Short battery time on Arch.

milo64 · 2013-05-26 03:10:28

I've a Samsung NP-300E4Z, and i felt like i made a wrong choice.
When I used windows on this samsung, for about 3-4 hours, the battery gauge was a quater (or sometime half) out of full.
When I used linux on this samsung, for about 3-4 hours, it flatted out (0%).

Here's my lspci, if it's usefull:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller (rev 04)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF119M [GeForce GT 520MX] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation Centrino Wireless-N 130 (rev 34)
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)

If you want to know more about this computer, please kindly ask...

Thorsten Reinbold · 2013-05-26 03:47:56

I really hope you get some usefull answers. I'm suffering from similar problems, but I have the feeling that this is a nearly unsolvible thing till now. It really seems as if some things still work way better under Win. Sadly, especially for Notebooks.

jason_s · 2013-05-26 03:48:52

Hi milo64, it looks like this is an Nvidia Optimus system. If you install and confiure Bumblebee that should help your battery life.

Last edited by jason_s (2013-05-26 03:49:07)

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-26 05:26:11

Otherwise, if you can figure out if there is a way to simply turn off the nvidia card when you use Linux (if you don't want to utilize it in Linux that is), then that is an option as well. I have an Intel based Thinkpad with only the HD4000 integrated processor, and the battery life I get on this machine actually exceeds what I have been told I should expect with windows.

If you take the nvidia graphics card out of the picture, you still are working with Linux, and you have an operating system that is strictly a DIY setup. So although a vanilla kernel and the base packages provide some very sane defaults, it is certainly not a set of defaults that optimizes for power conservation. A really good place to start is by using powertop to see what kinds of power draw you are actually getting and what kinds of things are the most power hungry in your machine.

There are many optimizations you can make within /sys and through options when kernel modules are loaded that can bring about much better battery conservation. So on the last section of powertop (tab over a few times) you will see a bunch of things marked "good" and "bad". You need to check all the bad things and figure out what settings and tools yuo can use to make those say "good". As an example, the ethernet card's wake on lan functionality being on will report a "bad". So I have a udev rule that, upon detecting the presence of the device, will run ethtool and turn off that functionality. I also have configuration files in /etc/modprobe.d that ensure that certain modules are loaded with power saving options turned on.

There is a wiki page that outlines most of the things that can be done to optimize these things.

milo64 · 2013-05-26 07:57:17

hi, jason:
it seems that bumblebee also allow me to use the NVIDIA card too. but, i don't want to use it, because: i don't need it, anyway...
All i do is, working in a terminal. No graphics, No games (yeah, i know), No sdl.

I reckon that i ought to disable the card.

milo64 · 2013-05-26 09:11:32

I also want to tell you, i don't really want to buy another new laptop to solve this problem:
1. When choosing a laptop, it's like a risky guessing game -- does this laptop work fine with Linux? Does it have long battery life?
2. People in my country are honestly, closed-minded -- they don't really try Linux, so, most laptops are designed to be OKay with windows, there should be roughly 1 in 10 to 100 chance of getting the right computer.
3. It's incredibly expensive.

I'm very sorry if i am thinking negativly, but, i'm telling the facts.

Earnestly · 2013-05-26 09:18:32

bbswitch, which is part of bumblebee but can be used on it's own will allow you to disable the nvidia card. As for battery life, welcome to buying a laptop with a dedicated GPU, what did you honestly expect? If you're after battery life get a thinkpad X220/230 or T420

z0id · 2013-05-26 10:09:23

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_saving

milo64 · 2013-05-26 10:28:42

z0id wrote:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_saving

I just saw something called "PowerTop", but, it doesn't seem to mention in the link, does it do the same thing as the "Ready to run scripts"?

WonderWoofy · 2013-05-26 15:07:23

milo64 wrote:

z0id wrote:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Power_saving
I just saw something called "PowerTop", but, it doesn't seem to mention in the link, does it do the same thing as the "Ready to run scripts"?

Did you read my post?!

Arch Linux

#1 2013-05-26 03:10:28

Short battery time on Arch.

#2 2013-05-26 03:47:56

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#3 2013-05-26 03:48:52

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#4 2013-05-26 05:26:11

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#5 2013-05-26 07:57:17

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#6 2013-05-26 09:11:32

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#7 2013-05-26 09:18:32

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#8 2013-05-26 10:09:23

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#9 2013-05-26 10:28:42

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

#10 2013-05-26 15:07:23

Re: Short battery time on Arch.

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