Question

8

Ubuntu drains battery very fast compared to Windows

rated 0 times [ 8] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 53150 / 3 Years ago, wed, june 23, 2021, 2:45:14

EDIT/UPDATE: Here is a screenshot of powertop tuning report: Link

I'm very new to Ubuntu. Sorry if there are a lot of similar question to this but the answers I found from others differ from one another. Anyway, I'm running a dual boot of Windows 8 and Ubuntu 13.10.

My problem is whenever I boot to Ubuntu, my laptop's battery gets drained rather quickly compared to when I boot Windows. I also noticed excessive air blowing from the side vents of my laptop whenever I'm on Ubuntu. Also, if it's worth mentioning, my laptop is a Lenovo G505s.

After doing research, I found out about these:

Laptop mode - I read that it is not needed in 13.10 but I also read from other guides that I need to install it?

TLP - Must not be installed with Laptop mode. Is this a good power management tool?

Jupiter - Do I need this as well?

I installed powertop but I don't know how to use it. Please help with this. Here's the report (I think this is the relevant one): Link

I also did the necessary tidbits like lowering brightness, only using WiFi when I need it, etc.

Any other suggestions would be extremely helpful. Thank you in advance.

Answers

Only authorized users can answer the question. Please sign in first, or register a free account.

vigorousom

Add To Favorites

Follow

Total Points: 394

Total Questions: 96

Total Answers: 110

Location: Pitcairn Islands

Member since Fri, Oct 15, 2021

3 Years ago

answered 3 Years ago kroapathe · Accepted Answer

You can use either laptop-mode-tools (which come pre-installed) or TLP, but not both at the same time. There is no big practical difference between the two, the consensus appears to be that TLP is somewhat more advanced, while laptop-mode-tools is somewhat more stable.

You can use powertop (sudo powertop) to see your biggest energy consumers, and to check (under "Tunables") if laptop-mode-tools/TLP are working properly - most parameters are supposed to switch to "Good" once the laptop is unplugged. Sample:

enter image description here

Some minor parameters (like VM writeback timeout, swappiness etc.) which are not auto-adjusted can be adjusted manually. Google will help you to find out how.

However, if your laptop has AMD/Nvidia graphics, power drainage is probably caused by the opensource X graphic driver. In which case, as much as we all like opensource, you have no option but to install proprietary video drivers (fglrx/bumblebee respectively). You will easily find the how-to's on the web.