Laptop Configurations (laptop mode tools)

Aesir · 02-05-2011, 12:03 AM

Hello,

I am in the process of configuring my laptop and have some simple questions that I would like to verify with people. I am running arch on a Sony Vaio laptop with a Toshiba ATA hard drive.

1) I have heard quite a bit about being careful with APM to avoid shortening life of hard drive. I have set the following settings in my laptop-mode.conf file:

Code:

#    LM_something=value      Value of "something" when laptop mode is active
#    NOLM_something=value    Value of "something" when laptop mode is NOT
#                            active
#    AC_something=value      Value of "something" when the computer is running
#                            on AC power
#    BATT_something=value    Value of "something when the computer is running
#                            on battery power
#
# Power management for HD (hdparm -B values)
#
BATT_HD_POWERMGMT=128
LM_AC_HD_POWERMGMT=254
NOLM_AC_HD_POWERMGMT=254

As I understood the arch wiki, these settings should be good for most laptops. I don't move the laptop much when it's plugged in (I think the latter two are plugged in) and can have a higher hdparm value. 128 should be good if I am on battery, when I may move the laptop around more (so lower to avoid HD damage). Could anyone confirm that I understood this correctly so that I don't damage anything.

2) I am using s2disk to hibernate the computer. Is there any way using laptop-mode-tools or another method to make it so that the computer automatically hibernates if lid is closed or battery runs down (e.g. 10 minutes remaining, or something).

3) I am a not certain whether this should be turned on or off (I am leaning towards off since I don't have SATA, but it was by default on)

Code:

#
# If this is enabled, laptop mode tools will assume that SCSI drives are
# really SATA drives that only _look_ like SCSI drives, and will use hdparm
# to control them. Set this to 0 if you have /dev/sd devices and you want
# laptop mode tools to use the "sdparm" command to control them. 
#
ASSUME_SCSI_IS_SATA=1

Thank you very much!

Kenny_Strawn · 02-05-2011, 12:11 AM

I guess you could write a shell script frontend for s2disk that uses some sort of if statement to run s2disk automatically under certain conditions (like when the laptop has less than 10% battery or when the lid is closed) and then run the script automatically as a daemon...

Aesir · 02-05-2011, 12:37 AM

I think I have solved part of this problem, there is the auto-hibernate.conf file (with laptop-mode-tools) where I can specify at what percentage I want this to occur; still not sure about lid or the rest of my concerns. Thanks for the suggestion though!

c!oud · 02-05-2011, 02:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aesir

2) I am using s2disk to hibernate the computer. Is there any way using laptop-mode-tools or another method to make it so that the computer automatically hibernates if lid is closed or battery runs down (e.g. 10 minutes remaining, or something).

Check out acpid for triggering various actions based upon certain acpi events (e.g. closing the lid)