My OperaAnother day, another laptop set up for powersaving...
Friday, January 29, 2010 10:58:20 AM
Todays topic is this: Powersaving
Why? Well, mostly because I am running Linux on a laptop, but also because even desktop users should be thinking of our planet. Hey, even if you're not thinking of the planet; wouldn't it be nice to cut that electirc bill a little?
This is how I have my laptop configured:
I'm running Compiz standalone. (Compiz as my Window Manager)
I also have xfce4-panel, xscreensaver, and xfdesktop (not a full xfce desktop, don't get it confused).
I've also got a lot of network security software on here: psad, portsentry, iptables (firestarter), snort, etc...
On top of that we also have SpamAssassin, ClamAv, and chkrootkit.
Then, there's the part most people don't think of, the power management tools.
I installed laptop-mode-tools, acpi, pm-utils and xfce4-power-manager.
That's not including all the other goodies like go-OpenOffice, my font packs, Banshee for music, Totem for movies, and a lot of other little odds and ends.
Since I do network security audits (legally) quite often, I have as many of the Arch provided tools I could get to compile and install on here. All of which I have taken the time to get familiar with ;]
Back on subject though...
Anyways, with all of my power saving applications installed, I now have an expected two hours of roaming time on battery. That sure beats the hour and fifteen minutes I was originally projected without them.
laptop-mode-tools is great if you don't want to configure a bunch of acpi events by hand. Edit the main config file and you should be good to go. I did take that a step further though and configured all of the scripts in /etc/laptop-mode/config.d/ to fit my needs as well.
I will warn you, if you like having a USEABLE system, do not set the cpu throttle to maximum. I made that mistake and it had my system slowed to a crawl.
Side note: The last time I remember a computer running that slow was when I was on my old IBM in the early 90's with Win 3.1 installed on it. - heh heh, too easy
I did set the CPU governor to powersave. If I'm running on battery, I really don't care about how fast the processor is running. I'm probably doing something non CPU-intensive anyways, so I strive to keep my battery alive as long as I can.
By running the xfce4-power-manager, I gained a GUI, as well as a way to configure some events that I would have had to do by hand otherwise; these are things like what to do when the lid closes, or when the suspend (or sleep), hibernate, or power buttons are pressed, and what to do when the power reaches certain levels.
All these tools combined give you incredible control over your system's power usage, even if you are a desktop user, you should look into these awesome tools.
As always,
Happy hacking!
PiklesOnFire :]
Why? Well, mostly because I am running Linux on a laptop, but also because even desktop users should be thinking of our planet. Hey, even if you're not thinking of the planet; wouldn't it be nice to cut that electirc bill a little?
This is how I have my laptop configured:
I'm running Compiz standalone. (Compiz as my Window Manager)
I also have xfce4-panel, xscreensaver, and xfdesktop (not a full xfce desktop, don't get it confused).
I've also got a lot of network security software on here: psad, portsentry, iptables (firestarter), snort, etc...
On top of that we also have SpamAssassin, ClamAv, and chkrootkit.
Then, there's the part most people don't think of, the power management tools.
I installed laptop-mode-tools, acpi, pm-utils and xfce4-power-manager.
That's not including all the other goodies like go-OpenOffice, my font packs, Banshee for music, Totem for movies, and a lot of other little odds and ends.
Since I do network security audits (legally) quite often, I have as many of the Arch provided tools I could get to compile and install on here. All of which I have taken the time to get familiar with ;]
Back on subject though...
Anyways, with all of my power saving applications installed, I now have an expected two hours of roaming time on battery. That sure beats the hour and fifteen minutes I was originally projected without them.
laptop-mode-tools is great if you don't want to configure a bunch of acpi events by hand. Edit the main config file and you should be good to go. I did take that a step further though and configured all of the scripts in /etc/laptop-mode/config.d/ to fit my needs as well.
I will warn you, if you like having a USEABLE system, do not set the cpu throttle to maximum. I made that mistake and it had my system slowed to a crawl.
Side note: The last time I remember a computer running that slow was when I was on my old IBM in the early 90's with Win 3.1 installed on it. - heh heh, too easy
I did set the CPU governor to powersave. If I'm running on battery, I really don't care about how fast the processor is running. I'm probably doing something non CPU-intensive anyways, so I strive to keep my battery alive as long as I can.
By running the xfce4-power-manager, I gained a GUI, as well as a way to configure some events that I would have had to do by hand otherwise; these are things like what to do when the lid closes, or when the suspend (or sleep), hibernate, or power buttons are pressed, and what to do when the power reaches certain levels.
All these tools combined give you incredible control over your system's power usage, even if you are a desktop user, you should look into these awesome tools.
As always,
Happy hacking!
PiklesOnFire :]
