Bug 821206 - Powertop does not display the proper discharge rate
Summary: Powertop does not display the proper discharge rate
Keywords:
Status: CLOSED WONTFIX
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: powertop
Version: 17
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
low
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Jaroslav Škarvada
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2012-05-13 04:19 UTC by monkeyboyted
Modified: 2013-08-01 17:16 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Doc Type: Bug Fix
Doc Text:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed: 2013-08-01 17:16:32 UTC
Type: Bug
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)
Powertop output (932 bytes, text/plain)
2012-07-31 17:45 UTC, Illya
no flags Details

Description monkeyboyted 2012-05-13 04:19:59 UTC
Description of problem:
Powertop is providing discharge numbers that never seems to add up. Usually the Power estimate the components will consistanly be 3-4 watts larger than the total discharge rate. In fact, my wifi discharge rate is so large that sometimes it overshadows the total discharge rate. Of course, adding the --calibrate flag will return a lower overall discharge rate, but the behaviour is the same. The some of the individual voltages should never be over 30 percent or greater than the total discharge rate.



Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Powertop version: Powertop version1.98 beta 1, compiled on Apr 17 2012
Kernel release: 3.3.4-5.fc17.x86_64

Computer Make and model: Acer Aspire TimelineX 4830tg
Wifi Hardware: 03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Intel Corporation Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [8086:0082]
Wifi Driver: iwlwifi

How reproducible:
always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. install powertop
2. run powertop
3.
  
Actual results:
powertop with calibrate flag
The battery reports a discharge rate of 8.18 W

Summary: 645.3 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/second and 0.0 VFS ops/sec

Power est.	Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  5.25 W      2.3 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlan0
  4.21 W      0.0%                      Device         Display backlight
  4.09 W    100.0%                      Device         Audio codec hwC0D3: Intel
  235 mW     67.5 ms/s     153.4        Process        /usr/lib64/firefox/firefo
 98.6 mW     28.4 ms/s      67.8        Process        /usr/lib64/xulrunner-2/pl
 46.4 mW     13.4 ms/s      31.1        Process        /usr/bin/gnome-shell
 18.8 mW      5.4 ms/s     104.1        Process        /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -backgro
 18.1 mW      5.2 ms/s      84.6        Interrupt      [7] sched(softirq)
 16.4 mW      4.7 ms/s       6.0        Interrupt      [23] ehci_hcd:usb2
 13.7 mW      3.9 ms/s     103.1        Timer          tick_sched_timer
 9.46 mW      2.7 ms/s       5.3        Process        gnome-terminal
 7.02 mW      2.0 ms/s      36.4        Timer          hrtimer_wakeup
 5.43 mW      1.6 ms/s       1.5        Process        bash
 4.96 mW      1.4 ms/s      0.00        Timer          delayed_work_timer_fn
 4.84 mW      1.4 ms/s      0.00        kWork          do_dbs_timer

powertop without calibrate flag
The battery reports a discharge rate of 10.7 W

Summary: 736.7 wakeups/second,  0.0 GPU ops/second and 0.0 VFS ops/sec

Power est.	Usage       Events/s    Category       Description
  10.8 W      0.0 pkts/s                Device         Network interface: wlan0
  4.14 W      0.0%                      Device         Display backlight
  3.05 W    100.0%                      Device         Audio codec hwC0D3: Intel
  2.00 W    100.0%                      Device         USB device: USB Receiver
  429 mW    111.4 ms/s     114.6        Process        /usr/lib64/firefox/firefo
  191 mW     46.2 ms/s     109.7        Process        /usr/lib64/xulrunner-2/pl
 80.4 mW     15.9 ms/s     108.7        Process        /usr/bin/Xorg :0 -backgro
 71.6 mW     16.2 ms/s      60.7        Process        /usr/bin/gnome-shell
 46.7 mW      7.3 ms/s      96.0        Interrupt      [7] sched(softirq)
 44.9 mW     12.2 ms/s       2.9        Process        powertop
 39.0 mW      9.5 ms/s      20.6        Process        gnome-terminal
 29.9 mW      3.5 ms/s      82.3        Timer          tick_sched_timer
 22.0 mW      2.7 ms/s      58.8        Timer          hrtimer_wakeup
 10.4 mW      1.3 ms/s      27.4        Interrupt      [47] i915
 6.18 mW      1.7 ms/s      0.00        Interrupt      [1] timer(softirq)


Expected results:
Total discharge rate should be within the same range as the sum of the power estimate.

Additional info:
I willing to give other information if you ask.
I do not know if the wifi card giving incorrect numbers or powertop is acting up. All I know is that I wonder how do I interpret these numbers

Comment 1 monkeyboyted 2012-05-13 04:31:54 UTC
Nvm the number seems to be correct, if I subtract the backlight. Since I am using an external monitor and I turned off the display backlight, I wonder why it still show that it is using the laptop battery at 4 Watts. Usage at 0.0% but 4.14W???

Comment 2 Jaroslav Škarvada 2012-06-06 22:48:16 UTC
Could you re-check with powertop-2.0-2?

Comment 3 Illya 2012-07-31 17:45:39 UTC
Created attachment 601555 [details]
Powertop output

I have the same issue with powertop-2.0-3.fc17.x86_64

What additional information can be helpful?

Comment 4 Fedora End Of Life 2013-07-04 05:57:38 UTC
This message is a reminder that Fedora 17 is nearing its end of life.
Approximately 4 (four) weeks from now Fedora will stop maintaining
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Comment 5 Fedora End Of Life 2013-08-01 17:16:38 UTC
Fedora 17 changed to end-of-life (EOL) status on 2013-07-30. Fedora 17 is 
no longer maintained, which means that it will not receive any further 
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