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I don't know how , but somehow automatic power-off of usb devices got accidentally enabled. Now my usb mouse goes off even if it's idle for 2-3 seconds. It's really irritating.

This happened after I installed powertop and powernap. Maybe it has something to do with these two applications.

How can I disable this "feature"?

Zanna
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rrj
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  • http://askubuntu.com/questions/285434/is-there-a-power-saving-application-similar-to-jupiter/285681#285681 – Qasim Jun 14 '13 at 14:53

3 Answers3

37

Just copy paste the following command in terminal and it will disable auto suspending.

Disabling auto suspending USB

echo 2 | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/power/autosuspend >/dev/null

Disable USB autosuspend

echo on | sudo tee /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/power/level >/dev/null
David Foerster
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Qasim
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13

It's PowerNap that's doing this.

You can disable just this part of PowerNap's power savings scripts with:

sudo powernap-action --disable usb_autosuspend
Dustin Kirkland
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    For me in debian jessie (8.4) it was laptop mode. See answer below. Writing to /sys/bus/usb/devices/«device»/power/level also worked, see other answer. – ctrl-alt-delor Apr 07 '16 at 09:26
11

Could it be that laptop mode tools are causing this? If so, try the following:

  1. Optional: Create a backup of /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/usb-autosuspend.conf by copying it in your home folder: 

    cp /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/usb-autosuspend.conf ~/usb.autosuspend.old

  2. Get the USB ID of your mouse/keyboard

    lsusb

    This will return a list including ID xxxx:xxxx for your mouse/keyboard.

  3. Edit the original usb-autosuspend.conf

    sudo gedit /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/usb-autosuspend.conf

  4. There will be an entry called AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_BLACKLIST='' change this to AUTOSUSPEND_USBID_BLACKLIST='xxxx:xxxx'

  5. This should stop your USB mouse/keyboard from being suspended. Now you either need to restart your computer or restart laptop-mode using

    sudo service laptop-mode restart

Source: http://www.hecticgeek.com/2012/06/fix-usb-mouse-not-working-laptop-mode-tools-ubuntu/

7ochem
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user238948
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  • You find your ID with the command lsusb|grep -i mouse|sed 's/^.* ID //g'|sed 's/ .*$//g' (assuming there is the word "mouse" in the string for your mouse) If you don't find out the ID of your mouse, use watch -d lsusb while you plug in your mouse. – rubo77 Oct 10 '14 at 22:26
  • At least in Ubuntu 15.04, this file has been moved to runtime-pm.conf and the line to add the id to is now called AUTOSUSPEND_RUNTIME_DEVID_BLACKLIST="". Strangely, I couldn't get my blacklist to work so I just disabled this module by setting CONTROL_RUNTIME_AUTOSUSPEND=0. It worked! – partofthething Aug 09 '15 at 18:36
  • It worked on Debian Jessie (8.4), but file is /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/runtime-pm.conf – ctrl-alt-delor Apr 07 '16 at 09:21
  • You were spot on, in my case I ran "lmt-config-gui" for Laptop Mode Tools and unchecked "Enable module runtime-pm". This issue began after updating my KDE Neon kernel from 4.4 to 4.8 last night and was driving me bonkers! Thanks! – Adam Plocher Oct 16 '16 at 08:01
  • I didn't have laptop-mode installed (though something was suspending my USB) and when I did install laptop-mode-tools I didn't have the usb-autosuspend.conf (that was for 14.04 but I have 16.04). I did have a /etc/laptop-mode/conf.d/runtime-pm.conf per https://askubuntu.com/a/370406/318507 . Still waiting to see if this fixes the issue or if I have to track down what was originally suspending it. – dragon788 Sep 06 '17 at 19:57