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I have a server running for which I want to have a possility to access it with a screen connected to VGA (very rarely, most of the time it's accessed via SSH). Therefore I have a PCI-e graphic cards plugged in and the VGA cable removed. The graphic card is passively cooled and if I open the case and touch the cool body I can feel a noticable warmth and conclue that it's consuming energy (there're no consumers close to it that could transmit the thermal energy in any way).
If I unplug the card (as suggested in Should I Disable an unused graphic card?) I have to built it in every time I want to connect a screen. I would like to avoid that as well as the energy consumption.
The de- and re-activation needs to take place on the OS level (e.g. via SSH) because otherwise I'd need a screen to configure the UEFI (or do that blindly which is no alternative) and run into a chicken-egg-problem.
I'm using Ubuntu 15.04 with Linux 4.0.2. The graphic card is labeled XFX HD 5450 850M and has a VGA, HDMI and D-SUB connector. The mainboard is an ASRock X99-Extreme without integrated graphic.
EDIT: After blacklisting used modules listed in sudo lspci -v
(following @WhimsicalWombat's promising answer below) (in my case I had to use the modprobe.blacklist=module_to_blacklist
kernel parameter - see https://askubuntu.com/questions/110341/how-to-blacklist-kernel-modules for more details - for radeon
and snd_hda_intel
) the PCIe graphic card still heats up (passive cooler has > 60 degrees and there's no heat source closeby) and no modules are listed in lspci -v
for the devices. The output of lspci -v
for the devices is not
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series] (prog-if 00 [VGA controll
er])
Subsystem: XFX Pine Group Inc. Device 303e
Physical Slot: 4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 11
Memory at e0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
Memory at fbe20000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=128K]
I/O ports at e000 [size=256]
Expansion ROM at fbe00000 [disabled] [size=128K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
01:00.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] Cedar HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 5400/6300 Series]
Subsystem: XFX Pine Group Inc. Device aa68
Physical Slot: 4
Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
Memory at fbe40000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16K]
Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [58] Express Legacy Endpoint, MSI 00
Capabilities: [a0] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit+
Capabilities: [100] Vendor Specific Information: ID=0001 Rev=1 Len=010 <?>
Capabilities: [150] Advanced Error Reporting
EDIT 2: https://askubuntu.com/a/138953/173287 suggests to do echo 0 > /sys/bus/pci/slots/$N/power
and I have a /sys/bus/pci/slots/$N
where $N
is number of the slot listed in lspci -v
, but there's no power
file.
EDIT 3: adding the modaliases of /sys/bus/pci/devices/[device]/modalias
to modprobe.blacklist=
kernel parameters has no effect on Ubuntu mainline kernels from http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/ and a custom 4.0.5 build with make localmodconfig
and activation of all PCI options causes the "Loading initramfs [version]" screen to remain visible for ever while the graphic card is still heating up.
Do you use the graphics card's power at any point? GPU intensive programs or VM's? – Ctrl-alt-dlt – 2015-05-14T15:24:35.517
How can I monitor this? I didn't install any additional drivers. Is Linux providing such functionality out-of-the-box? – Karl Richter – 2015-05-14T15:38:30.337
Perhaps also see Can I fully disable my PCIe Video/Graphics Card per BIOS/Software?
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-05-14T15:38:48.723@Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 I edited to match that idea in the question. That explains why the mark as duplicate is invalid imo (the (unconfirmed) answer (which hardly is one btw) refers to manipulations in the BIOS/EFI). – Karl Richter – 2015-05-14T15:43:16.247
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I'm not sure which GPU you have installed but you might be interested in ZeroCore Power savings
– MonkeyZeus – 2015-05-14T15:50:42.903Just because the existing answers aren't satisfactory to you doesn't make it a different question. Also the ones quotes specify controlling it with Software (as you are requesting). So to me (at least), it's the same question, and if you'd like newer/better answers to existing questions consider placing a bounty on them.
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2015-05-14T16:52:19.0801
Since unloading doesn't cut it, are you missing
– WhimsicalWombat – 2015-06-14T07:41:02.503power
file in/sys/bus/*
even with kernel drivers loaded? You may want to check it with both opensource radeon and AMD's fglrx drivers. If no luck, try AMD's forum for more accurate info on card's power management. Worst case scenario is yanking it out or upgrading to something like 7730 (which supports zerocore) or NV's equivalent. Or if you want to really dig into this, PCI-e specs are available at PCI-SIG if you want to try and force the card into low-power state. Fun stuff if you have the time