iwlwifi is drawing too much power

kaifis · 2018-01-20 22:45:08

Hi, I have Arch installed on my xiaomi notebook. After weekend of optimizing power management I was able to stay between 3 and 5 watts. But after while it started to draw power much faster (above 10 watts).

#powertop
Summary: 774.2 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 28.1% CPU use

Power est.              Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  4.42 W      0.0 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp2s0 (iwlwifi)
  3.03 W     12.0%                      Device         Display backlight
  532 mW      1.1 ms/s       2.2        Process        [PID 5118] /usr/bin/pulseaudio --daemonize=no
  476 mW     66.3 ms/s       2.3        kWork          intel_fbc_work_fn
  456 mW    100.0%                      Device         USB device: USB 2.0 10/100M Ethernet Adaptor
  219 mW     26.8 ms/s      79.3        Process        [PID 5323] /opt/google/chrome/chrome --app=https://www.messenger.com
  144 mW     14.6 ms/s      45.8        Process        [PID 5081] /usr/lib/xorg-server/Xorg -nolisten tcp :0 vt1 -auth /tmp/serverauth.jBR9ErCGkB vt1
  110 mW     14.7 ms/s       9.2        Process        [PID 5266] /usr/share/spotify/spotify --type=gpu-process --no-sandbox --lang=en-US --log-file=/usr/share/spotify/debug.log --lo
 85.8 mW     11.9 ms/s      15.6        Process        [PID 7022] /opt/google/chrome/chrome --type=renderer --enable-smooth-scrolling --field-trial-handle=17851485613526791013,225813
 80.2 mW     11.1 ms/s      43.2        Process        [PID 5246] /usr/share/spotify/spotify

I have turned my wifi off so I have no idea why is Network interface drawing so much power.
Do you know what is going on?

Last edited by kaifis (2018-01-20 22:51:04)

seth · 2018-01-21 08:53:07

What do you mean by "turned off"? rfkill? soft? hard? why is the module still loaded?
Or do you mean you disconnected? Using networkmanager? Or systemd-networkd?

kaifis · 2018-01-21 11:30:38

Its turned off using network manager. (The box next to "Enable wifi" is not selected.)
I thought It's still running because I'm connected to internet over usb ethernet adapter.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2018-01-21 11:45:18

Blacklist the iwlwifi module.

Or perhaps try a less complicated network connection method — for example, does systemd-networkd turn on your wireless interface even if there is no configuration for it?

EDIT: check `systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled` to eliminate any rogue unit files that may be activating the interface.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2018-01-21 11:46:33)

seth · 2018-01-21 11:59:10

On top of that, I don't know what some NM Gui does, but if it's not rfklii'd, you can be sure NM scans and polls the wifi as if there's no tomorrow.
Check the rfkill output when you assume the interface should be down. Also "ip addr" and "iw _dev_name_ info", substitute _dev_name_

kaifis · 2018-01-21 16:29:00

[kaifis@mibook ~]$ rfkill
ID TYPE DEVICE    SOFT      HARD
 0 wlan phy0   blocked unblocked
[kaifis@mibook ~]$ systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled
UNIT FILE                                   STATE  
autovt@.service                             enabled
dbus-org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.service enabled
dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service  enabled
getty@.service                              enabled
laptop-mode.service                         enabled
NetworkManager-dispatcher.service           enabled
NetworkManager.service                      enabled
postgresql.service                          enabled
systemd-timesyncd.service                   enabled
vboxautostart-service.service               enabled
vboxballoonctrl-service.service             enabled
vboxdrv.service                             enabled
vboxweb-service.service                     enabled
remote-fs.target                            enabled

14 unit files listed.
[kaifis@mibook ~]$ ip addr | grep wlp2s0
2: wlp2s0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST> mtu 1500 qdisc noop state DOWN group default qlen 1000

seth · 2018-01-21 20:41:13

nope.
Check dmesg when this happens.
Do you pass any parameters to the module?

kaifis · 2018-01-21 21:00:51

Lately it's kind of permanent.

[kaifis@mibook ~]$ dmesg | grep wifi
[    1.691716] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: loaded firmware version 34.0.1 op_mode iwlmvm
[    1.775235] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: Detected Intel(R) Dual Band Wireless AC 8260, REV=0x208
[    1.848302] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0: base HW address: 00:c2:c6:f1:e9:56
[    1.943700] iwlwifi 0000:02:00.0 wlp2s0: renamed from wlan0

Jhaus · 2018-02-10 19:20:08

I noticed this on my Lenovo thinkpad x220. You can see `iwlwifi` in `powertop` with around 130 interupts per second. I got it down to around 30 interupts per second by applying the settings described here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Po … iwlwifi.29

/etc/modprobe.d/iwlwifi.conf :

 options iwlwifi power_save=1 d0i3_disable=0 uapsd_disable=0
 options iwldvm force_cam=0

Arch Linux

#1 2018-01-20 22:45:08

iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#2 2018-01-21 08:53:07

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#3 2018-01-21 11:30:38

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#4 2018-01-21 11:45:18

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#5 2018-01-21 11:59:10

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#6 2018-01-21 16:29:00

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#7 2018-01-21 20:41:13

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#8 2018-01-21 21:00:51

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

#9 2018-02-10 19:20:08

Re: iwlwifi is drawing too much power

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