Improve Power Usage / Battery Life in Linux with TLP

[ph0bYx]

Okay, so I stumbled upon this this morning and wanted to share. I've read that Linux OS' usually heat up quicker than others because of no scaling of the CPU, here seems to be the solution:

http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/improve- ... fe-in.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[bad_brain]

oh, nice, will give it a try....

[lilrofl]

I've never had a problem with battery life in Ubuntu 12.04, however easy access to S.M.A.R.T. is definately worth looking into. And who knows maybe I can squeeze another 30 minutes out of a charge, which would be noteworthy.

Good find, thanks Ph0

[bad_brain]

just installed it on Squeeze, here are the steps for Debian:

###add repository to /etc/apt/sources.list
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/linrunner/tlp/ubuntu" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; lucid main

###import repository key
apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 02D65EFF

###update package list
apt-get update

###install the needed (and useful optional) packages
apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw tp-smapi-dkms smartmontools ethtool

kernel built just finished successfully, will report on any remarkable effect on the battery runtime...

P.S. off-topic, but: just got a Chrome update on Squeeze, so it seems it's finally officially supported again.

[ph0bYx]

Yup, got that update too but I still have some trouble with flash though, but I found a workaround.

Thanks for testing this out, I would do it if I could, but I haven't acquired a laptop yet.

@lilrolf: Have you tried out another OS on your laptop? I hear that the Unity thing eats up a lot of battery.

[lilrofl]

You know I screwed around with a lot of DEs and haven't notices a significant difference. I get about 4 hours of battery in unity and 4.25 hours with unity 2-d which is pretty close to what I get with LXDE.

bear in mind that I don't jack the compiz effect up too big because all this is on a netbook and I'm not sure it's poor lil CPU could handle much more then what I give it lol.

[bad_brain]

whenever I have some time I might run a little benchmark with tlp en- and disabled so I can really compare, because in normal everyday use it is really hard to notice a difference because you never do 100% the same things. I noticed that when my battery status drained like a rusty oil tanker that hit a reef when updating the Bitcoin client blocks...which caused a battery runtime of maybe 20% compared to "just surfing a bit".

[lilrofl]

I noticed that when my battery status drained like a rusty oil tanker that hit a reef when updating the Bitcoin client blocks...which caused a battery runtime of maybe 20% compared to "just surfing a bit".

lol, well put... and a very good point.

Immediately after installing, my battery monitor went a little wonky while it tried to determine how much power I had left, but that seems to have sorted itself out.

Guess I'll let this better charge and up and try it out... while I"m at it I can see how accurate that little 'time remaining' clock is.

[ph0bYx]

Which OS are you using on your laptop, bb? I was thinking on going with Arch

[computathug]

Thanks for this, i will try this when i get a new battery. I have been using lubuntu now for 18 months and only had to reinstall once at first and has been running fine ever since. The battery on this very very old laptop worked fine when i first got to Bali but with bad voltages etc it soon died and now has to remain plugged in but i think i have found somewhere to get a replacement battery when i can afford it.

My other laptop which runs windows 7 is now in hospital waiting for an operation, yes i broke the LCD