Poor battery life on UL30VT due to NVidia graphics active

[Stuart Bishop]

The ASUS UL30VT has two graphics cards like many modern laptops. Unfortunately, the higher powered NVidia g210m is active by default, chewing through an additional 4 watts of power and reducing battery life by a few hours.

This will be a non-issue when Bug #312756 is fixed (graphics card hot switch). In the interim, laptop users need some way of disabling high powered graphics cards to conserve power. This is not possible in the ASUS UL30VT.

A partial solution is available at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1366605 which provides a package that disables the NVidia card. Unfortunately, the card is reactivated when resuming from suspend and not enabled by default on boot.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: linux-image-2.6.32-23-generic 2.6.32-23.37
Regression: No
Reproducible: Yes
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-23.37-generic 2.6.32.15+drm33.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-23-generic x86_64
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.21.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC269 Analog [ALC269 Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: stub 1669 F.... pulseaudio
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xfcbf4000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ALC269'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,104313a3,00100004'
   Controls : 13
   Simple ctrls : 8
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfe97c000 irq 16'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia ID b'
   Components : 'HDA:10de000b,10de0101,00100100'
   Controls : 0
   Simple ctrls : 0
Card1.Amixer.values:

Date: Thu Jul 8 12:00:37 2010
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=f811cf52-6896-4412-9ce1-bfb7b100a321
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
MachineType: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. UL30VT
ProcCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.32-23-generic root=UUID=5c00a75e-2514-46d7-815d-59bb5f73ee1c ro quiet splash
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
RelatedPackageVersions: linux-firmware 1.34.1
SourcePackage: linux
dmi.bios.date: 11/04/2009
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: 203
dmi.board.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.board.name: UL30VT
dmi.board.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.board.version: 1.0
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: ATN12345678901234567
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
dmi.chassis.version: 1.0
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvr203:bd11/04/2009:svnASUSTeKComputerInc.:pnUL30VT:pvr1.0:rvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:rnUL30VT:rvr1.0:cvnASUSTeKComputerInc.:ct10:cvr1.0:
dmi.product.name: UL30VT
dmi.product.version: 1.0
dmi.sys.vendor: ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
---
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100429)
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=en_AU:en_GB:en
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_AU.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Tags: lucid
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-020635rc1-generic x86_64
UnreportableReason: The running kernel is not an Ubuntu kernel
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

Hi Stuart,

If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text. Please let us know your results.

Thanks in advance.

    [This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Stuart Bishop (stub)]

Identical behavior using Linux oops 2.6.35-020635rc1-generic #020635rc1 SMP Tue Jun 1 17:27:30 UTC 2010 x86_64 GNU/Linux

[Jeremy Foshee (jeremyfoshee)]

This bug report was marked as Incomplete and has not had any updated comments for quite some time. As a result this bug is being closed. Please reopen if this is still an issue in the current Ubuntu development release http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ . Also, please be sure to provide any requested information that may have been missing. To reopen the bug, click on the current status under the Status column and change the status back to "New". Thanks.

[This is an automated message. Apologies if it has reached you inappropriately; please just reply to this message indicating so.]

[Stuart Bishop (stub)]

This is still happening in current maverick

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Stuart Bishop, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.13-rc3

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]