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I got Toshiba z30t-A and the laptop has pretty good battery life. I would get 5:30-6 hours nonstop YouTube playback in Windows 10.
I was excited to use Suse 15 on it as I thought battery life would go even further. Upon a closer examination, it looks like the default power management isn't as good. I haven't run a few tests to test it out fully but it seems like battery drains faster under Suse 15.
Just wondering what other people's experience is like with battery life Windows 10 vs Linux. Perhaps someone can offer advice on how I can improve battery life or maybe settings I can try on Suse 15?
+++ System Info
System = TOSHIBA PT24AA-00X001 PORTEGE Z30t-A
BIOS = Version 4.30
Release = "openSUSE Leap 15.0"
Kernel = 4.12.14-lp150.12.45-default #1 SMP Mon Jan 14 20:29:59 UTC 2019 (7a62739) x86_64
/proc/cmdline = BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.12.14-lp150.12.45-default root=UUID=c8660c59-9b9c-4f61-baac-768121c085a1 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-TOSHIBA_THNSNJ128GMCU_15DB40HMK8XX-part4 splash=silent quiet showopts
Init system = systemd v234
Boot mode = UEFI
+++ TLP Status
State = enabled
Last run = 03:08:58 PM, 2 sec(s) ago
Mode = battery
Power source = battery
Notice: tlp-sleep.service is not enabled -- invoke "systemctl enable tlp-sleep.service" to correct this!
Notice: systemd-rfkill.service is not masked -- invoke "systemctl mask systemd-rfkill.service" to correct this!
+++ Processor
CPU model = Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4300U CPU @ 1.90GHz
+++ AHCI Link Power Management (ALPM)
/sys/class/scsi_host/host0/link_power_management_policy = min_power
/sys/class/scsi_host/host1/link_power_management_policy = min_power
/sys/class/scsi_host/host2/link_power_management_policy = min_power
+++ AHCI Host Controller Runtime Power Management
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/ata1/power/control = on
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/ata2/power/control = on
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/ata3/power/control = on
+++ Docks and Device Bays
/sys/devices/platform/dock.0: dock_station = undocked
+++ PCIe Active State Power Management
/sys/module/pcie_aspm/parameters/policy = default (using bios preferences)
+++ Wireless
bluetooth = on
wifi = on
wwan = none (no device)
hci0(btusb) : bluetooth, not connected
wlan0(iwlwifi) : wifi, connected, power management = on
wwan0(cdc_mbim) : wwan, not connected
+++ Audio
/sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save = 1
/sys/module/snd_hda_intel/parameters/power_save_controller = Y
+++ Runtime Power Management
Device blacklist = (not configured)
Driver blacklist = amdgpu nouveau nvidia radeon (default)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:00.0/power/control = auto (0x060000, Host bridge, hsw_uncore)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:02.0/power/control = auto (0x030000, VGA compatible controller, i915)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:03.0/power/control = auto (0x040300, Audio device, snd_hda_intel)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:14.0/power/control = auto (0x0c0330, USB controller, xhci_hcd)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:16.0/power/control = auto (0x078000, Communication controller, mei_me)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:16.3/power/control = auto (0x070002, Serial controller, serial)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:19.0/power/control = auto (0x020000, Ethernet controller, e1000e)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1b.0/power/control = auto (0x040300, Audio device, snd_hda_intel)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.0/power/control = auto (0x060400, PCI bridge, pcieport)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1c.2/power/control = auto (0x060400, PCI bridge, pcieport)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.0/power/control = auto (0x060100, ISA bridge, lpc_ich)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:00:1f.2/power/control = auto (0x010601, SATA controller, ahci)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:01:00.0/power/control = auto (0xff0000, Unassigned class [ff00], rtsx_pci)
/sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/power/control = auto (0x028000, Network controller, iwlwifi)
Bus 002 Device 001 ID 1d6b:0003 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 0 -- Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub (hub)
Bus 001 Device 008 ID 8087:07dc control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Intel Corp. (btusb)
Bus 001 Device 005 ID 04f2:b3b1 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd (uvcvideo)
Bus 001 Device 007 ID 138a:0010 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Validity Sensors, Inc. VFS Fingerprint sensor (no driver)
Bus 001 Device 006 ID 04f3:0167 control = on, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Elan Microelectronics Corp. (usbhid)
Bus 001 Device 004 ID 05e3:0608 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 0 -- Genesys Logic, Inc. Hub (hub)
Bus 001 Device 003 ID 046d:c534 control = on, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver (usbhid)
Bus 001 Device 002 ID 1199:9063 control = on, autosuspend_delay_ms = 2000 -- Sierra Wireless, Inc. (cdc_mbim)
Bus 001 Device 001 ID 1d6b:0002 control = auto, autosuspend_delay_ms = 0 -- Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub (hub)
you have full tech support then from buying the required support contract
you might want to use it .
Sorry, it is OpenSuse Leap 15. Have you had any experience with power management tool on laptops under Linux? Anything you can recommend?
I did Powertop yesterday and it seems to have improved battery life a bit . Any experienced users here can have a look at the outputs and make recommendations as didn't do any tweaks?
Maybe this will be off topic a bit, but as far as laptops go, I got more than twice the time out my battery (3-4 hours from a 10 year old Sony i3) when I switched to xfce (Debian testing would be my choice) and put in a sshd. Other than that, everything I tried was only minimally effective.
You can use TLP to configure your power usage. If you do not feel comfortable editing the config file, there is a GUI you can use. Remember to whitelist any USB HID devices, such as a mouse.
If you want to use powertop, you may enable or create a systemd service to use the autotune parameter. It will set everything to the GOOD setting, which you may not want.
EDIT: grammar
Last edited by amishtechie; 02-10-2019 at 12:26 PM.
You can use TLP to configure your power usage. If you do not feel comfortable editing the config file, there is a GUI you can use. Remember to whitelist any USB HID devices, such as a mouse.
If you want to use powertop, you may enable or create a systemd service to use the autotune parameter. It will set everything to the GOOD setting, which you may not want.
EDIT: grammar
Many thanks for your reply! I ran the report and did auto-tune as your mentioned. So if I want to have it running on start up every time I need to create
/etc/systemd/system/powertop.service
With the following code inside the powertop.service?
Powertop, for me, is great as a diagnostic tool to show power usage. I use TLP for power management. They are just different tools that do similar tasks.
Your systemd config looks good. If you want to know anything about Linux, the Arch wiki is a great resource. It takes very little to modify the information to something that can be used for your distro of choice.
If you really want to learn about Linux, consider using Slackware or Arch Linux. The learning curve is steep and you will bang your head on the wall at times. But you will learn quickly.
Last edited by amishtechie; 02-10-2019 at 05:52 PM.
Reason: more information
Powertop, for me, is great as a diagnostic tool to show power usage. I use TLP for power management. They are just different tools that do similar tasks.
Your systemd config looks good. If you want to know anything about Linux, the Arch wiki is a great resource. It takes very little to modify the information to something that can be used for your distro of choice.
If you really want to learn about Linux, consider using Slackware or Arch Linux. The learning curve is steep and you will bang your head on the wall at times. But you will learn quickly.
Just a quick question. I have run the powertop and while most of the settings are "Good" a couple still show up as bad:
Quote:
>> Bad VM writeback timeout
Bad Autosuspend for USB device EM7305 [Sierra Wireless, Incorporated]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device Touchscreen [ELAN]
Bad Autosuspend for USB device USB Receiver [Logitech]
One of them is Touchscreen. If I make it "Good" , would it turn it off permanetly or only turn it off when I am not using it?
You want to keep those in the "Bad" setting. They will turn off every few seconds if not being used. It is really annoying to be reading a page and try to scroll down with a nonfunctional mouse.
Yes, you would want to save powertop.service if you want it to start up at boot. Don't forget to enable the service.
Last edited by amishtechie; 02-20-2019 at 12:46 PM.
Reason: More information
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