq_table: 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 1000 [MHz] 

+++ Wireless
bluetooth = none (no device)
wifi      = on
wwan      = none (no device)

wlp2s0(iwlwifi)               : wifi, connected, power management = on

+++ Audio
/sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save            = 1
/sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller = Y

+++ PCIe Active State Power Management
/sys/module/pcie_aspm/parameters/policy = [default] performance powersave powersupersave (using BIOS preferences)

+++ Runtime Power Management
Device blacklist = (not configured)
Driver blacklist = nouveau nvidia

/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:00.0/power/control = auto (0x060000, Host bridge, skl_uncore)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:02.0/power/control = auto (0x030000, VGA compatible controller, i915)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:14.0/power/control = auto (0x0c0330, USB controller, xhci_hcd)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:16.0/power/control = auto (0x078000, Communication controller, mei_me)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:17.0/power/control = auto (0x010601, SATA controller, ahci)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.0/power/control = auto (0x060400, PCI bridge, pcieport)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.4/power/control = auto (0x060400, PCI bridge, pcieport)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1d.0/power/control = auto (0x060400, PCI bridge, pcieport)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.0/power/control = auto (0x060100, ISA bridge, no driver)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/power/control = auto (0x058000, Memory controller, no driver)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.3/power/control = auto (0x040300, Audio device, snd_hda_intel)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.4/power/control = auto (0x0c0500, SMBus, i801_smbus)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/control = auto (0x030200, 3D controller, no driver)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/power/control = auto (0x028000, Network controller, iwlwifi)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:03:00.0/power/control = auto (0x010802, Non-Volatile memory controller, nvme)

+++ USB
Autosuspend         = enabled
Device whitelist    = (not configured)
Device blacklist    = (not configured)
Bluetooth blacklist = disabled
Phone blacklist     = disabled
WWAN blacklist      = disabled

Bus 002 Device 001 ID 1d6b:0003 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms =    0 -- Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub (hub)
Bus 001 Device 003 ID 8087:0a2b control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Intel Corp.  (no driver)
Bus 001 Device 002 ID 05c8:03a2 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co., Ltd (Foxlink) XiaoMi USB 2.0 Webcam (no driver)
Bus 001 Device 001 ID 1d6b:0002 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms =    0 -- Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub (hub)

+++ Battery Features: Charge Thresholds and Recalibrate
natacpi    = inactive (laptop not supported)
tpacpi-bat = inactive (laptop not supported)
tp-smapi   = inactive (laptop not supported)

+++ Battery Status: BAT0
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer                   = CPT-COS
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name                     = R13
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count                    = (not supported)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_full_design             =   5230 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_full                    =   4195 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_now                     =   3586 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/current_now                    =    518 [mA]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status                         = Discharging

Charge                                                      =   85.5 [%]
Capacity                                                    =   80.2 [%]

Last edited by pknox (2020-05-28 06:45:55)

Offline

#5 2020-05-28 09:35:41

pknox
Member
Registered: 2018-08-10
Posts: 11

Re: [SOLVED] Display backlight consumes too much battery power

OK I achieved to stabilize the battery consumption on a rate of 3-4W. Thank you @sabroad smile (If it's possible, I still need to understand what do you mean with "Once calibrated, check the CPU package is reaching pc6 states.")

Here's the upower -d output while I writing this post on Firefox:

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/DisplayDevice
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Thu 28 May 2020 12:28:15 PM +03 (27 seconds ago)
  has history:          no
  has statistics:       no
  battery
    present:             yes
    state:               discharging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              22.0531 Wh
    energy-full:         32.1337 Wh
    energy-rate:         3.03336 W
    time to empty:       7.3 hours
    percentage:          68%
    icon-name:          'battery-full-symbolic'

and powertop output:

The battery reports a discharge rate of 3.22 W
The power consumed was 0.00 J
The estimated remaining time is 7 hours, 8 minutes

Summary: 55.3 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 0.7% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  7.12 W     10.0%                      Device         Display backlight
  135 mW      0.0 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)
 13.6 mW      4.2 ms/s      10.9        Process        [PID 1894] powertop
 12.0 mW    178.0 µs/s      16.8        Timer          tick_sched_timer
 4.28 mW     86.6 µs/s       5.9        Process        [PID 532] [irq/133-iwlwifi]
 3.20 mW    301.7 µs/s       3.9        kWork          handle_update
...

Did you see something interesting? Power estimating for Display backlight is still around 5-7W. So @sabroad was right.

Here's what I did:

1. I saw that I need to create a bbswitch.conf file in /etc/modules-load.d/ to make the bbswitch able to work without bumblebee (I use bbswitch to disable nvidia gpu to use only intel gpu, it reduces the battery consumption). This is required to load bbswitch on startup. After that, you can create another required file, "/etc/modprobe.d/bbswitch.conf" with the value "options bbswitch load_state=0 unload_state=1". 

2. I also set these configurations in /etc/tlp.conf:

...
INTEL_GPU_MIN_FREQ_ON_BAT=0
INTEL_GPU_MAX_FREQ_ON_BAT=400
INTEL_GPU_BOOST_FREQ_ON_BAT=500
...

Do not forget to check your cpu's available frequencies with

tlp-stat -g

.

3. Created a powertop.service to make sure it automatically runs tuning settings:

$ cat /etc/systemd/system/powertop.service 
[Unit]
Description=Powertop tunings

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/powertop --auto-tune

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Do not forget to enable it with systemctl enable powertop.service.

5. Check your blacklist configurations in /etc/modprobe.d/. You may still want to blacklist nvidia and nouveau. Here's my file:

$ cat /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf 
blacklist acer_wmi
blacklist btusb
blacklist bluetooth
blacklist uvcvideo
blacklist nvidia
blacklist nouveau

6. After a reboot, you can check if bbswitch is loaded and returns an appropriate output:

$ cat /proc/acpi/bbswitch
0000:01:00.0 OFF

That's all I remember. Hope that helps anyone who needs.

Last edited by pknox (2020-05-28 09:40:34)

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB