Disabling gpu for headless mode

#1

Hi all, this is my first post. I would use Zero 3W in an headless mode, just with a USB peripheral connected and WiFi. How can I really disable the GPU and other stuff that can reduce the power consumption and lower the temperature?
At the moment I’ve installed radxa-zero3_debian_bullseye_xfce_b6.img.xz
I’ve also tested the cli version but not boot the board.
I’ve disabled the lightdm service so the desktop manager doesn’t start and I manage the board via SSH. But temperatures are really high! I’ve changed the governor to powersave, and the board is running at 408MHz.
sensors reports:
root@radxa-zero3:~# sensors
tcpm_source_psy_3_0022-i2c-3-22
Adapter: rk3x-i2c
in0: 0.00 V (min = +0.00 V, max = +0.00 V)
curr1: 0.00 A (max = +0.00 A)

soc_thermal-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +60.6°C (crit = +115.0°C)

gpu_thermal-virtual-0
Adapter: Virtual device
temp1: +57.8°C

This is my system:
root@radxa-zero3:~# cat /etc/os-release
PRETTY_NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)”
NAME=“Debian GNU/Linux”
VERSION_ID=“11”
VERSION=“11 (bullseye)”
VERSION_CODENAME=bullseye
ID=debian

Thank you very much.

#2

You have to use adeguate heatsink, did you ? Even though it rarely goes up to 2.5-3.0W this SBC heats a lot more than Raspberry Pi Zero 2W. Mine @1800MHz with the heatsink has reached 60°C only after 600s burning test (stress-ng -fft) and never goes more than 65°C in 1800s (or more) burning test. RPI5 (with a 4 times bigger heatsink same test did throttle after only 900s). Room temp about 20°C.

#3

Bit late, but if anyone else is getting here, you can disable the panfrost driver on the official Radxa OS Debian CLI image, so you don’t even need to use the xfce image and try to uninstall / disable everything.

I’ve written a script than can to do this for you and a few other things. Details are here.