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Questions tagged [powertop]

powertop is a script for reducing power consumption on laptops and desktops running Ubuntu.

powertop Install powertop can be installed by running:

sudo apt-get install powertop

To switch on low power mode:

sudo pm-powersave true

To turn off low power mode:

sudo pm-powersave false

For more information, see this Ubuntu wiki article and man powertop.

91 questions
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How do I make Powertop changes permanent?

I'm on a Compaq 615 and it's fan is loud. Not much you can do about that but I'm trying to keep the CPU/GPU as cool as possible. This is what Powertop has to say: If I change all of them to "good", the changes don't survive a reboot. I added the…
H3R3T1K
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How can I disable USB autosuspend for a specific device?

This is related to the issue discussed in Wireless mouse temporarily freezes (sleeps) on battery power. Summary: the mouse freezes when operating on battery since it is autosuspended after a certain time and needs more time to wake up. Disabling USB…
black_puppydog
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100.0% usage by Audio codec hwC0D0: Realtek

I ran powertop, and it says that the Realtek audio codec is using 100.0% of the cpu. Is this a problem? I'm running Ubuntu 11.10 32-bit on Intel® Core™ i7 CPU M 640 @ 2.80GHz × 4 Sony VAIO laptop.
functionptr
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Do 'Tunables' in 'PowerTop' help on battery life?

I installed PowerTOP 1.97 and i got many Bad in Tunables, I know i can press enter to toggle but does it really change anything? and if it does will it still be changed when i reboot? If i get everything to show Good will it make a big difference on…
Jeggy
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What should VM writeback timeout be set to for a laptop?

I am using powertop to check that my machine is setup in a way that will give me good battery life. After installing laptop-mode-tools all of the "Tunables" section shows "Good" except VM writeback timeout. On the powertop page, it seems to…
Chas. Owens
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PowerTOP "cpufreq_stats failed" and "Devfreq not enabled" running --auto-tone

Basically, I'm trying to reduce the thermals of an Ubuntu install and trying everything. Quiet as can be in Windows 10 except for gaming, as it should be; Ubuntu fans rev up to 75-100% doing simple tasks. Anyway, going down the list of things to try…
cheslijones
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How to determine identity of obscure `nic:br-` devices in powertop?

Currently, the powertop output from my computer (a thinkpad with skylake i7-6600U running ubuntu 16.04) looks like The battery reports a discharge rate of 6.90 W The estimated remaining time is 2 hours, 42 minutes Summary: 425.7 wakeups/second, …
jaimedash
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How to permanently save powertop's suggestions?

I run powertop then it suggests that I should disable xy, etc. However, after I exit powertop, reboot the pc, and start it again[powertop], it brings up the same tips again! So how can I permanently save the suggestions of powertop?
LanceBaynes
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What are ms/s units in Powertop and how can I get power consumption in watts?

When I use the powertop command I get the following result: Summary: 1089.0 wakeups/second, 0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 27.2% CPU use Usage Events/s Category Description 182.5 ms/s 330.0 …
pouya
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`powertop --auto-tune` without messing with USB and touchpad

I like powertop --auto-tune because the speakers of my laptop are soughing when not being used and powertop disables the speakers completely when they're not used, stopping the noise. However, my USB mouse gets disabled within seconds after not…
UTF-8
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Missed power est. column in powertop?

I used powertop v.2.1 under Ubuntu 12.04 but it missed the power est. column. It's the same situation as described here‎ and that bug is supposed to be fixed already. I tried lm_sensors but it didn't give any voltage reading. Here's a log for…
Kevin Q
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How to make powertop "Device Power Management" suggestion permanent?

When I run powertop on my laptop I get following suggestion: Suggestion: Enable Device Power Management by pressing the P key Doing this results in considerable saving in power usage and I would like to make it permanent but I have no idea what…
Seppo Erviälä
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Can and should I try enabling the CONFIG_INOTIFY kernel configuration option?

PowerTOP just offered the following suggestion: Suggestion: Enable the CONFIG_INOTIFY kernel configuration option. This option allows programs to wait for changes in files and directories instead of having to poll for these changes It it…
ændrük
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Ubuntu 19.04 high power consumption with intel integrated graphics

Aero 17 laptop w/ 9750H processor, nvidia gtx 1660ti, 1080P 144hz monitor Windows 10 reports 8 hours of battery life Ubuntu 19.04 reports 2 hours In Ubuntu 19.04, reporting sky-high 30-40 watt discharge at idle with integrated graphics. Tested:…
Dean Hantzis
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(13.04) PowerTOP reports lots of usage by USB2.0-CRW, but autosuspend is on

I used to be able to keep my power usage under 10 watts without WLAN on but now that rarely happens. One reason might be this, reported by PowerTOP all of the time: Power est. Usage Events/s Category Description 8.69 W …
Alex
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