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Vogel612

Member

Registered: 2017-08-10

Posts: 4

[Solved] Which Laptop Mode Tools module overwrites vm.dirty_ratio?

I have had issues with my laptop becoming unresponsive at full disk level. I had narrowed the issue down to the following kernel parameters:

vm.dirty_ratio=40
vm.dirty_background_ratio=10

To remedy this I created the file

/etc/sysctl.d/99-sysctl.conf

specifying a dirty_ratio of 5 and a dirty_background_ratio of 2.

When booting the system on ac power, this configuration is applied correctly. As soon as I unplug the laptop, Laptop Mode Tools starts up and resets the kernel parameters to the previously mentioned values.

While the wiki page does mention Hard Drives, the list of available modules does not include anything that would strike me as directly responsible...

Which Laptop Mode Tools module overwrites the virtual memory kernel parameters?

I checked each of the modules available under /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d manually for anything that would overwrite the kernel params, but could not find obvious culprits.

Currently the modules are configured as follows:

% grep -r '^\(CONTROL\|ENABLE\)_' /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/sched-smt-power-savings.conf:CONTROL_SCHED_SMT_POWER_SAVINGS="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/exec-commands.conf:CONTROL_EXEC_COMMANDS="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/eee-superhe.conf:CONTROL_SUPERHE="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/sched-mc-power-savings.conf:CONTROL_SCHED_MC_POWER_SAVINGS="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/cpufreq.conf:CONTROL_CPU_FREQUENCY="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/cpufreq.conf:CONTROL_CPU_THROTTLING=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/intel_pstate.conf:CONTROL_INTEL_PSTATE="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/lcd-brightness.conf:CONTROL_BRIGHTNESS=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/bluetooth.conf:CONTROL_BLUETOOTH=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/ac97-powersave.conf:CONTROL_AC97_POWER="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/intel-sata-powermgmt.conf:CONTROL_INTEL_SATA_POWER="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/intel-sata-powermgmt.conf:CONTROL_AHCI_RUNTIME_PM=1
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/configuration-file-control.conf:CONTROL_CONFIG_FILES=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/runtime-pm.conf:CONTROL_RUNTIME_AUTOSUSPEND=1
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/hal-polling.conf:CONTROL_HAL_POLLING="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/video-out.conf:CONTROL_VIDEO_OUTPUTS=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/wireless-ipw-power.conf:CONTROL_IPW_POWER="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/pcie-aspm.conf:CONTROL_PCIE_ASPM="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/start-stop-programs.conf:CONTROL_START_STOP=1
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/ethernet.conf:CONTROL_ETHERNET="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/nmi-watchdog.conf:CONTROL_NMI_WATCHDOG="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/wireless-iwl-power.conf:CONTROL_IWL_POWER="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/battery-level-polling.conf:CONTROL_BATTERY_LEVEL_POLLING=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/dpms-standby.conf:CONTROL_DPMS_STANDBY="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/radeon-dpm.conf:CONTROL_RADEON_DPM="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/kbd-backlight.conf:CONTROL_KBDLIGHT=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/intel-hda-powersave.conf:CONTROL_INTEL_HDA_POWER="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/terminal-blanking.conf:CONTROL_TERMINAL="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/cpuhotplug.conf:CONTROL_CPU_HOTPLUG=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/auto-hibernate.conf:ENABLE_AUTO_HIBERNATION=0
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/wireless-power.conf:CONTROL_WIRELESS_POWER_SAVING="auto"
/etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/vgaswitcheroo.conf:CONTROL_VGASWITCHEROO=0

Last edited by Vogel612 (2017-08-10 21:16:41)

progandy

Member

Registered: 2012-05-17

Posts: 5,201

Re: [Solved] Which Laptop Mode Tools module overwrites vm.dirty_ratio?

That is part of the main module
https://manned.org/laptop-mode.conf.8 -> search for LM_DIRTY_RATIO

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Vogel612

Member

Registered: 2017-08-10

Posts: 4

Re: [Solved] Which Laptop Mode Tools module overwrites vm.dirty_ratio?

Awesome, Thanks.

I wonder whether someone could add this to the wiki as a caveat...

c00ter

Member

From: Alaskan in Washington State

Registered: 2014-08-28

Posts: 395

Re: [Solved] Which Laptop Mode Tools module overwrites vm.dirty_ratio?

I thought the use of Laptop Mode Tools had been superseded by TLP a couple years back?

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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn