NetworkManager Wi-Fi powersaving configuration

networkmanager-wifi-powersave.md

NetworkManager WiFi Power Saving

NetworkManager supports WiFi powersaving but the function is rather undocumented.

From the source code: wifi.powersave can have the following value:

• NM_SETTING_WIRELESS_POWERSAVE_DEFAULT (0): use the default value
• NM_SETTING_WIRELESS_POWERSAVE_IGNORE (1): don't touch existing setting
• NM_SETTING_WIRELESS_POWERSAVE_DISABLE (2): disable powersave
• NM_SETTING_WIRELESS_POWERSAVE_ENABLE (3): enable powersave

Then I propose 2 files, only one of them needs to be put under /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/.
One is forcing to disable powersaving, while the other one enable it.

Once you have put the file in the right folder, simply restart NetworkManager:

sudo systemctl restart NetworkManager

wifi-powersave-off.conf

# File to be place under /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d
[connection]
# Values are 0 (use default), 1 (ignore/don't touch), 2 (disable) or 3 (enable).
wifi.powersave = 2

wifi-powersave-on.conf

# File to be place under /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d
[connection]
# Values are 0 (use default), 1 (ignore/don't touch), 2 (disable) or 3 (enable).
wifi.powersave = 3

Thnaks for this, used for my connection and latency in ssh sessions seems to be imroved:
CONN="my wifi conn"; nmcli con mod "$CONN" 802-11-wireless.powersave 2

Notice that enabling powersave reduces bandwidth dramatically from 200Mbps to 50Mbps...

I wonder if anyone has experimented on the effects of enable/disabling this feature in terms of power consumption. Is it negligible? If not, then is there a script that leverages a hook for low power states in laptops so that I can use it to enable this configuration when the battery is low?

After a kernel upgrade (from 5.11 to 5.13) on my Ubuntu 20.04 I experienced annoying wireless latency spikes, disabling this power saving solved the issue. Just reporting in case anyone suffer from the same problem.

A way to do this in terminal is sudo sed -i 's/wifi.powersave = 3/wifi.powersave = 2/' /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf && systemctl restart network-manager.service

There is a discussion on the linustechtips.com forum about power saving and the rfc2863 protocol. Unfortunately the user did not follow my instructions, but he mixed them with other instructions taken from the internet, not solving the problem. If anyone wants to intervene and also correct what I have suggested to the user, he is welcome.
https://linustechtips.com/topic/1428381-kubuntu-keep-log-me-off-my-wifi/?do=findComment&comment=15386100

Does anyone else run into an issue where changing the setting to 2 (in order to disable power saving) completely disables the gnome network manager? In fact, any setting that I change here seems to disable it. Any help would be appreciated as this issue has been plaguing me for a long time and resetting the network manager every 10 minutes is getting exhausting.

Don't think you did it right @RCantw3ll. If the file has a syntactical error than NM will not start. Look at its log.

Saved me a headache in having to reinstall ubuntu Thanks!

My wifi connection is often interrupted when using battery power, while using AC power, the connection is stable. It is solved after I modify the wifi.powersave to 2. Thank you very much!

Spelling correction in comment: "File to be placed under", with a d after place
Thanks!

In any case, interesting and long-lasting bug...
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1960817

It started earlier than that see https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/network-manager/+bug/1557026

Check with

iwconfig <interface> | grep "Power Management"

this is amazing.

# cat /etc/NetworkManager/conf.d/default-wifi-powersave-on.conf 
[connection]
wifi.powersave = 3

literally kills ssh performance.
and
wifi.powersave = 2
creates a miracle!

If you aren't using NetworkManager (default in the minimal RaspberyOS 11 install at least) you can temporarily (until reboot) turn off power management with:

iwconfig wlan0 power off

There are many conceivable ways of making this persist, e.g. putting it in rc.local.

If you aren't using NetworkManager (default in the minimal RaspberyOS 11 install at least) you can temporarily (until reboot) turn off power management with:

iwconfig wlan0 power off

There are many conceivable ways of making this persist, e.g. putting it in rc.local.

It may just be Ubuntu and its derivatives that set the wifi.powersave=3