Powertop

[curaga]

Title:          powertop.tcz
Description:    Powertop, power usage analyzer
Version:        1.11
Author:         Intel
Original-site:  http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/
Copying-policy: GPL
Size:      24K
Extension_by:   Curaga
Comments:       
Change-log:     
Current:        2009/09/12 Original

[bigpcman]

Title:          powertop.tcz
Description:    Powertop, power usage analyzer
Version:        1.11
Author:         Intel
Original-site:  http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/
Copying-policy: GPL
Size:      24K
Extension_by:   Curaga
Comments:       
Change-log:     
Current:        2009/09/12 Original

Thanks for the app. I was looking for something like this.

[bmarkus]

It requires kernel compiled with debugging and few other options. What is about the stock TC/MC kernel?

[curaga]

The timer stats are off, because they cause a performance penalty. Without them powertop won't show the percentages on wakeups, but will still show the other info (current power draw, estimated time, number of wakeups, current power state, suggestions for saving power).

[bmarkus]

Followung prerequisits listed on LessWatts.org:

What kernel options should I enable inside the kernel?

CONFIG_NO_HZ
CONFIG_HIGH_RES_TIMERS
CONFIG_HPET_TIMER
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND
CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND
CONFIG_SND_AC97_POWER_SAVE
CONFIG_TIMER_STATS

What kernel options should I disable inside the kernel?

CONFIG_IRQBALANCE
CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG

[curaga]

CONFIG_NO_HZ=y
CONFIG_HIGH_RES_TIMERS=y
CONFIG_HPET_TIMER=y
CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_GOV_ONDEMAND=m
CONFIG_USB_SUSPEND=y
CONFIG_SND_AC97_POWER_SAVE=y
CONFIG_SND_AC97_POWER_SAVE_DEFAULT=5
# CONFIG_ACPI_DEBUG is not set

They are recommendations for saving power, and good ones, beside the timer stats, which is only useful for powertop. It would actually increase power usage, since the performance drop causes tasks to take slightly longer.