FeedMe F9 Pro laptop enters into sleep mode incessantly
Okay, I looked around the Internet, but I could not find a solution. I have a laptop that incessantly enters sleep mode. This happens every minute. In other words, the system enters sleep every 60 seconds. There are two platforms I work with. The first one is Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. The second one is Gentoo Linux 32-bit (Gentoo Linux is a rolling release "distribution."). Ultimately, both platforms appear to have the same bug. The platform I use is a little "unusual," although I do not think it is the reason for this behavior. The x86 processor is made by China's Zhaoxin Semiconductor. Ultimately, it is a licensed derivative originally designed by Centaur Technology (a former VIA Technologies subsidiary), now being further developed by Zhaoxin by itself. The laptop this issue manifests itself is called FeedMe F9 Pro (the name of the vendor and laptop model). It is a surprisingly well made Apple MacBook look alike (or knockoff, depending on your perspective) laptop intended to be sold inside China (I bought it from someone on ebay.), now being used by myself outside of that country. Anyway, lspci dump looks like this.
00:00.0 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-E Standard Host Bridge (rev 80) 00:00.1 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D Standard Host Bridge (rev 04) 00:00.2 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D Standard Host Bridge (rev 04) 00:00.3 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D DRAM Controller (rev 04) 00:00.4 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D Power Management Controller (rev 04) 00:00.5 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D I/O APIC (rev 04) 00:00.6 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D Scratch Device (rev 04) 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Zhaoxin ZX-E C-960 GPU 00:01.1 Audio device: Zhaoxin ZX-E High Definition Audio Controller 00:03.0 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E PCI Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:04.0 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E PCI Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:04.1 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E PCI Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:05.0 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E PCI Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:05.1 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E PCI Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:0f.0 SATA controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/ZX-E StorX AHCI Controller (rev 01) 00:10.0 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/ZX-E Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (rev a0) 00:10.1 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/ZX-E Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (rev a0) 00:10.7 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/ZX-E Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller (rev 90) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E Miscellaneous Bus (rev 03) 00:11.7 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D/ZX-E Standard Host Bridge (rev 04) 00:12.0 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-E USB eXtensible Host Controller 00:14.0 Audio device: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-D/ZX-E High Definition Audio Controller (rev 20) 04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 (rev 59)
The laptop uses Intel 7265 WLAN chip. What complicates the use of this laptop is that one needs to install S3 Graphics origin proprietary closed source graphics device driver if one wants acceleration. Because accelerated graphics is available, I use Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (I downloaded packaged drivers from Zhaoxin website and installed it.). Prior to installing closed source graphics device driver, Ubuntu exhibited this incessant entry into sleep mode bug. I no longer see this issue if closed source graphics device driver is installed. Regarding Gentoo Linux, obviously, accelerated graphics is not supported by Zhaoxin, so its display is being handled by xf86-video-vesa DDX, and exhibits this incessant entry into sleep mode bug. For Gentoo Linux, I have a little more control over the system. Prior to installing NetworkManager, as long as dbus service is not activated by OpenRC (I do not use systemd for this Gentoo Linux installation.), this incessant entry into sleep mode bug does not occur. Now that I installed NetworkManager, dbus service is now being activated by someone, so I now have the problem. Prior to the installation of NetworkManager, if I use wpa_supplicant, I do not have this incessant entry into sleep mode bug. Here is the weird message I was able to capture on Gentoo Linux.
ModemManager[2368]: [sleep-monitor] system about to suspend
ModemManager[2368]: [sleep-monitor] system is resuming
ModemManager[2368]: [base-manager] couldn't check support for device '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/0000:04:00.0': not supported by any plugin
It appears that ModemManager is causing some kind of an issue that causes this incessant entry into sleep mode bug. These messages repeat themselves every minute. I need to press the keyboard to get out of the sleep. Even this does not work 100% of the time. The only known reliable method to workaround this incessant entry into sleep mode is to install Xfce4 Power Manager. Based on this, it appears that D-Bus is triggering this incessant entry into sleep mode behavior. Again, this is consistent with the observation that prior to NetworkManager installation, as long as D-Bus was not running (by not activating it via OpenRC), I do not have this bug. In order to see if this issue is specific to FeedMe F9 Pro, I bought another Zhaoxin chip based computer. This computer is called ATOPNUC AZ60 (or ZK66). It is a mini PC with a similar chip. This is what the lspci dump look like.
00:00.0 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-E Standard Host Bridge (rev 80) 00:00.1 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Standard Host Bridge (rev 04) 00:00.2 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Standard Host Bridge (rev 04) 00:00.3 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 DRAM Controller (rev 04) 00:00.4 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Power Management Controller (rev 04) 00:00.5 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 I/O APIC (rev 04) 00:00.6 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Scratch Device (rev 04) 00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Zhaoxin ZX-E C-960 GPU 00:01.1 Audio device: Zhaoxin ZX-E High Definition Audio Controller 00:03.0 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:04.0 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:04.1 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:05.0 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:05.1 PCI bridge: Zhaoxin KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Express Root Port (rev 01) 00:0f.0 SATA controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 StorX AHCI Controller (rev 01) 00:10.0 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (rev a0) 00:10.1 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller (rev a0) 00:10.7 USB controller: Zhaoxin ZX-100/ZX-200/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller (rev 90) 00:11.0 ISA bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-D/ZX-E/KH-40000 Miscellaneous Bus (rev 03) 00:11.7 Host bridge: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 Standard Host Bridge (rev 04) 00:12.0 USB controller: Zhaoxin KX-6000/KX-6000G USB eXtensible Host Controller 00:14.0 Audio device: Zhaoxin ZX-100/KX-5000/KX-6000/KX-6000G/KH-40000 High Definition Audio Controller (rev 20) 01:00.0 Non-Volatile memory controller: Jiangsu Huacun Elec. Tech. Co., Ltd. MMY MMSP350 PCIe 3 NVMe SSD (DRAM-less) (rev 01) 04:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Wireless 7265 (rev 59) 05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 15)
Surprisingly, ATOPNUC AZ60 uses the same Intel 7265 WLAN chip. Interestingly, this one does not exhibit the incessant entry into sleep mode bug. I do still get the following message from ModemManager.
ModemManager[2368]: [base-manager] couldn't check support for device '/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:05.0/0000:04:00.0': not supported by any plugin
For this box, I do not have Ubuntu 20.04 LTS installed, so it has only been tested on the same Gentoo Linux 32-bit (it is installed on a USB flash storage device). Anyway, I will like to know what can be done to at least workaround this bug. If kern.log is needed, I can provide it here.