From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 6 17:31:20 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BA758106570F for ; Mon, 6 Jul 2009 17:31:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sam@freebsd.org) Received: from ebb.errno.com (ebb.errno.com [69.12.149.25]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E7068FC16 for ; Mon, 6 Jul 2009 17:31:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sam@freebsd.org) Received: from trouble.errno.com (trouble.errno.com [10.0.0.248]) (authenticated bits=0) by ebb.errno.com (8.13.6/8.12.6) with ESMTP id n66HVILQ012961 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO); Mon, 6 Jul 2009 10:31:19 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sam@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <4A5234E6.2000900@freebsd.org> Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 10:31:18 -0700 From: Sam Leffler Organization: FreeBSD Project User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.22 (X11/20090705) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Aragon Gouveia References: <18510.213.150.228.38.1246864978.squirrel@mail.magicbooks.org> <20090706100602.00003969@unknown> <12908.213.150.228.38.1246870577.squirrel@mail.magicbooks.org> <4A51F444.7050803@phat.za.net> In-Reply-To: <4A51F444.7050803@phat.za.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-DCC-sonic.net-Metrics: ebb.errno.com; whitelist Cc: Rene Schickbauer , Gergely CZUCZY , freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RFC: powerd Patch & proposed future changes [wifi tx power] X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:31:21 -0000 Aragon Gouveia wrote: > Rene Schickbauer wrote: >> Hi! >> >>> I think this is a very nice idea, especially the TFT backlight part. It >>> also might be useful to adjust the WiFi transmit power level according >>> to battery state. That can also save some power, especially on >>> portables. >> >> Yes, changing the transmit power would be possible. Although >> adjusting the >> transmit power via script on a *mobile* computer is likely to get the >> user >> offline rather quickly. >> >> On the other hand, powerd would just run a script. This script could >> start a >> user-written daemon to continually adjust power level.. and when ac is >> plugged in again, the script kills that daemon. I sincerely doubt >> that would >> save you any amount of power worth mentioning, though but may give you >> additional troubles. But maybe you could restrict an a/b/g card to >> b/g or a >> and thus save some power. > > FWIW, changing transmit power on my Intel 4965 based system made zero > difference to overall power consumption. Changing the tx power is unlikely to save you much. What you want to do is switch between sta mode power save when you switch between AC and battery and/or change the PS parameters depending on the power config and battery level. I don't recall if iwn is hooked up properly to ifconfig to control power save operation. FWIW wifi tx power control (TPC) is best used to avoid saturating the rx radio when in close proximity. It's also good to reduce the power so you don't splatter adjacent channels (mostly in 2.4GHz). Some devices do this automatically. Sam