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tomislavski

Member

Registered: 2010-02-09

Posts: 87

[SOLVED] Identify a "ThinkPad radio device" from powertop output

My top power cosumers on battery on a ThinkPad T495 with powertop are:

  3.09 W     7274%                      Device         Display backlight
  1.50 W      0.0%                      Device         Display backlight
  1.41 W     50.0%                      Device         Radio device: btusb
  619 mW     50.0%                      Device         Radio device: thinkpad_acpi
  233 mW    557.5 µs/s     139.5        Timer          snd_hrtimer_callback
  226 mW      0.8 ms/s     135.5        kWork          dbs_work_handler
  156 mW      4.9 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlp1s0 (iwlwifi)

What is the "Radio device: thinkpad_acpi"?

I thought it was the bluetooth, but

# rfkill list
0: tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no
1: tpacpi_wwan_sw: Wireless WAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
2: phy0: Wireless LAN
	Soft blocked: no
	Hard blocked: no
5: hci0: Bluetooth
	Soft blocked: yes
	Hard blocked: no

it doesn't pop up in this list, and

journalctl | grep thinkpad_acpi | grep radio 

gives

Apr 16 17:40:05 argo kernel: thinkpad_acpi: radio switch found; radios are enabled
Apr 16 17:40:05 argo kernel: thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_bluetooth_sw: radio is unblocked
Apr 16 17:40:05 argo kernel: thinkpad_acpi: rfkill switch tpacpi_wwan_sw: radio is unblocked
Apr 16 17:40:07 argo NetworkManager[1196]: <info>  [1587051607.1603] rfkill1: found WWAN radio killswitch

Which freakin' radios? I don't think it's the WiFi, because powertop lists WiFi separately as a Network interface wlp1s0, and when I turn the bluetooth on, it is also listed separately.

Last edited by tomislavski (2020-04-18 11:59:14)

V1del

Forum Moderator

Registered: 2012-10-16

Posts: 21,771

Re: [SOLVED] Identify a "ThinkPad radio device" from powertop output

The WWan card, not to be confused with the Wifi card: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_WAN

See https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentatio … d-acpi.txt as well.

Last edited by V1del (2020-04-17 08:49:05)

tomislavski

Member

Registered: 2010-02-09

Posts: 87

Re: [SOLVED] Identify a "ThinkPad radio device" from powertop output

Thanks V1del! Is it possible to control the WAN card using laptop mode tools, the same way the WLAN card is controlled? If I use the radio button on the laptop, it disables WiFi WAN and bluetooth: I know this because they dissapear from the powertop output. What would be the best way to disable the WAN card? In the documentation you linked, "rfkill" is suggested, but I would rather let the laptop mode service control this, if possible.

tomislavski

Member

Registered: 2010-02-09

Posts: 87

Re: [SOLVED] Identify a "ThinkPad radio device" from powertop output

Also, I am looking at the sysfs interface, is it possible to change the options directly there as root without breaking anything? Do I need to restart for the changes to take effect? Should I use the systemd rfkill service to block the WAN card? I am not sure what to do:

dmesg  | grep acpi
[11986.674221] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 22730
[11986.674225] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute bluetooth_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Please switch to generic rfkill before year 2010
[11986.674879] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 22730
[11986.674881] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute hotkey_bios_mask is deprecated and will be removed. This attribute is useless.
[11986.674905] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 22730
[11986.674906] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute wwan_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Please switch to generic rfkill before year 2010
[12023.043382] thinkpad_acpi: deprecated sysfs attribute: access by process with PID 22755
[12023.043385] thinkpad_acpi: WARNING: sysfs attribute wwan_enable is deprecated and will be removed. Please switch to generic rfkill before year 2010
[24014.465554] acpi LNXPOWER:00: Turning OFF
[28974.082569] acpi LNXPOWER:00: Turning OFF
[31942.863449] acpi LNXPOWER:00: Turning OFF

In case someone also needs this, you can get the list of devices from rfkill with "rfkill list", then the device can be blocked with "rfkill block ID" where ID is the integer identifier in the output from the "rfkill list"

Last edited by tomislavski (2020-04-18 10:49:16)