High power consumption about xf86-input-mtrack HOT 5 CLOSED

How did you measure it? Powertop? I don't have access to MBP. Could you check consumption with synaptics and mtrack version v0.3.0? Do you observe increased power consumption all the time, or maybe only when scrolling? If scrolling is problematic please disable smooth scrolling and coasting and check power usage again. You can also check your Xorg.0.log for some debug logs - if extensive logging in on, it may increase power usage.

My initial thought is due to X11 timers, processor can't switch to idle mode. In this case v0.3.0 should consume less power. Another thing is that current implementation don't call (AFAIK) mtdev_idle function. Right now I suspect timers and scrolling, but you have to confirm.

edit: which kernel btw?

O my machine powertop reports ~6W with mtrack (browsing+music)

from xf86-input-mtrack.

I measured this using powertop, yes.

The power usage is almost constant (at 10W), even when I'm not touching the touchpad after more extensive measuring, I've noticed it actually varies 7W to 10W. With synaptics, it varies between 5-7W (which is, TBH, still more than I'd like).

Xorg logging is not very verbose at all -- aside from the initial startup logging, the log is mostly empty.

I'll try v0.3.0 and get back to you.

from xf86-input-mtrack.

Same power consumption with v0.3.0. Is there any way to make sure if it's a hardware issue, rather than driver-related?

from xf86-input-mtrack.

Did you calibrated your powertop?

You may try to disable/enable your device with xinput. Eventually you can make this[1] function empty and recompile/reinstall mtrack as dummy driver, and then check power consumption.

[1] https://github.com/p2rkw/xf86-input-mtrack/blob/master/driver/mtrack.c#L500

from xf86-input-mtrack.

Powertop behaviour is strange because it reports strange numbers right after start:
9.24 W 17,2 ms/s 3046,0 Interrupt [7] INT33C3:00
After few seconds report has changed to:

  4.06 W      1,0%                      Device         Display backlight
  706 mW     59,8 ms/s      88,1        Process        /usr/lib/firefox-esr/firefox-esr
  677 mW      2,2 ms/s     220,8        Interrupt      [7] INT33C3:00

(interrupt comes from my touchpad)

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