Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (3441 mails)

["Boyd Stephen Smith Jr." <bss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wednesday 14 January 2009, r <r.trev@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote 
about '[opensuse] wifi device and modules':
> if I blacklist wifi modules ( ath5k and ath_pci and maybe ath_hal ) is
> the wifi device switched on anyway without be usable ( unitil I modprobe
> modules ) ???
>
> The point is. Does it sucks battery energy in any case ?

PCI devices will run at full power until the OS tells them to enter a sleep 
mode.[1]  Linux will not communicate with a device without its module.[2]  
So, those devices will probably draw *more* battery until you load the 
module, at which point, if the device is unused, Linux can put it to 
sleep.[3]
-- 
Boyd Stephen Smith Jr.                     ,= ,-_-. =. 
bss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                     ((_/)o o(\_))
ICQ: 514984 YM/AIM: DaTwinkDaddy           `-'(. .)`-' 
http://iguanasuicide.net/                      \_/     

[1] Not completely true.  They power up enough to be ready for any standard 
request though.

[2] Not completely true.  Devices are asked to identify themselves in order 
to determine which module to load.

[3] Assuming that device/module combination was sleep features.