From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1SGCoq-0006NC-Rb for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 06 Apr 2012 17:19:29 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id EB03CE0CC0; Fri, 6 Apr 2012 17:19:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-bk0-f53.google.com (mail-bk0-f53.google.com [209.85.214.53]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5C6B4E085D for ; Fri, 6 Apr 2012 17:17:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: by bkwj4 with SMTP id j4so2471597bkw.40 for ; Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:17:47 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=N8K95LmPrkaMGTum1/7gOzc5eo4ZuM+n/5encf56iac=; b=ooFEBE/touu2/o0/2hSxo6Z0vo2gASYshalotiwV8EgV18/QZq/QcUn0fcae8bDtp0 YAcE8RDim7sSz1ZSCp9XQmdCTgrzUN0hn4153N+hILQ37sMdiz47v9horwXTOHrZRF5C /VvAEEAqu9hVNxwiTPI1WjobKWk/S5nehCJxx9EKqHruJ2lUArZO7uqabHqKArqMP+5F 52yEUo0BgfFrrf4w0t8hfBqTQrkXJJRiQqqR+ZrHxJwo1d+dp8BWnqzaBJ/zQNPx8NVK T4f5k4FI8b/Q9kogn5AMmw0quC2wDFoUD85YWvjY5i/oONzRJzobgmN20//EF91XHRsN 8Qnw== Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.204.153.203 with SMTP id l11mr3373719bkw.31.1333732667476; Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:17:47 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.204.164.76 with HTTP; Fri, 6 Apr 2012 10:17:47 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <20120406170532.GA3488@eisen.lan> References: <4F786E9A.60404@gmail.com> <2320074.M2zdZi9kkL@localhost> <20120402052250.GB12677@waltdnes.org> <20120406170532.GA3488@eisen.lan> Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2012 13:17:47 -0400 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Tips for saving power needed... particulary on laptops From: Michael Mol To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: 10c28dae-5b02-4804-967c-d052fd207ed1 X-Archives-Hash: d3b5bd267942bbbc48070e10ca789b50 On Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Frank Steinmetzger wrote: > On Mon, Apr 02, 2012 at 01:22:50AM -0400, Walter Dnes wrote: > >> > > Hi, >> > > >> > > admin of a colo-center keeps complaining my server is going >> > > a little over power-limit (which they have set as ~120W per >> > > 24h/avg, while my server needs ~130-135W). So I need to find >> > > a way to save at least those 15W, or I will be moved to >> > > higher tarif (which means higher costs for server-housing). >> [=E2=80=A6] >> The following may seem obvious, but here goes... >> >> * remove unnecessary video cards, and drivers. =C2=A0Most colo machines >> =C2=A0 should do OK with just a text console running on the onboard GPU. >> =C2=A0 Dump all video driver stuff "/dev/agpgart (AGP Support)" and >> =C2=A0 "Direct Rendering Manager". =C2=A0This assumes you're not running= X on >> =C2=A0 your colo machines. =C2=A0mc (Midnight Commander) is a great text= -based >> =C2=A0 tool, along the lines of ye olde Norton Commander. >> >> * disable sound cards/chips in BIOS and remove drivers and kernel >> =C2=A0 support. > > As a follow-up question that=E2=80=99s been on my mind for a long time: c= an I always > assume that when there is no driver loaded, the device is really (physica= lly) > off, so it doesn't use any power (at all)? =C2=A0Or are there exceptions = to that > rule (like hardware known to be buggy)? The hardware will be energized, but won't typically consume as much energy as it would were it under active use and load. > =C2=A0My concern comes from having an > ageing laptop whose battery I want to preserve as well as I can. > > In my case, that would be bluetooth, ethernet, possibly even the optical > drive, and even the touchpad. I can switch the latter off using Fn+F9, wh= ich > even works on the tty. But does that really switch it off, or does the ke= rnel > merely ignore its input then? For wireless devices, I believe the radio is switched off if you use the hardware or software switches, but controlling hardware would still be energized. For ethernet, you probably want the driver installed, so you can access any power-saving modes available to it. (Ditto most other things) Regarding touchpad...no idea. Most of this is probably very case-by-case. Check the kernel configs. Perhaps even measure power consumption changes after doing things like disabling devices via sysfs. --=20 :wq