# \[TRACKING\] Touchpad interrupts & battery usage issues (idma64.2) **URL:** \ **Category:** Linux\ **Created:** [January 12, 2022, 8:02am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630 "2022-01-12T08:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2022, 8:02am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/1 "2022-01-12T08:02:29Z")
# Issue background So to preface I have been encountering this issue since I first got my framework laptop back in October but I finally seem to have narrowed down the cause (but not a fix). There is an issue where touchpad input causes seemingly abnormal amount of interrupts. This ends up causing extremely high number of context switches and atomic work creating high power usage no matter the CPU usage or performance settings (excerpt from powertop included below). It occurs in TTY, Wayland, and X11. I included all my observations but I am not entirely sure of the context around the data and how to fix. I am running NixOS on kernel `5.15.2` but this issue has been around since I started with Framework at `5.12.5`. I have never experienced it working. There are a few issues I have found that are seemingly related: # Interrupt benchmarks on X11 Moving the cursor causes extraordinarily high power usage as a result of interrupts. Only the terminal was open for these. As I continue to move the cursor, power usage continues to increase. Excerpt from dstat history showing total interrupts (int), context switches (csw), and specific interrupts (30, 186, 188) in single second intervals. When touching the touchpad it produces ~3000 interrupts/second, and drops to zero is when mouse isn’t moving. Note: the keyboard seems to be correct and produces exactly two interrupts per key press (so around 5-20 interrupts per second). ```auto ----system---- ---system-- ----interrupts--- time | int csw | 30 186 188 12-01 02:24:00|4291 4948 | 699 376 45 12-01 02:24:01|1529 761 | 0 26 0 12-01 02:24:02|1381 696 | 0 20 0 12-01 02:24:03|4120 2941 |1298 229 60 12-01 02:24:04|9776 11k|3111 616 142 12-01 02:24:05| 11k 14k|2481 799 127 12-01 02:24:06| 12k 18k|2679 1040 142 12-01 02:24:07| 11k 14k|2735 949 142 12-01 02:24:08| 12k 18k|3112 1054 142 12-01 02:24:09| 11k 15k|2871 1030 142 12-01 02:24:10|9865 12k|3067 899 142 12-01 02:24:11|8589 8820 |3064 899 142 12-01 02:24:12|8383 8291 |3065 782 142 12-01 02:24:13|6050 3717 |2540 449 118 12-01 02:24:14|1435 687 | 0 22 0 12-01 02:24:15|1490 801 | 0 22 0 12-01 02:24:16|1329 599 | 0 19 0 12-01 02:24:17|1487 762 | 0 23 0 12-01 02:24:18|1695 1178 | 0 29 0 ``` The detailed excerpt from `/proc/interrupts`. Included PIXA as that I believe is the touchpad and it occasionally hits high power usage. ```auto CPU0 CPU1 CPU2 CPU3 CPU4 CPU5 CPU6 CPU7 30: 0 0 2010982 0 0 0 0 0 IR-IO-APIC 30-fasteoi idma64.2, i2c_designware.2 186: 0 0 0 0 1022896 0 0 0 IR-PCI-MSI 32768-edge i915 188: 0 0 0 0 122111 0 0 0 INT34C5:00 3 PIXA3854:00t ``` Some other less relevant ones, not sure what they mean: ```auto NMI: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Non-maskable interrupts LOC: 893261 740162 921499 767780 1388452 695251 670815 687432 Local timer interrupts SPU: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Spurious interrupts PMI: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Performance monitoring interrupts IWI: 20585 16309 13147 11025 720474 16316 15925 9071 IRQ work interrupts RTR: 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 APIC ICR read retries RES: 12691 11043 21085 15608 25167 11877 12430 24970 Rescheduling interrupts CAL: 188599 139740 122271 141921 94140 108913 115163 108439 Function call interrupts TLB: 92443 79167 77591 104669 59372 72812 80577 74698 TLB shootdowns ``` # Powertop benchmarks on Wayland (battery power) Now for the fun powertop. For this I was on wayland. The first benchmark the only thing running was powertop (with a few background services) in a full screen terminal. I have extremely conservative power settings but notice all the top process power users when I am using the touchpad. Powertop isn’t the most accurate but it definitely wouldn’t be _that_ wrong. ```auto The battery reports a discharge rate of 8.90 W The energy consumed was 202 J The estimated remaining time is 3 hours, 59 minutes Summary: 1412.0 wakeups/second, 0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 28.9% CPU use Power est. Usage Events/s Category Description 1.77 W 30.0% Device Display backlight 1.32 W 6.9 ms/s 454.0 Timer tick_sched_timer 782 mW 1.9 pkts/s Device Network interface: wlp170s0 (iwlwifi) 582 mW 3.0 ms/s 199.7 Interrupt [30] idma64.2 354 mW 7.0 ms/s 119.0 Process [PID 1418] [irq/188-PIXA385] 332 mW 142.7 ms/s 50.7 kWork intel_atomic_commit_work 193 mW 35.2 ms/s 51.0 Process [PID 9543] /nix/store/65ihhv3wk5npiccq4y9dapqw1mf70wfb-dwl-jd-0.1/bin/dwl -s /nix/store/d8ba2wsv5ppjgc0l3 189 mW 1.3 ms/s 64.6 Process [PID 1641] /nix/store/cw74cxb9jxssdvf5lqcyjvc2hlr9larj-keybase-5.8.1/bin/keybase service --auto-forked 181 mW 539.2 µs/s 62.4 kWork rps_work 169 mW 561.1 µs/s 58.0 Process [PID 14] [rcu_sched] 148 mW 1.1 ms/s 50.8 kWork intel_atomic_cleanup_work 115 mW 0.9 ms/s 39.4 kWork engine_retire ``` Here is a powertop when watching a 4K video on firefox (albeit not hardware accelerated). ```auto The battery reports a discharge rate of 16.9 W The energy consumed was 322 J The estimated remaining time is 2 hours, 0 minutes Summary: 1665.1 wakeups/second, 0.0 GPU ops/seconds, 0.0 VFS ops/sec and 302.5% CPU use Power est. Usage Events/s Category Description 3.48 W 2574 ms/s 13.9 kWork intel_atomic_commit_work 3.41 W 1294 pkts/s Device Network interface: wlp170s0 (iwlwifi) 2.61 W 0.0 µs/s 0.00 Process [PID 2087] /nix/store/9658in1mpbz3a7921sqgjfrplrbdbd64-pipewire-0.3.42/bin/pipewire 1.62 W 30.0% Device Display backlight 1.57 W 16.0 ms/s 549.4 Timer tick_sched_timer 323 mW 186.4 ms/s 26.3 Process [PID 10852] /nix/store/32xbijs1iz5hlzvx28mip7ix68dvhcj6-firefox-95.0.2/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc - 254 mW 682.7 µs/s 90.0 kWork flush_to_ldisc 226 mW 11.6 ms/s 74.7 Process [PID 9874] /nix/store/qq2ik3vsyh3ag998zxl1gcngf07bc619-foot-1.10.3/bin/foot 207 mW 3.8 ms/s 71.9 Process [PID 11195] /nix/store/32xbijs1iz5hlzvx28mip7ix68dvhcj6-firefox-95.0.2/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc - 162 mW 0.9 ms/s 57.3 kWork rps_work 150 mW 2.3 ms/s 52.1 Interrupt [30] idma64.2 138 mW 4.0 ms/s 47.4 Process [PID 11148] /nix/store/32xbijs1iz5hlzvx28mip7ix68dvhcj6-firefox-95.0.2/lib/firefox/firefox -contentproc - 137 mW 2.4 ms/s 47.6 Process [PID 10645] /nix/store/32xbijs1iz5hlzvx28mip7ix68dvhcj6-firefox-95.0.2/bin/.firefox-wrapped 135 mW 0.8 ms/s 47.7 kWork iwl_pcie_rx_allocator_work ``` Note on X11 this is way worse (20+ watt power usage) and a USB 2.0 Goodix device appears. 😕 # Finishing off with TTY Same dstat as X11 test on the tty: ```auto ----system---- ---system-- ----interrupts--- time | int csw | 30 186 188 12-01 02:58:00|4997 5652 | 792 398 48 12-01 02:58:01| 364 591 | 0 0 0 12-01 02:58:02| 983 655 | 591 0 50 12-01 02:58:03|2706 1252 |1825 0 132 12-01 02:58:04|2221 1000 |1586 0 123 12-01 02:58:05|2226 1061 |1569 0 123 12-01 02:58:06|1076 703 | 651 0 50 12-01 02:58:07| 355 563 | 0 0 0 ``` Exact same issues appear with the touchpad. And the same power issues (albeit this time with around 5-6 watt power usage as there are no graphics). Still too high though. Now that you have seen all the observations, I am hoping someone with the right knowledge can point me in the direction of a fix! Took me a few months to learn linux well enough to pinpoint the exact issue and know I wasn’t crazy so I am hoping there is a solution. ---
**Author:** ![nrp](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/nrp/32/352_2.png) [@nrp](https://community.frame.work/u/nrp)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 1:22am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/2 "2022-01-13T01:22:41Z")
Would you be able to check if this also occurs on other kernel versions? One fast way to check that would be a Fedora 35 or Ubuntu 21.10 Live USB. ---
**Author:** ![Kieran\_Levin](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/kieran_levin/32/110_2.png) [@Kieran\_Levin](https://community.frame.work/u/Kieran_Levin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 1:32am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/3 "2022-01-13T01:32:07Z")
Interesting. We would expect around 140 hardware interrupts/second from the touchpad. For your note about the usb goodix device. This is the fingerprint reader. ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 2:17am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/4 "2022-01-13T02:17:24Z")
Perfect (in terms of finding the issue 🙂 )! Been just working around the high power consumption as it wasn’t too bad as I mainly do terminal work. I started Linux with the framework so didn’t have the capabilities to debug this until recently. @nrp In terms of another distro (eg Ubuntu) I’ll try out a usb boot sometime in the next few days. If you have any specific Linux kernel versions you know that work, let me know as I can change my NixOS config to pin to it (only cost is having to compile from source). ---
**Author:** ![2disbetter](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/2disbetter/32/1176_2.png) [@2disbetter](https://community.frame.work/u/2disbetter)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2022, 11:52am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/5 "2022-01-13T11:52:10Z")
My several times on Ubuntu with my Framework were with Fedora 34 and Ubuntu 20.04 / 21.04. IN Federa the only issue I had was occasional stops when using the touchpad. It was minor and didn’t bother me at all. I chalked it up to being Linux. On Ubuntu I did not have these problems. Why that is the case, I can’t say. ---
**Author:** ![Linen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Linen](https://community.frame.work/u/Linen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2022, 3:26am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/6 "2022-01-14T03:26:46Z")
Tested mine with the latest Arch 5.16 kernel and I’m only hitting ~5k at most in `system int and csw`, however in powertop I am getting almost the same Usage and Events/s in `idma64.2`. ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_Johnson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/duane_johnson/32/2903_2.png) [@Duane\_Johnson](https://community.frame.work/u/Duane_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2022, 4:44am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/7 "2022-03-10T04:44:48Z")
Has anyone identified the root cause on this? I’m also seeing way too many interrupts, and I’ve noticed that it may be the cause of some mysterious audio stuttering that I had attributed to web browsing. The stuttering only occurs when I am moving the pointer (via touchpad) or swiping (gestures) on the touchpad, however. ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_Johnson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/duane_johnson/32/2903_2.png) [@Duane\_Johnson](https://community.frame.work/u/Duane_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2022, 4:29am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/8 "2022-03-25T04:29:56Z")
A possible clue: The following procedure reduces IRQ/sec from thousands to about 100 or so: ```auto rmmod intel_lpss_pci ``` suspend to ram, wait a few seconds, resume, reload the kernel module ```auto modprobe intel_lpss_pci ``` (from [this askubuntu q/a](https://askubuntu.com/a/1313656/975328)) ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 7:59pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/9 "2022-03-26T19:59:20Z")
@Duane_Johnson What kernel version are you on? I tried that procedure (going to S3 sleep for a few seconds) but unfortunately had no change in IRQ/sec. ---
**Author:** ![Duane\_Johnson](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/duane_johnson/32/2903_2.png) [@Duane\_Johnson](https://community.frame.work/u/Duane_Johnson)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 8:57pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/10 "2022-03-26T20:57:28Z")
Kernel: > 5.16.11-76051611-generic I’m having doubts now about whether that procedure fixed anything, because I did a reboot and tested IRQ/sec and it’s still at a reasonable 100-or-so per second. So perhaps something else fixed this issue for me, and I just didn’t know it at the time… ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2022, 10:13pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/11 "2022-03-26T22:13:35Z")
Interesting, I pinned my kernel to 5.16.11 but still have the same interrupts. What distribution are you running? I am on NixOS so running the official release but your kernel is a distribution provided one. Fingers crossed they might be applying a patch that fixes the issue. ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2022, 9:00pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/12 "2022-03-31T21:00:17Z")
Spent some more time investigating and I think it must be a hardware issue. On NixOS I started by disabling kernel modules. When disabling `intel_lpss_pci` IRQ 30 shuts off and it switches to IRQ 16 (i8042) with around 500 interrupts/sec. Multitouch gestures are disabled so I believe it is just switching to psmouse. Exact same thing occurs when disabling any of the `i2c` related kernel modules. 500 I believe is still too high based on Kieran’s response earlier so it isn’t a bug in the multitouch kernel drivers. I finally got around to live booting Fedora and the same 2000 interrupts/sec occur on IRQ 30. Unfortunately I am unable to disable `i2c_designware_core` as it is builtin and don’t have the time to fully install fedora and blacklist the module but I think this is enough evidence to show it not being a software issue. My final attempt was reconnecting the touchpad cables and it had no effect. Any thoughts on this from the framework team? ---
**Author:** ![Mathias\_Beig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Mathias\_Beig](https://community.frame.work/u/Mathias_Beig)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2022, 7:36pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/13 "2022-04-05T19:36:40Z")
Any news on this topic? I also noticed the insane number of interrupts/second under archlinux and kde plasma. When you just let the laptop idle, open powertop and move the cursor constantly, the interrupts skyrocket and the power usage gets up really significant. I also tested a new Ubuntu 22.04 beta gnome live image, because a reddit post suggested really good idle power management → same here as under archlinux and kde plasma (Powertop Description: idma64.2) ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2022, 9:18pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/14 "2022-04-19T21:18:43Z")
I contacted framework support and they sent me a new input cover but unfortunately the issue persists. Behavior was identical as with the old touchpad. Thanks though to framework support for being prompt after I reached out! To sum up what I have ruled out so far: 1. touchpad hardware (from testing new input cover) 2. touchpad connnection (from testing new input cover) 3. multitouch kernel drivers (disabling intel\_lpss\_pci, issue persisted on i8042) 4. i2c\_designware driver (disabling i2c\_designware, issue persisted on i8042) 5. kernel version (tested countless versions since 5.13) 6. Linux distribution (tested NixOS and Fedora 35) I’ll post any updates if I find a solution/learn more from framework support. ---
**Author:** ![Sven\_Hiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Sven\_Hiller](https://community.frame.work/u/Sven_Hiller)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2022, 6:04am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/15 "2022-04-24T06:04:48Z")
DIY 1185G7 running Fedora 35. Just wanted to confirm the outlined observations. I noticed the very same behaviour when moving a wired USB mouse (IBM Travel Mouse) or a wireless BT mouse with dedicated USB adapter (Logitech V500) while leaving the touchpad completely unused. ---
**Author:** ![dk505](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/258eb7/32.png) [@dk505](https://community.frame.work/u/dk505)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 3:02am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/16 "2022-04-26T03:02:56Z")
Similar findings on DIY i7-1165G7. Arch with kernels 5.16.{0…16} and 5.17.{1…4}, and Ubuntu 22.4 with 5.15.0. Interrupt 30, idma64.2, is not triggered unless I touch the touchpad. If i just rest a finger on it, it gets up to ~1500/s. If i continuously move the cursor, up to ~2000/s. The same is visible in powertop. The system idles at 2.7W, but gently moving the cursor about doubles that. PS/2 emulation is disabled, multitouch is enabled. ---
**Author:** ![PhilS](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex001/user_avatar/community.frame.work/phils/32/8167_2.png) [@PhilS](https://community.frame.work/u/PhilS)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2022, 4:00pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/17 "2022-04-26T16:00:11Z")
I had problems with my touchpad’s hardware click button not registering unless you pressed real hard. framework support replaced my touchpad and that fixed the HW issue, but I found this thread while I was trying to troubleshoot. I’m running Ubuntu 20.04 with Kernel 5.14.9-051409-generic, and I too see a shitton (metric) of interrupts from idma64.2, and i2c\_designware.2 while interacting with the touchpad. I just ran `dstat -t --top-int` which displays the highest offender every second, and I see close to 2000 per second just with a finger on the TP. I’m an embedded systems engineer, but not a Linux expert. However, I can’t understand why this many interrupts would be needed? I’ve spent hours and hours trying to get the power consumption tuned better so far, I’m still nowhere as good as my old Lenovo X1 6th gen, which had no special tuning. I’m running lightdm, and I can’t get suspend to work right either, so I have it disabled. ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 4:20pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/18 "2022-04-27T16:20:32Z")
It seems that framework is labeling this as a kernel driver issue that is out of scope of support. I might be wrong as support wasn’t super specific but thats what I got from the tone of the email. If anyone in the community is experienced in linux kernel driver programming this excerpt might be of help: “The touchpad is an i2c-hid device that is connected directly to the intel SOC.” My key takeaway is that if its a kernel driver issue then everyone running linux should be affected. Thus I am extremely interested in knowing if any linux users _don’t_ have this issue. I am currently running 5.17.3 and have had this issue since I got my framework laptop at 5.13. ---
**Author:** ![42jd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/73ab20/32.png) [@42jd](https://community.frame.work/u/42jd)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2022, 4:42pm UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/19 "2022-04-27T16:42:36Z")
Adding on the one thing I haven’t tested is bios version. From `dmidecode` I am running version 3.02 with revision 3.2. When I get the chance I will upgrade to the latest bios and see if that fixes anything. edit: updated to bios 3.07. Still no change. I replied to framework support to see if they can give any insight on what kernel/distro was being run where they achieved 150 interrupts/sec. ---
**Author:** ![Sven\_Hiller](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/71e660/32.png) [@Sven\_Hiller](https://community.frame.work/u/Sven_Hiller)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2022, 8:38am UTC](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630/20 "2022-04-28T08:38:19Z")
BIOS 3.08 - high wake-up count unchanged. [Next page](https://community.frame.work/t/tracking-touchpad-interrupts-battery-usage-issues-idma64-2/13630.md?page=2)