[Mageia-discuss] Why would runlevel 3 take more power?

blind Pete 0123peter at gmail.com
Wed Oct 5 02:39:37 CEST 2011


on Mon, 3 Oct 2011 12:35
in the Usenet newsgroup gmane.linux.mageia.user
Norman Carver wrote:

> Set up a new server for home use (DNS, files, etc.) and
> was gratified to find it using around 50 watts when the
> older machine it replaces was using around 90.
> However, just before sticking it in the closet, I changed
> it to runlevel 3 since I won't be using the GUI typically.
> I had assumed this might reduce power usage a bit
> more, but surprisingly it caused the power draw to go UP
> by about 3 watts!  I thought it a fluke, but verified that
> this is a real phenomenon:  the machine draws about
> 3 watts less when X and KDE are running than when
> they are not.  Seems like running more processes should
> cause more power usage.  Any ideas what might be
> causing what I see?  Odd.
> 
> I note that:
> (1) I set kernel scaling_governor parameter for
> each core to ondemand for any runlevel;
> (2) whether logged into KDE or just sitting at the
> DM the power usage is stabilizes at the same level
> when in runlevel 5;
> (3) I have not made any power settings in KDE and
> the power applet is not running;
> (4) runlevel 5 has all the same services as runleve 5
> plus: dm and atieventsd.
> 
> Thanks for any insights!
> Norm

Can you measure the power consumption of the monitor 
separately?  Or anything else that is plugged into 
the system.  If you like mucking around for the fun 
of mucking around, try unplugging things.  

-- 
blind Pete
Sig goes here...



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