Realtek codec eating up battery?

Realtek codec eating up battery?

[Norbert Preining]

Dear all,

(please Cc)

running a recent git kernel from today, I see the following in powertop:
  1.02 W    100.0%    Device         Audio codec hwC0D0: Realtek

I am quite sure that was not the case in former times, so I wanted to ask
if you think this is a kernel change or a user space change that is
responsible for that?

AFAIR before I was running on top of git 7c427f45, now
on git 6c23b8e9 and there have been quite some changes regarding realtek
in the meantime:
    * tag 'sound-3.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound:
      ALSA: hda/realtek - Fix mem leak (and rid us of trailing whitespace).
      ALSA: hda/realtek - Add quirk for Mac Pro 5,1 machines
      ALSA: hda/realtek - Add a fixup entry for Acer Aspire 8940G
      ALSA: hda/realtek - Fix GPIO1 setup for Acer Aspire 4930 & co
      ALSA: hda/realtek - Add a few ALC882 model strings back

output of dmesg wrt realtek/hda:
[   20.952213] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X
[   21.004975] hda_codec: ALC262: SKU not ready 0x411111f0
[   21.008167] input: HDA Digital PCBeep as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/input/input10
[   21.011878] input: HDA Intel Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input11
[   21.013351] input: HDA Intel Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input12


Thanks a lot and all the best

Norbert
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Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
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Re: Realtek codec eating up battery?

[Takashi Iwai]

At Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:38:13 +0900,
Norbert Preining wrote:
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> (please Cc)
> 
> running a recent git kernel from today, I see the following in powertop:
>   1.02 W    100.0%    Device         Audio codec hwC0D0: Realtek
> 
> I am quite sure that was not the case in former times, so I wanted to ask
> if you think this is a kernel change or a user space change that is
> responsible for that?

There should be no kernel change for such a problem.

Basically the above message means that no power-saving feature is
kicked off.

Check your mixer setup whether you enabled any analog-loopback
controls such as "Mic Playback" or "Line Playback" mutes.  If any of
these is turned on, the power-saving is suppressed.

If it still doesn't change the behavior, please give alsa-info.sh
output (run with --no-upload option).


thanks,

Takashi

> AFAIR before I was running on top of git 7c427f45, now
> on git 6c23b8e9 and there have been quite some changes regarding realtek
> in the meantime:
>     * tag 'sound-3.4' of git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/tiwai/sound:
>       ALSA: hda/realtek - Fix mem leak (and rid us of trailing whitespace).
>       ALSA: hda/realtek - Add quirk for Mac Pro 5,1 machines
>       ALSA: hda/realtek - Add a fixup entry for Acer Aspire 8940G
>       ALSA: hda/realtek - Fix GPIO1 setup for Acer Aspire 4930 & co
>       ALSA: hda/realtek - Add a few ALC882 model strings back
> 
> output of dmesg wrt realtek/hda:
> [   20.952213] snd_hda_intel 0000:00:1b.0: irq 47 for MSI/MSI-X
> [   21.004975] hda_codec: ALC262: SKU not ready 0x411111f0
> [   21.008167] input: HDA Digital PCBeep as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/input/input10
> [   21.011878] input: HDA Intel Mic as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input11
> [   21.013351] input: HDA Intel Headphone as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1b.0/sound/card0/input12
> 
> 
> Thanks a lot and all the best
> 
> Norbert
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
> JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
> DSA: 0x09C5B094   fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> `You know they've reintroduced the death penalty for
> insurance company directors?'
> No I didn't. For what offence?'
> Trillian frowned.
> `What do you mean, offence?'
> `I see.'
>                  --- Evidence that there will be some justice in the Universe
>                  --- eventually.
>                  --- Douglas Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
> 

Re: Realtek codec eating up battery?

[Norbert Preining]

Hi Iwai-san,

On Mo, 16 Apr 2012, Takashi Iwai wrote:
> There should be no kernel change for such a problem.

Thanks.

> Basically the above message means that no power-saving feature is
> kicked off.

Indeed, I now installed laptop-mode-tools and suddenly the 
HDA disappeared from the list of power consumers ..

I don't know *what* has changed in Debian/sid recently that this
not-saving became the default, but it happened, because I regularly
check with powertop and never saw the HDA before.

Anyway, thanks, back to normal.

Best wishes

Norbert
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Norbert Preining            preining@{jaist.ac.jp, logic.at, debian.org}
JAIST, Japan                                 TeX Live & Debian Developer
DSA: 0x09C5B094   fp: 14DF 2E6C 0307 BE6D AD76  A9C0 D2BF 4AA3 09C5 B094
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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couldn't trust the thinking of a man who takes the Universe
- if there is one - for granted.
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