Thinkpads Forum

Hi,

I run OpenSuse 10.3 on my thinkpad R52... I had ubuntu and debian before. And from the beginning, i never had the same autonomy in Linux than under Windows.

With windows, i can run my thinkpad on battery for abour 3h15, and with Linux barely 2h20 - 2h30. And i think it's getting worse with the new kernels...

Do you have a good battery time with Linux ? Or do you have ideas to increase that time ?

Thank you very much !

Add kernel parameters to not write access times to the disk, both for files and directories. I think "noatime" is for files, but the other should be easy to find too.

That's a start.

I think ThinkWiki.org could use a page (if it doesn't have one) collecting all the tips for keeping energy use low. Care to start one?

There are lots of things you can do to reduce power consumption. Look for a program called PowerTop - it used to be at www.powertop.org, I think, but recently moved to a site called lesswatts or something similar.

Edit: It's www.lesswatts.org

What kind of increases are you guys getting when you take these steps?
I'd love to lose Windows all together, but power consumption seems to be so much better in XP than Linux.

I've been an Ubuntu fan for some time and it'll always have a home on my desktop, but I'm reluctant to switch completely... On my x61 I seem to only get 2/3rds the battery life in Gusty vs XP.

Granted, that's w/o the above tweaks.

On the T60p, I was able to go from about 27-28 watts down to about 19. (This is on a system with badly overheating ATI graphics & fan running constantly.) I don't know what that equates to in real battery life, as I almost always work off AC power.

Very nice site ! It seems to give me more battery life ! I tested it on Fedora 7 when i was 75% battery and it increased my battery life. I passed from 19w to 11W ! Still do not have same battery life as in XP but it's getting better...

One question : do i have to execute all these commands each time i reboot or do i have to do it once ?

Thank you !

Just found this on Volker's site and thought you may be interested. Comparison of ACPI vs APM on a T41: http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~vbraun/comput ... power.html

What kind of increases are you guys getting when you take these steps?

Maybe way too much info:

Taking powertop's kernel flags on 2.6.22 and unloading unneeded modules, including ethernet and usb, turning off syslogd and unneeded daemons (and stopping needed daemons from logging to disk), and lowering my wireless power, I get about an extra 45 minutes on an X22 with PCMCIA wireless and ~~6 month old reconditioned battery, compared to stock 2.6.18 and Debian Etch. Typically I have wireless on, several ssh clients, Synergy, and Sylpheed Claws/email querying every 5 minutes, and occasionally use Firefox/Iceweasel, Audacious/local mp3s, and/or Twinkle/softphone while unplugged. I do little things like use my phone for mp3 to save power wasted by disk io.

One question : do i have to execute all these commands each time i reboot or do i have to do it once ?

Any command you want to ensure executes after reboot can be put into /etc/rc.local. You could also make a simple script or function to run those commands, and maybe have it do different profiles for battery maximization so you can enter "battery mode" when you want to. Post if you want help.

combine this module unloading with the new 2.6.24 kernel and the zen patches and you go down another 1-2 Watt. I am at 7,8 Watt now with my x61t on an idle desktop. Working, I need 2 Watts less than on Vista. T61 goes down to 11 Watt. Does not require much tweaking, I just installed new kernel packets, enabled laptop mode and accepted the suggestions of the powertop tool.

pibach wrote:T61 goes down to 11 Watt.

What model T61? Graphics, HD, etc? I'm looking to order a new one soon, and would like to get as low power use as I can, while still meeting other needs.

This was for the Nvidia which you can put to max power savings, the config with x3100 might consume even less. HDD was sleeping for these measurements (laptop mode). Keep in mind that these wattages are for idle desktop, real world usage will draw more power of course. My x61t, for example, draws 11-12 Watt under Xubuntu when surfing the Web via WLAN and xbrightness=50%.

Sounds good to me. At least 90% of my time is spent just typing in a text editor, so it's nice to have it able to switch between really low power for than, and full-throttle for the times I need to compile & test. The current T60 with ATI graphics is hard to get below 20 watts - 25-27 is more usual

James, so what is your config?
You need the newest kernel with additional power consumption patches. Try for example 2.6.24.RC3 with zen patches. Then start Powertop and do the suggestions. Right there you should be down to 14 Watt. Then unload unnecessary kernel modules and set all your remaining devices (the Nvidea!) to maximum power savings. Then you can tweak your idle interrupts down, it is possible do go down as low as <5 Interrupts/sec. If you disable x11 and work on a plain terminal ASCII screen, you'll arrive at 11 Watt.

combine this module unloading with the new 2.6.24 kernel and the zen patches and you go down another 1-2 Watt.

This is exciting. Thank you for posting your experience with X6* around the forum.

Additionally, stopping syslogd is admittedly reckless but really helps stop disk io. The loss of system logs is worth the battery time here.

lightweight wrote:

combine this module unloading with the new 2.6.24 kernel and the zen patches and you go down another 1-2 Watt.

This is exciting. Thank you for posting your experience with X6* around the forum.

Additionally, stopping syslogd is admittedly reckless but really helps stop disk io. The loss of system logs is worth the battery time here.

I believe laptop_mode takes care of that. It limits most disk accesses to once every ten minutes. My disk is sitting quietly spun down right now and I have not disabled logs or such.

yes, this is done nicely by laptop mode. Just go through it's config file and enable the options you want (usually all). Got a totally quiet machine. Great experience.

pibach wrote:James, so what is your config?
You need the newest kernel with additional power consumption patches. Try for example 2.6.24.RC3 with zen patches. Then start Powertop and do the suggestions. Right there you should be down to 14 Watt.

The machine I was using is a T60p with ATI graphics. I had the latest kernel & patches as of a couple of months ago (before I had to stop fiddling with it and do paying work), and could not even get the power consumption down to where the fan would shut off, and so I was never able to actually do work on it. I suspect the FireGL is the culprit.

yes FireGL might be difficult, but maybe someone has experience on this one to bring power consumption down?

The 2.6.24+zen are just 2 weeks old. Previous kernels are not as power friendly. I observed a 10% difference compared to 2.6.22 kernel.

I guess TP fancontol is needed nevertheless to get the fan off completely.

Windows reports I can get upwards of 2 hours 20 minutes with wifi on, a USB device, whereas linux with wireless off and a USB device I can get 1 hour 55 minutes max =\.

pibach wrote:yes FireGL might be difficult, but maybe someone has experience on this one to bring power consumption down?

Not important, unless there's something new out there that gives a quantum reduction in the FireGL power use. I figure I'll just order a new T61 instead, probably with the Intel graphics, since they seem to have gotten the bugs out of the dual-display mode now. I only use the 3D for occasional visualization stuff, not games or anything. But I do want it to be quiet, since fan-type noises really get on my nerves.

tylerwylie wrote:Windows reports I can get upwards of 2 hours 20 minutes with wifi on, a USB device, whereas linux with wireless off and a USB device I can get 1 hour 55 minutes max =\.

Here (x61t, 8 cell) Vista reports 5 hours of usage and then actually reaches around 4h. Using Xubuntu it reports 6 hours and reaches 6 hours. Both at 60% brightness. I do the same things during that time, mainly web surfing and Open Office text editing. So Linux is way better in power consumption, but therefore you have to use the newest kernel, and follow the PowerTOP suggestions.

Edit: With an USB device you'll have a lot more interrupts. There you'll need the kernel patch for USB auto-suspend and enable it.

jamesqf wrote: Not important, unless there's something new out there that gives a quantum reduction in the FireGL power use.

There is a brand new Open Source driver for the FireGL. Did you try that?

How new is brand new? I installed whatever was the latest as of a couple of months ago.

Actually as I do not have that card I am afraid I can't help much here. But seemingly latest driver from ATI is dated Dec. 20th:
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/linu ... firegl.htm

Here is linkage to a post with settings and my experience with 686 vs 64bit. I broke 10 hours today with 10% to spare on the main batt with an x61s, 8 cell, plus extended battery. (Extended drains first.) It was glorious.

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... 272#375272