Arch Linux

feinedsquirrel

Member

Registered: 2020-12-11

Posts: 45

running hot after upgrading on 2023-10-08

I am not sure if it was the linux kernel upgrade from 6.5.5 to 6.5.6 (along with linux-headers, nvidia, nvidia-settings, and nvidia-utils) or a different package. After realizing something was off, I downgraded to the date of my previous system upgrade, 2023-10-06, and waited for kernel 6.5.7 to be released. I tried yesterday, and my laptop still runs hot, burning through battery percentage *very* quickly, compared to before the 6th.

dell xps 15 9500
intel core i7-10875h
nvidia TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile]
swaywm --unsupported-gpu

I know, nvidia is unsupported. But I have prime enabled, and everything runs off the intel unless I use `prime-run`. I verified that when I configured everything with `glx-gears` and also by `cat`ing `cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power_state` which prints "D3cold". Even if the intel gpu is processing everything, sway requires I include the "unsupported-gpu" option if the nvidia driver is installed at all. And yes, even when the machine is hot after upgrading, the power_state still reports "D3cold".

After trying a full upgrade last night, and finding it was still misbehaving, I downgraded again and set pacman IgnorePkg to the packages listed in the first line. It seems my system is still running hot, and my battery percentage is dropping fast still. I've checked `powertop` in all different system upgrade states, and there wasn't anything that stood out as different between the "normal" running system (everything running cool, and battery percentage dropping "normally"), and the "hot" system.

Any tips on what logs to look into to figure out which package is causing this behavior?

thank you

ewaller

Administrator

From: Pasadena, CA

Registered: 2009-07-13

Posts: 20,643

Re: running hot after upgrading on 2023-10-08

Run htop and see what is using all your CPU bandwidth.

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seth

Member

From: Won't reply 2 private help req

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 76,074

Re: running hot after upgrading on 2023-10-08

Also, and if it's not a (specific) userspace process, instead of downgrading, try the LTS kernel to see whether that "fixes" it along the newest userspace.

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feinedsquirrel

Member

Registered: 2020-12-11

Posts: 45

Re: running hot after upgrading on 2023-10-08

Thank you for the tips. htop din't indicate anything different comparing the new userspace/old kernel with the old userspace/old kernel.

It also appears I jumped the gun on my assessment after waiting for the 6.5.7 kernel.
I did a second round of tests, and gave it a longer time to cool down between the 6.5.5, 6.5.6, and 6.5.7 kernels, and realized the generated heat on 6.5.7 may have been residual chassis heat (unless some userspace program that updated in the 2 days between testing fixed itself) and the battery drain may be contributed to starting all of my typical-running-programs all at once as soon as sway loaded.
I did a full upgrade, and let the laptop cool to room temp before powering back on between each test. I started each of my typical-running desktop programs separately, with several minutes between each one, and it *seems* like things are back to "normal".

I ran out of time last night, but I'll compare the list of upgraded user-space packages from the pacman log to see if this time a package skipped a version that was present after upgrading on the 8th. And, next time, I'll try the linux-lts kernel before using your time here.

I'll leave this _not_ marked solved until I check the pacman logs for package update versions, if I see something, I'll note which package might have been involved, then I'll mark it as solved.

Thanks again for the pointers. Out of curiosity, is it common to have both linux and linux-lts kernels installed always? It isn't hard to install temporarily, even from a chroot, and with refind it is trivial to set up the alternate boot path, but I'm just wondering what other people do.