Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Linux Kernel Power Bug Now High Importance In Ubuntu

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Linux Kernel Power Bug Now High Importance In Ubuntu

    Phoronix: Linux Kernel Power Bug Now High Importance In Ubuntu

    The bug introduced during the development of the Linux 2.6.38 kernel causing excessive power consumption is very real, is occurring on many different hardware platforms, and has just been deemed a bug of high importance by the Ubuntu Kernel Team. This serious regression was just made widely known on Friday in my Mobile Users Beware: Linux Has Major Power Regression article and then further detailed in The Tests Showing Ubuntu 11.04 On A Power Consumption Binge...

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    scheduler

    Maybe its because of recent changes in scheduler. All in all its a shame!

    Comment


    • #3
      Ugh .. Still no evidence but the sky is certainly falling.

      Lenovo T400
      Fuduntu 14.9 (64bit)
      Kernel 2.6.38.4
      Completely idle on battery for ~15 minutes.
      6.36 Watts, 108 wakeups per second.



      Asus Eee PC 1015PEM
      Fuduntu 14.9 (32bit)
      Kernel 2.6.38.4
      Completely idle on battery (as before)
      7.31 Watts, 135.8 wakeups per second.



      As you can see from the images, even my Thinkpad is using only 6ish watts, and well under 200 wakeups per second (closer to 100 really!)..

      The only reason there are 33 reports is because you asked people in your forum to report it!



      Lets take a look at the data supplied in that bug report

      Code:
      Wakeups-from-idle per second : 542.9    interval: 10.0s
      Power usage (ACPI estimate): 14.1W (2.4 hours) (long term: 14.7W,/2.3h)
      
      Top causes for wakeups:
        25.7% (155.8)   [i915] <interrupt>
        13.3% ( 80.3)D  chromium-browse
        17.9% (108.5)   [extra timer interrupt]
         5.7% ( 34.7)   [iwlagn] <interrupt>
         5.1% ( 31.2)   PS/2 keyboard/mouse/touchpad interrupt
         5.0% ( 30.2)   [kernel scheduler] Load balancing tick
         4.9% ( 29.9)   kworker/0:0
         4.4% ( 26.5)   [Rescheduling interrupts] <kernel IPI>
         3.3% ( 20.1)   compiz
         0.0% (  0.0)D  flush-8:0
         3.2% ( 19.6)   desktopcouch-se
         0.1% (  0.7)D  ntop
         1.2% (  7.3)D  thunderbird-bin
         1.7% ( 10.0)   gwibber-service
         1.6% (  9.9)   ubuntuone-syncd
         1.4% (  8.6)   [TLB shootdowns] <kernel IPI>
         1.4% (  8.3)   [acpi] <interrupt>
         0.6% (  3.9)   [ahci] <interrupt>
      The program 'flush-8:0' is writing to file 'ECRYPTFS_FNEK_ENCRYPTED.FWY-tcU' on /dev/sda1.
      This prevents the disk from going to powersave mode.
      - https://launchpadlibrarian.net/69300044/hardcopy.0

      Code:
        25.7% (155.8)   [i915] <interrupt>
        13.3% ( 80.3)D  chromium-browse
        17.9% (108.5)   [extra timer interrupt]
         5.1% ( 31.2)   PS/2 keyboard/mouse/touchpad interrupt
      These are all related.

      375.8 wakeups per second contribute to applications

      What's not reported in the bug though (and probably the root cause), top output.

      Comment


      • #4
        Oh, and .. PowerTOP version 1.13

        PowerTOP 1.97 is required to take report on and take advantage of the new powersaving features of kernel 2.6.37 and newer.

        This website is for sale! lesswatts.org is your first and best source for all of the information you’re looking for. From general topics to more of what you would expect to find here, lesswatts.org has it all. We hope you find what you are searching for!


        The most common of these have been built into Jupiter.

        Has the Phoronix test suite been updated to use the kernel "perf" infrastructure?

        Comment


        • #5
          So is this a bug that affects all kernels or just Ubuntu patched ones? I don't understand this fixation on Ubuntu here (and generally). If this happens in vanilla kernels it should not just be reported to Ubuntu but to upstream Kernel development and maybe other distributors. Or did I miss something?
          Stop TCPA, stupid software patents and corrupt politicians!

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by fewt View Post
            Ugh .. Still no evidence but the sky is certainly falling.
            Did you see the plots?

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by yotambien View Post
              Did you see the plots?
              Yes. It doesn't change my opinion (or my evidence) that this is not a kernel problem.

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by fewt View Post
                Yes. It doesn't change my opinion (or my evidence) that this is not a kernel problem.
                It was rhetorical. I assume you read the article and saw the plots. How do you explain them?

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by yotambien View Post
                  It was rhetorical. I assume you read the article and saw the plots. How do you explain them?
                  I can't explain them (there isn't enough data), however I believe that the problem could be:

                  A) The build options between kernel versions may be different
                  B) Something in userspace
                  C) The Phoronix test suite itself
                  (2.6.37 pretty much required a new version of Powertop, Phoronix test suite probably also needs an update)
                  D) The kernel doesn't tune itself for power / battery (requiring a userspace tool like Jupiter)

                  It is most likely that this is just a misconfiguration blown grossly out of proportion.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by fewt View Post
                    C) The Phoronix test suite itself
                    (2.6.37 pretty much required a new version of Powertop, Phoronix test suite probably also needs an update)
                    Nope, it doesn't need any update. And users have reported the issue independent of PTS - hence the original Canonical bug report completely independent of that, etc. Most users don't even know how to use the power monitoring features in PTS.
                    Michael Larabel
                    https://www.michaellarabel.com/

                    Comment

                    Working...
                    X