Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2022 19:41:34 +0100
Author: Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>
From: Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>
To: Pim <pimlie@protonmail.com>
Cc: "~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org" <~alpine/users@lists.alpinelinux.org>,
 Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>
Subject: Re: high power consumption out of the box compared to
 debian/ubuntu
Message-ID: <20221228184134.B2vFN%steffen@sdaoden.eu>
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 Steffen Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>
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BlahBlahBlah: Any stupid boy can crush a beetle. But all the professors in
 the world can make no bugs.

Pim wrote in
 <lRPnfhZ7ZQP9nG0y-CGuZ7Yx9u-x97gk_XtSSEGnCcJKKgMM29gA4tVFkGSaXuuFRcf9xFP\
 6Jh8x-fOBw4bHpBLcGCira2geyYFQG3uj8rw=@protonmail.com>:
 |After installing Alpine Linux 3.17 on a new machine, it appears that \
 |out of the box Alpine is not very power efficient compared to both \
 |Debian as Ubuntu. After a clean install and running powertop --auto-tune, \
 |Alpine uses about 25 Watt when idle on this system while both Debian/Ubu\
 |ntu only use around 20 Watt.
 |
 |Any ideas where this rather big difference could be coming from? Or \
 |where to start even debugging this? Both Alpine as Ubuntu are using \
 |a 5.15 kernel (Debian uses 5.18) and comparing dmesg or lsmod output \
 |doesn't appear to show any major/clear differences.

Since the CONFIG_CPU_FREQ_* are in the kernel config
(CONFIG_ACPI_SYSTEM_POWER_STATES_SUPPORT=y is missing but i do not
know), compile cpupower from Linux/tools/power/cpupower and then
you can choose the governor.  Eg i have

  #?0|kent:~# v bin/cpupower.sh
  #!/bin/sh -
  # cpupower is in Linux src, tools/power/cpupower

  : ${HOSTNAME:=$(uname -n)}

  if [ -f /root/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/cpupower ]; then
          . /root/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/cpupower
  else
          logger -s -t /root/bin/cpupower.sh "MISS /root/hosts/${HOSTNAME}/cpupower"
          exit 1
  fi

  if command -v cpupower >/dev/null 2>&1; then :; else
          logger -s -t /root/bin/cpupower.sh 'no cpupower tool'
          exit 1
  fi

  if [ $# -gt 0 ]; then
          x=
          case $1 in
          lo) x=$lo;;
          med) x=$med;;
          hi) x=$hi;;
          default) x=$default;;
          75) x=$x75;;
          *) echo >&2 'Synopsis: cpupower [lo|med|hi|default[|75]]';;
          esac
          [ -n "$x" ] && cpupower frequency-set -u $x
  fi

  cpupower frequency-info

and

  #?0|kent:~# v hosts/kent/cpupower
  #@ /root/hosts/self/cpupower

  lo='400M -g powersave'
  med='1600M -g powersave'
  hi='3400M -g performance'
  default='3400M -g powersave'
  x75='2500M -g performance'

This surely helps a lot.  'Does here.

--steffen
|
|Der Kragenbaer,                The moon bear,
|der holt sich munter           he cheerfully and one by one
|einen nach dem anderen runter  wa.ks himself off
|(By Robert Gernhardt)