Comment 75 for bug 760131

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Alessandro Lazzari (lazzari-alessandro) wrote :

@Mike Gratton

Video card drivers generate a VBLANK interrupt when using opengl, i.e. for compiz, as explained on the Powertop website:

http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/known.php

If you log in the 2D desktop, where this interrupt is not used, you'll see a good decrease in wake-ups.
Ubuntu one sync daemons also generate a good amount of interrupts and, along with the opengl issue of above, they seem to contribute to the general increase in consumption noticed after Lucid.

However, if you experience 500 - 600/s just from interprocessor interrupts, there's probably a kernel issue at work here, but I believe that there's also an added increase in consumption due to the overall changes in the various OS's.

Anyway, on Natty stock 2.6.38 kernel, switching to 2D desktop and stopping Ubuntu one daemons, shows a decrease in wakeups from the 120 - 150 range to 40 - 60, on my Vaio VGN-SR21M.