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A Plethora Of Linux Power Tests Are On The Way

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  • A Plethora Of Linux Power Tests Are On The Way

    Phoronix: A Plethora Of Linux Power Tests Are On The Way

    Nailing down the Linux kernel power regressions (see Linux Has Major Power Regression and Another Major Linux Power Regression Spotted) has made a big step forward this weekend. Not only to fix up these major kernel power regressions that are hitting many mobile Linux users, but to look further into the state of Linux power management is now possible and to closely analyze other areas of the Linux stack to find other areas for improvement...

    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
    Nice! if you can help solving the 2.6.38 power saga once and for all, you will always be remembered!

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    • #3
      Originally posted by FunkyRider View Post
      Nice! if you can help solving the 2.6.38 power saga once and for all, you will always be remembered!
      +1
      I thought the same thing.

      Comment


      • #4
        Heh, eagerly awaiting the LKML mail listing 10+ commits causing power regressions

        Since apparently nobody else is measuring this, I don't doubt that you'll find many more than just the mentioned two.

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        • #5
          You correctly state that "major kernel power regressions that are hitting many mobile Linux users", however you proceed to measure the power draw on desktop systems. Whether the results can be transfered to mobile setups is questionable and would have to be verified there anyway.

          I think the most meaningful results you get from directly measuring the voltage and current coming from a notebook battery. That way you avoid both the inefficiency in the power supply and the inefficiency in the charging logic, both of which don't really matter to mobile users but still skew the results.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by chithanh View Post
            I think the most meaningful results you get from directly measuring the voltage and current coming from a notebook battery. That way you avoid both the inefficiency in the power supply and the inefficiency in the charging logic, both of which don't really matter to mobile users but still skew the results.
            ..or just unplug the battery and use one or two USB multimeters to measure voltage and amperage between the power adaptor and the laptop, otherwise you have to continually recharge the battery and can't take any measurements during that time . The measurement is way more accurate too, and an USB multimeter comes for less than 45 $.

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            • #7
              Measuring on the DC side of the power supply is definitely better than measuring on the AC side, but still you have to keep in mind that there is no incentive for the manufacturer to be particularly efficient there. Plus, whether the power draw from DC side is proportional to battery power draw seems somewhat plausible, but would have to be verified on a case-by-case basis.

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              • #8
                You have to be aware that there are tools in Linux that will adjust laptop hardware to run at different energy saving level when running plugged in vs on battery so they may give you vastly different wattage results

                laptop-mode-tools is one example.

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                • #9
                  And many hardware has a power saving mode used when running on battery power, e.g. wireless network cards.
                  I can just see some network quite far away from me when running on AC power, but with battery power I only see networks from the same street.

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                  • #10
                    Originally posted by FunkyRider View Post
                    You have to be aware that there are tools in Linux that will adjust laptop hardware to run at different energy saving level when running plugged in vs on battery so they may give you vastly different wattage results

                    laptop-mode-tools is one example.
                    All very true, but you can force on that functionality to enable the features. Laptop mode tools allows you to even set it to power save mode full time in the config file.

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