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Linux Kernel Suffering Power Management Regression?

Posted by Soulskill on from the year-of-linux-on-the-coppertop dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It appears that there's a big power management regression in the Linux kernel for the 2.6.38 and 2.6.39 development releases, including the kernel to ship with Ubuntu 11.04 next week. It's reportedly causing a 10~30% increase in power consumption on many laptop computers."

9 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Only Power Users will notice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think this is something that only Power Users will notice. It's not something important for the common user.

    1. Re:Only Power Users will notice by drb226 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think this is something that only Power Users will notice. It's not something important for the common user.

      I think a lot of people would notice if their laptop suddenly got a third less battery life.

      Excuse me sir, I believe your pun detector is broken.

    2. Re:Only Power Users will notice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      He might not have the capacity to appreciate such humor.

  2. Re:Linus Torvalds and regression? by asdf7890 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is presumably not an intentional regression though, more likely just some new/updated code that is causing the CPU to be more busy when the machine is effectively idle than it was previously. It isn't like someone said "hey, Linus, do you mind if I make the kernel eat more power?"!

  3. Re:Linus Torvalds and regression? by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ever notice it is only Phoronix reporting that?
    When did steam come to linux again?

    Sorry, but I want to see this backed up another source before I just go believing it.

  4. Re:Linus Torvalds and regression? by Kjella · · Score: 4, Informative

    Well, what Linus is focused on is breaking user code - if it worked in a released kernel, you will not break it in any future kernel. I don't think there's any strict rule that performance must always be better or power consumption lower. Particularly if you're not doing something "right" and have to add additional checks/locks/synchronization for corner cases that can slow you down, they generally value correctness over performance. That's the case in many of Phoronix' sensationalist news, a development release is very fast but when you make it work 'right' the performance is no longer that impressive. That stuff will happen as close to the bleeding edge as most of the things they report on are. Of course, they do find real regressions too but it's easy to get the wrong impression...

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  5. Re:Linus Torvalds and regression? by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ever notice it is only Phoronix reporting that?

    Do you know of any other organization with a large automated regression testing system for linux kernels? That's not just me being snarky, its a serious question - who else beside phoronix is doing this sort of wide-scale testing on a constant basis?

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  6. Re:Overheating probs by bmo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    >you think you need a new machine

    Either that or open it up and blow out the dust.

    Works wonders for overheating, dontchaknow.

    Cheap/easy fixes first. Always.

    --
    BMO

  7. how about basic features by perotbot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I lost the ability to hibernate my machines in the last few kernels, how about fixing that?

    --
    ~corporate tool, but employed~