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I believe I saw on a chart listing all the options that are changed when the Mode dial is switched between Weather, Eco, Tour, Sport and Track that Eco is the only mode that will allow cylinder deactivation.
For a manual transmission eco is the only mode that will allow V4 operation but with the automatic V4 is enabled in any mode. Putting the A8 into manual mode will prevent V4 operation UNLESS you select eco mode and in that setting it will still go into V4 with the transmission set to manual.