Powerdevil fails, Energy settings unavailable

[renkforce]

After performing the latest stable updates (2023-11-06) the Powerdevil service fails to start. This results in power settings being unavailable and screen timeout not working. Also the energy applet is consequently disabled. Before the update it was working fine.

This issue is also being discussed in the KDE bugtracker (not allowed to post links). Please see the journal below.

Anything I could do on my end to fix this and re-enable power saving?

Log:

Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET systemd[955]: Starting Powerdevil...
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET libddcutil[481271]: Initializing libddcutil.  ddcutil version: 2.0.0, shared library: /usr/lib/libddcutil.so.5.0.0
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET libddcutil[481271]: Library initialization complete.
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-1: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-2: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-3: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-4: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-5: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-6: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-7: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-8: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-9: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-10: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-11: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:42 CET org_kde_powerdevil[481271]: Open failed for /dev/i2c-12: errno=EACCES(13): Permission denied
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:44 CET libddcutil[481271]: busno=15, sleep-multiplier =  2,00. Testing for supported feature 0x10 returned Error_Info[DDCRC_RETRIES in ddc_write_read_with_retry, causes: DDCRC_DDC_DATA(10)]
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:44 CET libddcutil[481271]: busno=16, sleep-multiplier =  1,30. Testing for supported feature 0x10 returned Error_Info[EIO in ddc_write_read_with_retry, causes: EIO]
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:46 CET libddcutil[481271]: busno=18, sleep-multiplier =  2,00. Testing for supported feature 0x10 returned Error_Info[DDCRC_RETRIES in ddc_write_read_with_retry, causes: DDCRC_READ_ALL_ZERO, DDCRC_DDC_DATA(3), DDCRC_READ_ALL_ZERO, DDCRC_DDC_DATA(3), DDCRC_READ_ALL_ZERO(2)]
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:46 CET libddcutil[481271]: busno=19, sleep-multiplier =  2,00. Testing for supported feature 0x10 returned Error_Info[DDCRC_RETRIES in ddc_write_read_with_retry, causes: ETIMEDOUT(10)]
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:46 CET libddcutil[481271]: busno=20, sleep-multiplier =  2,00. Testing for supported feature 0x10 returned Error_Info[DDCRC_RETRIES in ddc_write_read_with_retry, causes: ETIMEDOUT(10)]
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:48 CET systemd[955]: plasma-powerdevil.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:48 CET systemd[955]: plasma-powerdevil.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:48 CET systemd[955]: Failed to start Powerdevil.
Tue 2023-11-07 17:03:48 CET systemd[955]: plasma-powerdevil.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5328.

[renkforce]

Can confirm downgrading the following packages resolve this issue for the moment, as explained in the upstream bug tracker:

ddcutil-1.4.1-1 (downgraded from ddcutil-2.0.0-1)
powerdevil-5.27.9-1 (downgraded from powerdevil-5.27.9-2)

[soundofthunder]

This might be something @philm should be aware of, if he isn’t already.

[MrLavender]

Bug tracker link is 476375 – Powerdevil fails to start with ddcutil-2.0.0, spikes cpu usage to max every few seconds

[soundofthunder]

Related:

Frame drops below Vsync every coupel of secound, but killall org_kde_powerdevil fixes it

Hello everyone this is my first post so please bear with me. But I changed from Windows mid 2023 and have not looked back. It’s been great and I have learned so much, having fun all the while. but since the last update sometime last week. I have noticed if I am watching YouTube or playing any video game. very 10-20 seconds my FPS drops below Vsync. With my partner’s help we looked through the active processes in the system monitor while a game was running and spotted org_kde_powerdevil would ju…

[1efaf7d71a8637c6800a]

@renkforce

powerdevil-5.27.9-1

Where can I browse arch packages and find this specific 1?
I don’t, in my cache.

[soundofthunder]

@1efaf7d71a8637c6800a

Where can I browse arch packages and find this specific 1?
I don’t, in my cache.

powerdevil-dev_5.27.9-1_amd64.deb seems available, but in Arch repos powerdevil 5.27.9-2 seems to have superseded 5.27.9-1.

Perhaps the maintainer Antonio Rojas still has the previous version, if specifically needed.

There is also powerdevil 5.27.80-1 in KDE-unstable; albeit not the same version

[MrLavender]

If it’s not in cache use the downgrade tool - Downgrading packages - Manjaro

[Nicomo]

noticed this a few days ago too, according to my system manager it consumes roughly 17-25% of my cpu time

Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: Starting Powerdevil...
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 dbus-daemon[547]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.powerdevil.discretegpuhelper' requested by ':1.25' (uid=1000 pid=892 comm="/usr/lib/org_kde_powerdevil") (using servicehelper)
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 dbus-daemon[547]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.powerdevil.discretegpuhelper'
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 dbus-daemon[547]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper' requested by ':1.25' (uid=1000 pid=892 comm="/usr/lib/org_kde_powerdevil") (using servicehelper)
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 dbus-daemon[547]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper'
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 dbus-daemon[547]: [system] Activating service name='org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper' requested by ':1.25' (uid=1000 pid=892 comm="/usr/lib/org_kde_powerdevil") (using servicehelper)
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 backlighthelper[944]: org.kde.powerdevil: no kernel backlight interface found
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 dbus-daemon[547]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper'
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 org_kde_powerdevil[892]: org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper.getthreshold failed "Charge thresholds are not supported by the kernel for this hardware"
Nov 11 09:06:37 lightning-box1 org_kde_powerdevil[892]: org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.backlighthelper.brightness failed
Nov 11 09:06:38 lightning-box1 kded5[839]: kscreen.kded: PowerDevil SuspendSession action not available!
Nov 11 09:06:42 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: plasma-powerdevil.service: start operation timed out. Terminating.
Nov 11 09:06:43 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: plasma-powerdevil.service: Failed with result 'timeout'.
Nov 11 09:06:43 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: Failed to start Powerdevil.
Nov 11 09:06:43 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: plasma-powerdevil.service: Consumed 5.354s CPU time.
Nov 11 09:06:43 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: plasma-powerdevil.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Nov 11 09:06:43 lightning-box1 systemd[729]: Starting Powerdevil...
Nov 11 09:06:43 lightning-box1 org_kde_powerdevil[1132]: org.kde.powerdevil: org.kde.powerdevil.chargethresholdhelper.getthreshold failed "Charge thresholds are not supported by the kernel for this hardware"

^ and this repeats over and over again.

Power management settings are inaccessible, any news on a fix apart from downgrading?

[soundofthunder]

@Nicomo

Power management settings are inaccessible, any news on a fix apart from downgrading?

Which kernel are you using?

[Nicomo]

6.1.60-1-MANJARO (64-bit)

[1efaf7d71a8637c6800a]

@MrLavender

If it’s not in cache use the downgrade tool - Downgrading packages - Manjaro

downgrade also pulls the package versions from cache i.e. for me it’s either …8.2 or …9.2
Which doesn’t get me a fully featured Plasma.
My only solution would be Timeshifting back to Plasma 5.27.8 (state before the latest Stable update) iff I can not find that …9.1 version somewhere. I would not want to try installing a Debian package in an Arch based system

Wait wait… it’s linked in the thread below https://archive.archlinux.org/packages/p/powerdevil/powerdevil-5.27.9-1-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst
I’m just missing its signature now

@Nicomo

Power management settings are inaccessible, any news on a fix apart from downgrading?

In the thread I get the felling they are still searching for the root of all evil in Powerdevil. But Nate was on it with his pointed stick a few days ago. 476375 – Powerdevil fails to start with ddcutil-2.0.0, spikes cpu usage to max every few seconds

[cscs]

manjaro-downgrade should be used instead.

@1efaf7d71a8637c6800a

476375 – Powerdevil fails to start with ddcutil-2.0.0, spikes cpu usage to max every few seconds

For a better version of the workaround mentioned in this link see the other thread:

Frame drops below Vsync every coupel of secound, but killall org_kde_powerdevil fixes it

Hullo, For some reason they suggest editing /etc/xdg/autostart/powerdevil.desktop I will show you how to do this assuming the intended changes are desirable; Copy the powerdevil.desktop file from the system autostart directory to the one in your HOME, after making sure it exists: mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart cp /etc/xdg/autostart/powerdevil.desktop ~/.config/autostart/powerdevil.desktop Then edit the copied file, such as with micro: micro ~/.config/autostart/powerdevil.desktop To chan…

[1efaf7d71a8637c6800a]

Thank you @cscs. Although I did not include the signature, I have a fully featured system again, by downgrading

@renkforce

ddcutil-1.4.1-1 (downgraded from ddcutil-2.0.0-1)
powerdevil-5.27.9-1 (downgraded from powerdevil-5.27.9-2)

Powerdevil I manually downloaded from the link above.
I had to reboot to get to this fully featured result result.

Will install manjaro-downgrade now and use it next time. Does it take dependencies better in2 account?

[cscs]

@1efaf7d71a8637c6800a

Does it take dependencies better in2 account?

It uses manjaro archive instead of arch … so yes, and including our overlays and unique packages.
(no mhwd or pamac package cached in arch linux archive)

[1efaf7d71a8637c6800a]

Hm thank you @cscs. Now do I need to compare the two downgraded versions, i. e. are they different in Arch vs Manjaro archives?

[cscs]

In this case we dont augment those packages and get them straight from arch, so so long as the versions line up it should be fine.

[1efaf7d71a8637c6800a]

Ok in this case I want to give workaround commands for this thread or should people rather use your file editing solution @cscs? The manjaro-downgrade workaround assumes once this is fixed people do not need to do anything else but apply the 2 updates the normal way… Versus your linked solution probably needs file editing again.

[cscs]

Both are workarounds, and both are somewhat distasteful.
Its a bug that needs to be fixed. When the new version lands that will be the real solution.

[1efaf7d71a8637c6800a]

Strange thing though is that my laptop didn’t have to downgrade, everything worked out-of-the-box, prbb. due to it having a battery, so the bug does not apply to it, at least on the LTE kernel.

@cscs

Both are workarounds, and both are somewhat distasteful.
Its a bug that needs to be fixed. When the new version lands that will be the real solution.

I was wondering and maybe you know: The brightness level had a slider in systray on the …9.2 version accompanied with the (non-working, because it doesn’t undim upon usage) auto-dim in System Settings > Energy Saving. It was set to 80% by default.
Right now there’s no gui for that is there? I mean with Powerdevil …9.1 ? I once had a widget but I could either use Night Color OR brightness with that.

---

Log out of your session
CTRL+ALT+F3
login: username
your password
sudo manjaro-downgrade powerdevil
select version powerdevil-5.27.9-1 and confirm
sudo manjaro-downgrade ddcutil
select version ddcutil-1.4.1-1 and confirm
reboot
If either of the versions is not there you need to download them and copy or move them to /var/cache/pacman/pkg
For this you need sudo privileges and redo the above. You’ll get out of TTY by CTRL+ALT+F2