Idle optimization

[notaz]

So I've managed to squeeze yet more by making use of the so called OFF mode of the SoC:

Run the update and enjoy (or suffer some new bugs, everything seems to be fine for me though).

I thought OFF mode was completely non-functional in 3.2 but it turns out to work at least on some parts of the SoC (power domains). Turning it on globally messes up GPIO state and things break badly though.

It's a shame it's impossible to turn off the nubs, attempting to do so results in some sort of leakage and high power usage. When this was noticed the rebirth/1GHz production was already started and trying to fix it would have resulted in delays and lost money for ED. Perhaps somebody could desolder the nub microcontrollers someday to see how much they actually eat.

Does loading the g_cdc module (by itself without having anything connected to the port) have an impact on power usage?

It fully supports PM and is supposed to be kept loaded. As long as there is no cable connected it should not draw any power.

@ notaz : thanks for the good job. I tried rmmod which switched off the hub, but you told
you also switched off the 5V somehow. How can I do this ? Mostly when I record from DVB-T afterwards I do a ffmpeg job which is running some hours. So I want to switch off the 5V to save battery. And maybe I can do a bash script to switch on USB and 5V just before the recording ? I have a GHz model.Is the USB 5V switched off when shutdown (My PC still has power on USB when shut off).

5V is supposed to turn off automatically as soon as you disable all it's users, which I listed in this post. You say it switched off the hub, so 5V was most likely disabled. You can try to play some audio and see if that turns on 5V on the USB port.

 

[fusion_power]

Still so many hidden secrets in the OMAP3, fascinating. Will the OMAP5 in the Pyra benefit from all these "small" features right from the beginning or do you have to start from scratch there again?
Good Job, notaz, as usual.

 

[levi]

Updated and rebooted this morning. So far everything seems to be working as expected. Battery monitor is being a little weird, so I can't see what the total runtime is projected to be yet.

 

[joachim]

@notaz : I am still using the old kernel (3.2.78) - no update. Is there any chance to do the
5V trick ( on/off via bash) with that. Right now the 5V stay on even when USB is switched
off.

 

[notaz]

It's possible but would need work. Why can't you just update? Here is a plain .tar.bz2 you can use:
http://notaz.gp2x.de/misc/pnd/oe_rootfs_extra_r32.tar.bz2

 

[joachim]

ok , got the file

So how do I install it (I am new to kernel things )?

Thanks

 

[levi]

FWiW, with this latest off-state change my Pandora still seems perfectly stable. Battery monitor has been a bit weird though - when I plugged it in after charging it overnight this morning, it only first of all reckoned there was -1h08m left. When it readjusted it reckoned there was only 24h left, but checking just now after about a half hour of music and about three hours idle, and it said 29h left.

And last night after the update and a day mostly idle it reckoned 40% at day end. It should still last the night out if I forget to charge it, but it's still a way off two days idle, it seems at the moment.

Still with TV out on. Haven't been able to figure out how to toggle it without needing to sudo it first.

Edit: @joachim Looks like it's a rootfs fragment, so just unpack it over the root of your FS (with the appropriate priviledges). It's got a kernel, drivers and some binary blobs in it.

 

[notaz]

So how do I install it (I am new to kernel things )?

You said you're running Slackware, so it depends on how Slackware does things, perhaps ask it's maintainer if you don't know yourself?

Battery monitor has been a bit weird though - when I plugged it in after charging it overnight this morning, it only first of all reckoned there was -1h08m left.

I forgot to say that negative time now shows time-to-full while charging.

Still with TV out on. Haven't been able to figure out how to toggle it without needing to sudo it first

What's wrong with sudo? If you're on SZ, it's in sudoers so won't ask for password. Just use "sudo -n /usr/pandora/scripts/op_tvout.sh -d" to disable and "sudo -n /usr/pandora/scripts/op_tvout.sh" to enable. The display subsystem eats a lot of power, this should make a huge difference.

 

[levi]

Thanks! I've bound op_tvout.sh -d to shift+ctrl+o and the opposite to s+c+p, and I'll report back in the morning what it says on a full charge.

I'd noticed that I needed to sudo the script for it to work, but I hadn't noticed that it wasn't asking for a password - I must have been thinking it'd cached it from a recent sudo command. For some reason I didn't think scripts could be added to sudoers, and I'd have to add the commands it executes like 'cat' to my sudoers, which I consider not the best security practice. Clearly I hadn't been thinking straight altogether!

 

[levi]

Okay, the battery monitor is clearly still a little upset with me. This morning on 100% charge is reckoned there was only 24h remaining, but that was higher a few minutes later and I've checked some 8 hours later and it reckons there's now over 40h left! The fact it only went down to 87% after that time including an hour of music is very promising.

A slightly weirdness I noticed last night though, on turning off USB host the light on my wifi stick stayed on, suggesting it was still powered. Indeed I've just checked now and it's still on (which is unusual, it usually turns itself off after a while). But provided it doesn't drop a chunk of percentage points before I turn in tonight, I'll try not charging it tonight and see how long I can get out of it.

 

[joachim]

@notaz: I copied the files and all seems working well. Thanks for the good job!

 

[Farox]

Just updated my pandora with this release and finally the annoying message "failed to execute login command" is gone!!
Good work @notaz

 

[levi]

53% when I just checked now (even with the wifi stick LED still on) which would suggest it should easily manage only being charged every other day provided I only use it for a little music!

I'll have to see how it lasts when I'm actually doing something more taxing with it. Oddly enough, I noticed Beebem rapidly drained the battery when I was testing it prior to all these idle changes if I left it on screen but apparently doing nothing.

 

[levi]

Okay, on the end of the second day since charge it was at 20%. That was after 37h of uptime, and it reckoned I could get another three hours out of it at that point, making a total of 40 hours runtime. Charging every other day seems pretty feasible now

Battery monitor is still a little unstable, but that's perhaps because I can't actually see what it says with tv out off, so I have to leave it for a while to settle in the 'off' state then flick TV out on and see what it says before it refreshes. It was saying 28h after charging to 97% and letting settle, but now it's saying 45h after being left to settle for longer, battery still at 97%.

 

[notaz]

So after @Zink 's lid-closed-backlight fix there are currently no more updates planned, maybe it's worth releasing SZ1.75 with all this stuff?

Would it be useful for anyone / does anyone still care?

 

[comradekingu]

Yes, cant find my charger, but when I do, update-time it is. Thank you.

 

[levi]

FWIW, I'm struggling with a bug that means xfce sometimes stops responding to my keyboard shortcuts, which stops me reenabling tv out when I want to look at the screen. So far it's done it once yesterday, and on forced rebooting today, when it woke up they didn't work either. You need to go back into settings and reconfigure them to make it work again.

No clue if this is anything to do with these updates though, since I wasn't switching TV out off and on before this.

 

[Linux-SWAT]

I use parts of the Zaxxon SD rootfs to build Slackware, so I'm interested in an up-to-date archive.

 

[Farox]

I think that will be nice to have

 

[lordbobjones]

Yes please! Thanks for your hard work!