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Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

Old(er) Thinkpads with New(er) Intestines: X62/T50/T70/X210/X330 etc.
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harryK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#1 Post by harryK » Tue Nov 26, 2019 7:20 am

Hello, I'm interested in hearing from people who are using Coreboot and/or the stock BIOS on the X210. Is it me or the last two kernels (specifically the i915 module and firmware) have been completely wrecking power saving on the X210?

With 5.3 and the latest v5.4 kernel I get:

Code: Select all

# turbostat --quiet --show GFX%rc6

GFX%rc6
29.04
29.05
GFX%rc6
31.34
31.34
GFX%rc6
29.06
29.06
With v5.2 this was

Code: Select all

# turbostat --quiet --show GFX%rc6

GFX%rc6
99.59
99.60
GFX%rc6
99.82
99.82
GFX%rc6
99.07
99.07

axur-delmeria
Senior ThinkPadder
Senior ThinkPadder
Posts: 3810
Joined: Mon May 28, 2012 5:49 am
Location: Metro Manila, Philippines

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#2 Post by axur-delmeria » Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:22 am

It's been mentioned in Phoronix: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... -Hit-Power

Apparently, a recent fix for a possible DoS attack resulted in the iGPU not reaching the lowest power modes as often.
Planned Purchase: T480s i5-8350 FHD Touch
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RIP: X220 4291-C91 X61 7676-A24 760XD-U9E :cry:

harryK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#3 Post by harryK » Wed Nov 27, 2019 4:36 am

axur-delmeria wrote:
Wed Nov 27, 2019 12:22 am
It's been mentioned in Phoronix: https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page= ... -Hit-Power

Apparently, a recent fix for a possible DoS attack resulted in the iGPU not reaching the lowest power modes as often.
Ah! That was it, thanks. Easy to revert, fortunately. God I hate Intel

L29Ah
Sophomore Member
Posts: 180
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:25 pm
Location: Montenegro

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#4 Post by L29Ah » Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:23 am

Does the r8169 Ethernet driver provide proper power saving on 5.4+ tho?
r8168 seems to be dead now and only builds for 5.3.
51nb X210 with community EC mod, me_cleaner and recelled 99W*h battery; X230 with coreboot, me_cleaner and nitrocaster's FHD mod as a backup; R500 for guests; T60 just for the looks.

harryK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#5 Post by harryK » Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:28 pm

L29Ah wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:23 am
Does the r8169 Ethernet driver provide proper power saving on 5.4+ tho?
r8168 seems to be dead now and only builds for 5.3.
r8168 builds with 5.4+ kernels with this patch: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/ ... r8168-dkms
r8169 still doesn't enable aspm, but that can be changed removing two lines around line 7076 of drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c

L29Ah
Sophomore Member
Posts: 180
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:25 pm
Location: Montenegro

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#6 Post by L29Ah » Fri Dec 27, 2019 1:10 pm

harryK wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:28 pm
L29Ah wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:23 am
Does the r8169 Ethernet driver provide proper power saving on 5.4+ tho?
r8168 seems to be dead now and only builds for 5.3.
r8168 builds with 5.4+ kernels with this patch: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/ ... r8168-dkms
r8169 still doesn't enable aspm, but that can be changed removing two lines around line 7076 of drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c
Nice! Have you compared the resulting power consumption and/or the functionality of the Ethernet interface?
51nb X210 with community EC mod, me_cleaner and recelled 99W*h battery; X230 with coreboot, me_cleaner and nitrocaster's FHD mod as a backup; R500 for guests; T60 just for the looks.

harryK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#7 Post by harryK » Fri Dec 27, 2019 6:26 pm

L29Ah wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 1:10 pm
harryK wrote:
Fri Dec 27, 2019 12:28 pm


r8168 builds with 5.4+ kernels with this patch: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/ ... r8168-dkms
r8169 still doesn't enable aspm, but that can be changed removing two lines around line 7076 of drivers/net/ethernet/realtek/r8169_main.c
Nice! Have you compared the resulting power consumption and/or the functionality of the Ethernet interface?
The interface is fully functional with both drivers, but my feeling is that r8168 saves more power. Totally unscientific though :-)

L29Ah
Sophomore Member
Posts: 180
Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2013 2:25 pm
Location: Montenegro

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#8 Post by L29Ah » Tue May 25, 2021 4:04 am

Checked it today, and in 5.12.6 r8169 still disables ASPM unconditionally with a scary warning:

Code: Select all

        /* Disable ASPM completely as that cause random device stop working
         * problems as well as full system hangs for some PCIe devices users.
         */
        rc = pci_disable_link_state(pdev, PCIE_LINK_STATE_L0S |
                                          PCIE_LINK_STATE_L1);
51nb X210 with community EC mod, me_cleaner and recelled 99W*h battery; X230 with coreboot, me_cleaner and nitrocaster's FHD mod as a backup; R500 for guests; T60 just for the looks.

harryK
Sophomore Member
Posts: 172
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 6:28 pm
Location: Glasgow, Scotland

Re: Recent kernels demolish power saving on the X210

#9 Post by harryK » Tue May 25, 2021 4:26 am

L29Ah wrote:
Tue May 25, 2021 4:04 am
Checked it today, and in 5.12.6 r8169 still disables ASPM unconditionally with a scary warning:

Code: Select all

        /* Disable ASPM completely as that cause random device stop working
         * problems as well as full system hangs for some PCIe devices users.
         */
        rc = pci_disable_link_state(pdev, PCIE_LINK_STATE_L0S |
                                          PCIE_LINK_STATE_L1);
You can safely comment all that, it will work fine and save power.

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