Comment 123 for bug 760131

While, I agree that this a huge problem overall, I'm think I have to agree with the idea that it's not a regression. If you read the comments on Phoronix from the actual path author (which was only linked on the little side bar of the page, not the main column), he makes the statement a little more clear.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=OTYwNA

The patch enables correct handling of the ASPM to the BIOS if it can handle it, otherwise it lets the kernel do it. However, it then depends on the hardware drivers to setup the correct values. That is the problem that is happening with this bug according to the author. The kernel is now handling the situation correctly, and it is revealing a lot of long standing bugs in a lot/most of the drivers and BIOSes in that they don't handle ASPM correctly, or coded to the fact that the kernel was incorrectly managing it before. Quite frankly, it sounds a lot like the whole IE6 problem plaguing web browsers.

Maybe this has something to do with the overall higher power consumption in Ubuntu often seen. On netbook in WinXP I can it down to 5W idling. In Ubuntu with same config, it won't go below 7-8W. The only thing I can think that would make the different is the driver settings/abilities.

So what is the correct fix? That, I don't know. BIOS and hardware drivers are real culprits it seems. Chances of BIOS fixes are probably slim for the vast majority of systems. And the drivers changes would probably be numerous and slow going.