Steps for reproducing the issue
I am writing this here, because I had a longer debugging session (4h+) with this issue and this may help someone, even if this is considered "not a bug".
I was trying to run my notebook with a fresh installation of Manjaro with SwayWM (https://manjaro-sway.download/). My notebook is a QC71 based model with I7 9750H CPU and RTX2070 mobile GPU.
wluma is part of the standard waybar as a module called adaptive-light.
With normal installation by using non-free drivers, my system consumed round about 25W. I know from previous Pop OS installation, that this value is normal for hybrid mode.
According to nvidia-nmi, at least wluma is always using GPU, so power-mode is still active. After switching adaptive-light to static, wluma vanished from nvidia-nmi, but gpu still active (cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/runtime_status).
I tried to reduce the power consumption to 10W with running my computer in iGPU-only mode. I tried several tricks, including blacklisting nvidia-stuff, removing nvidia modules from initramfs and so on. But at least wluma was still there in nvidia-nmi and with it, lsmod showed several nvidia-entries.
After some hours without a way to just disable the f**king dGPU, I stumbled over pci-stub. This kernel-commandline-parameter, which disables the pci-paths for the GPU, really prevents nvidia driver from loading (no nvidia in lsmod (axcept one i2c adapter, which is expected)).
But 55W powerconsumption (according to powertop), loud fans and low runtime on battery?!
OK, remove everything and install system76-power from AUR with yay. Activate and run the switch to integrated graphics, reboot.
Same behavior. Nothing unusual in top. Powertop showed 53% powerconsumption from display-backlight. The previous nvidia-nmi outputs pointed me to wluma.
After removing the adaptve-light module from waybar and reboot (I didn't execute system76-power at this point again), the powerconsumption went down to 10W.
Please forgive me, that after founding a solution, I don't want to reinstall wluma to reproduce everything and getting all the versions and logs which you want from me.
What is the buggy behavior?
So in short: I think, WLUMA tries to force nvidia GPU usage even if it isn't properly installed/useable and this results in high power-consumption, which isn't visible in process-manager, because it's no CPU-load.
What is the expected behavior?
WLUMA does not enforce dGPU-Access. It should check if the dGPU is available. If not, just don't work and give some dmesg output or whereever it logs. This could be configureable, but as this tool is bundled with ditros, I think a more conservative default config and some more checks within the tool would be appropriate.
Logs
Version
Was preinstalled with waybar, SwayWM on Manjaro
Environment
LSB Version: n/a
Distributor ID: ManjaroLinux
Description: Manjaro Linux
Release: 25.0.0
Codename: Zetar
Linux patrick-xmgfusion15 6.12.41-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:46:16 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
5862 sway-user-servi
5903 sway
6169 swayidle
6234 swaybg
6246 swayrd
lib32-vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1
manjaro-sway-settings 16.39.2-10
rust 1:1.88.0-1
sway 1:1.11-1
sway-services r33.e3d9b8b-1
swaybg 1.2.1-1
swaycwd 1.1-1
swayidle 1.8.0-2
swayr 0.28.1-1
vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1
wlroots0.19 0.19.0-1
WLR_DRM_NO_MODIFIERS=1
Steps for reproducing the issue
I am writing this here, because I had a longer debugging session (4h+) with this issue and this may help someone, even if this is considered "not a bug".
I was trying to run my notebook with a fresh installation of Manjaro with SwayWM (https://manjaro-sway.download/). My notebook is a QC71 based model with I7 9750H CPU and RTX2070 mobile GPU.
wluma is part of the standard waybar as a module called adaptive-light.
With normal installation by using non-free drivers, my system consumed round about 25W. I know from previous Pop OS installation, that this value is normal for hybrid mode.
According to nvidia-nmi, at least wluma is always using GPU, so power-mode is still active. After switching adaptive-light to static, wluma vanished from nvidia-nmi, but gpu still active (cat /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/runtime_status).
I tried to reduce the power consumption to 10W with running my computer in iGPU-only mode. I tried several tricks, including blacklisting nvidia-stuff, removing nvidia modules from initramfs and so on. But at least wluma was still there in nvidia-nmi and with it, lsmod showed several nvidia-entries.
After some hours without a way to just disable the f**king dGPU, I stumbled over pci-stub. This kernel-commandline-parameter, which disables the pci-paths for the GPU, really prevents nvidia driver from loading (no nvidia in lsmod (axcept one i2c adapter, which is expected)).
But 55W powerconsumption (according to powertop), loud fans and low runtime on battery?!
OK, remove everything and install system76-power from AUR with yay. Activate and run the switch to integrated graphics, reboot.
Same behavior. Nothing unusual in top.
Powertop showed 53% powerconsumption from display-backlight. The previous nvidia-nmi outputs pointed me to wluma.After removing the adaptve-light module from waybar and reboot (I didn't execute system76-power at this point again), the powerconsumption went down to 10W.
Please forgive me, that after founding a solution, I don't want to reinstall wluma to reproduce everything and getting all the versions and logs which you want from me.
What is the buggy behavior?
So in short: I think, WLUMA tries to force nvidia GPU usage even if it isn't properly installed/useable and this results in high power-consumption, which isn't visible in process-manager, because it's no CPU-load.
What is the expected behavior?
WLUMA does not enforce dGPU-Access. It should check if the dGPU is available. If not, just don't work and give some dmesg output or whereever it logs. This could be configureable, but as this tool is bundled with ditros, I think a more conservative default config and some more checks within the tool would be appropriate.
Logs
Version
Was preinstalled with waybar, SwayWM on Manjaro
Environment
LSB Version: n/a Distributor ID: ManjaroLinux Description: Manjaro Linux Release: 25.0.0 Codename: Zetar Linux patrick-xmgfusion15 6.12.41-1-MANJARO #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri, 01 Aug 2025 09:46:16 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux 5862 sway-user-servi 5903 sway 6169 swayidle 6234 swaybg 6246 swayrd lib32-vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1 manjaro-sway-settings 16.39.2-10 rust 1:1.88.0-1 sway 1:1.11-1 sway-services r33.e3d9b8b-1 swaybg 1.2.1-1 swaycwd 1.1-1 swayidle 1.8.0-2 swayr 0.28.1-1 vulkan-icd-loader 1.4.321.0-1 wlroots0.19 0.19.0-1 WLR_DRM_NO_MODIFIERS=1