Power management (daru2)

[nowanfoo]

The old thread on this subject seems to be gone.

The problem is that power management goes haywire on the daru2: the screen dims and brightens, the battery status (both whether it's on AC, and the charge level) is horribly confused. Setting the brightness control not to dim when on battery helps make the system usable when this happens.

This is with gutsy and kernel 2.6.22-14. Setting ec_intr=0 in the boot helps, but even with that the system can frequently get into a state where the battery status goes haywire. Typically this is after the laptop has been off an on a bit without being on AC between power-ups.

If anyone knows where this is being discussed now, can you post it in a follow-up?

[freduardo]

The old thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=609722
was moved to Ubuntu Forums > The Ubuntu Forum Community > Forum Archive > Main Support Categories > System76 Support

Another thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=764970
on the suspend problems.

[badbull]

as you might read the ec_intr kernel option has been removed in the newer kernel. this option activate/deactivate the sending of acpi interrupts. the daru2 sends worng acpi interrupts so we use the polling mode in gutsy.(ec_intr=0)
in the new kernel the acpi embedded controler (drivers/acpi/ec.c) trys to set the mode to interrupt, if this fails it goes back to poll mode. you can't control this via boot option.
at the moment i'm compiling a hardy kernel with a modified ec.c. i'll post my experience on this later...maybe we have luck and get a kernel patch from ubuntu or system76.

[laserline]

If it supposed to fallback to polling automatically but doesn't actually do that, then that affects much more systems (I own a daru2).

I guess there should be a kernel update to fix that bug. not just a fix for system76 systems.

Although I won't mind this being fixed ASAP :)

Please see this post: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=764970

Idan.

[badbull]

i had installed my selfbuild kernel with a default polling mode. it seems to work right, but i didn't test it much.
you can download it from ....

[edit] sorry, doesn't work...just for 3 hours then it goes crazy...

[thomasaaron]

We too are rolling a custom kernel that should set things straight.
It will probably take a few days.

[jdb]

I really like the acpi=noirq boot option.
It never goes crazy.
For me the lack of a screen brightness control has become a non issue because I like it full bright all the time anyway.

I still think I'm going to write a little progam with a brightness slider but it may be a while. I'm trying to learn lisp & decided to make that my first project after the tutorial stuff I'm doing. I'm an old vi guy & I'm having a heck of a time with emacs, much less the dang lisp :)

jdb

[laserline]

If you need any testing, please let me know.

Idan.

[laserline]

I really like the acpi=noirq boot option.
It never goes crazy.
For me the lack of a screen brightness control has become a non issue because I like it full bright all the time anyway.

I still think I'm going to write a little progam with a brightness slider but it may be a while. I'm trying to learn lisp & decided to make that my first project after the tutorial stuff I'm doing. I'm an old vi guy & I'm having a heck of a time with emacs, much less the dang lisp :)

jdb

You can meanwhile use the brightness gnome applet. It works great.

[zombiepig]

is it possible that we are seeing the same problem (with different hardware) over here?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=765213
Or am I way off track? :P

[badbull]

did you use the ec_intr=0 option in gutsy (2.6.22 kernel)?

maybe the new implementation of the embedded controler raise more problems...

[jdb]

You can meanwhile use the brightness gnome applet. It works great.
Thanks but I run xubuntu.
I've never figured out how to use those gnome applets without a gnome desktop.
xfce4 has a lot of good applets, but I can't find one that controls the brightness.

jdb

[22bsti]

I'm with you jdb xfce or obenbox for me. Gnome is too slow feels like windows.

[thomasaaron]

Well, that would be the *first* time I've heard gnome compared to Windows!:lolflag:

Generally, people are saying KDE feels like windows.

[jdb]

I don't know how it is now, but back awhile I had a lot of trouble with nautilus & HUGE directries, it would take forever to list all the files.

I tried thunar & it was downright snappy.
I removed nautilus & that removed the whole gnome desktop.
What was left was xfce but no "desktop".
That's when I loaded xubuntu to get an nice, tested, integrated xfce desktop.

Xubuntu has everything I need but it's a leaner system than gnome.

jdb

[impact]

is it possible that we are seeing the same problem (with different hardware) over here?
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=765213
Or am I way off track? :P

With the MSI laptops it's the same problem (MSI doesn't support linux on most laptops and their BIOS is broken).

[laserline]

The daru2 is an MSI laptop.
OEM: MS-1221.
MSI Branded: MSI PR200

Idan.

[thomasaaron]

The MS-1221 had excellent support under Gutsy64 bit.
There has been a kernel change in Hardy we're dealing with. Carl has made some good progress though towards fixing it.

[laserline]

A couple of questions:

1. Is this change a kernel module or a custom kernel ?
2. What is to be done, so that future versions of the Ubuntu / Kernel won't break this fix ?
3. Are you working with the Ubuntu developers on streamlining these fixes ?

Thanks,

Idan

[thomasaaron]

1. Is this change a kernel module or a custom kernel ?
Not sure yet. Carl is holed up in his laboratory with a Do Not Disturb sign up until he gets it fixed. I'll report back when I know for sure. :guitar:


2. What is to be done, so that future versions of the Ubuntu / Kernel won't break this fix ?
3. Are you working with the Ubuntu developers on streamlining these fixes ?

Yes. Hopefully we can get the fix moved up to Ubuntu to prevent it from happening again.

[laserline]

Thanks for keeping us posted.

[laserline]

Hi Tom,

Any news on this issue ?

Thanks,

Idan.

[thomasaaron]

It's proving difficult to figure out exactly where the suspend problem is occurring in the new kernel. We've sent a DarU2 to an Ubuntu developer who should be able to help us find the problem.

As for the battery management issue, look at the last post by Carl here...
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=609722&page=15

Adding the acpi=noirq kernel option fixes it, but with some minor side effects. It's still worth it though. Carl gives directions for inserting this option in the aforementioned thread.

[TheBuzzSaw]

Where do I go to set "acpi=noirq"? I've never tweaked these settings before. :/

[windtracekimo]

edit the file /boot/grub/menu.lst with root previlege (or sudo).
Usually these boot scripts are listed at the bottom of the file. (like the following, each boot image is defined and started by "title")

title Ubuntu 8.04, kernel 2.6.24-16-generic
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.24-16-generic root=UUID=3fd94c09-430d-4fa8-b1a2-e242bb7a9ba8 ro quiet splash
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.24-16-generic
quiet

First, find out which kernel image you are using by looking at the "default=". If is "default=0", then you are currently using the first image listed as above.
Then add "acpi=noirq" at the end of the "kernel" line. The "ro" "quiet" "splash" are all options for booting the kernel.
Then save it and reboot.

[bkloppenborg]

Does anyone know the status on this problem? Has the Ubuntu developer came up with any (permanent) fixes? Thank you.

[thomasaaron]

Unfortunately, not yet. But we still have a several things left to try.
I'll keep you posted on it.

[ceminino]

Is anyone having shutdowns because of heat? It happens either in Poll of interrupt mode of the EC when the cpu is on high load. This is really annoying. I have the T7300 cpu. The worst is that just watching some stuff in flash can cause this overheating. Any solutions? I have ubuntu 8.04 32 bit.

[badbull]

i can confirm this issue. while compiling a kernel the temperature gets up to 90°. my msi pr200 had shut down two times because of heat.
but i can't confirm this on watching flash videos. maybe take a look at the temperatur cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature
and how much is the cpu load on while watching flash videos
top
btw. ensure the laptop gets fresh air from the bottom.

[ceminino]

The critical temperature for shutdown seems to be just above 90 degrees.

and exemple of flash video is here
http://www.storyofstuff.com/
it's about 20 minutes, no way to watch it :S

Fresh air from the bottom, how? I just put the laptop on a table.

I know that this laptop is not meant for computing (even if I test some mpi codes for short times) but still this is really annoying!

[jdb]

i can confirm this issue. while compiling a kernel the temperature gets up to 90°. my msi pr200 had shut down two times because of heat.
but i can't confirm this on watching flash videos. maybe take a look at the temperatur cat /proc/acpi/thermal_zone/THRM/temperature
and how much is the cpu load on while watching flash videos
top
btw. ensure the laptop gets fresh air from the bottom.

I've never had my daru2 shut down but I do see the high 80s when I compile a kernel or make a coding mistake & get it stuck in a loop.
I've probably been a few degree's away from it.
When I run sensors to check the temp it says the critical temp is 100.

jdb

[ceminino]

do you have 32 bit or 64 bit ubuntu?

[jdb]

do you have 32 bit or 64 bit ubuntu?

I've got 32 bit loaded.

jdb

[williumbillium]

The following was just posted on this bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/139701/ in launchpad:

The Ubuntu Kernel Team is planning to move to the 2.6.27 kernel for the upcoming Intrepid Ibex 8.10 release. As a result, the kernel team would appreciate it if you could please test this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. There are one of two ways you should be able to test:

1) If you are comfortable installing packages on your own, the linux-image-2.6.27-* package is currently available for you to install and test.

--or--

2) The upcoming Alpha5 for Intrepid Ibex 8.10 will contain this newer 2.6.27 Ubuntu kernel. Alpha5 is set to be released Thursday Sept 4. Please watch http://www.ubuntu.com/testing for Alpha5 to be announced. You should then be able to test via a LiveCD.

Please let us know immediately if this newer 2.6.27 kernel resolves the bug reported here or if the issue remains. More importantly, please open a new bug report for each new bug/regression introduced by the 2.6.27 kernel and tag the bug report with 'linux-2.6.27'. Also, please specifically note if the issue does or does not appear in the 2.6.26 kernel. Thanks again, we really appreicate your help and feedback.

Anyone have an intrepid install to test with?

It seems there is at least a little bit of hope that the problem has been fixed in kernel 2.6.27:

http://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9823#c53

That bug is related to a different msi model but seems similar (at least in my very limited understanding) to the daru2 problems. I don't know if that patch is actually in the ubuntu kernel yet though (nor how to check if it is).

[badbull]

the power management problem (wrong battery/display dimming) is fixed in 2.6.27. the kernel will automatic use poll mode for acpi.
suspend is still not working.

[williumbillium]

That's good news. I've got to admit that I was hoping it would fix suspend too though.

[laserline]

That's good news. I've got to admit that I was hoping it would fix suspend too though.

Yeah,

I was hoping suspend would be fixed too.

Does hibernate work as expected ?

Idan.

[gaussian]

Yeah,

I was hoping suspend would be fixed too.

Does hibernate work as expected ?

Idan.

Works on a 32-bit at least with s2disk (I always use that). I can try the regular (pm-hibernate) later tonight, if I remember correctly I had some problems with it with an earlier kernel (I might be wrong).

[laserline]

How do you use s2disk instead of pm-hibernate ?

Idan.

[gaussian]

How do you use s2disk instead of pm-hibernate ?

Idan.

Install uswsusp package. After that you can try if its works from command line by trying

sudo s2disk


If it works, you can make it functional in GUI by editing manually the script

/usr/lib/hal/scripts/linux/hal-system-power-hibernate


There might be less hacky ways of making it the default hibernating program, but I am not aware of them.

[gaussian]

Can confirm now that hibernate works in Intrepid with pm-hibernate.