Arch Linux

solarwind

Member

From: Toronto

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 546

Suitable For Laptops?

Hey all,

I have Arch Linux installed on several of my desktops at home and it works very well. However, I was wondering if Arch Linux is a suitable distribution for laptops.

Does it have the proper power management/cpu frequency scaling management stuff? Does it suspend/hibernate properly? Wireless isn't a problem, but does it minimize disk writes to conserve power? General things like that?

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

laptop-mode-tools is what you need.
I run Arch on my laptop and I have no complaints here. Power management works fine but I can't comment on suspend/hibernate because I don't use it but AFAIK it works as it should.
You should read this thread http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=22816

Last edited by sand_man (2008-08-26 02:12:10)

---

Allan

Pacman

From: Brisbane, AU

Registered: 2007-06-09

Posts: 11,384

Website

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

I have Arch on more laptops that I do desktops.  Suspend to RAM can be a bit picky at times and take a bit to get setup for your system, but suspend to disk works without issues.  Cpu frequenciy scaling is easy (cpufrequtils).  In general, no problems with laptops.

---

PGP Key: F99FFE0FEAE999BD

solarwind

Member

From: Toronto

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 546

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

I have Arch on more laptops that I do desktops.  Suspend to RAM can be a bit picky at times and take a bit to get setup for your system, but suspend to disk works without issues.  Cpu frequenciy scaling is easy (cpufrequtils).  In general, no problems with laptops.

Sounds great. Can't wait to put it on my laptop!

moljac024

Member

From: Serbia

Registered: 2008-01-29

Posts: 2,676

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

Running arch on my laptop without any issues! Suspend and hibernate didn't work out of the box and since I don't use them I never bothered myself to set it up...

---

The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, is the day they make a vacuum cleaner.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But if they tell you that I've lost my mind, maybe it's not gone just a little hard to find...

solarwind

Member

From: Toronto

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 546

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

Power usage was my main concern so now that that's out of the way, I can set up Arch Linux. Can't wait!

One more thing, my laptop has a Broadcom (BCM 4318) wireless B/G card. Has anyone had success getting this card working on Arch Linux?

lucke

Member

From: Poland

Registered: 2004-11-30

Posts: 4,018

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wir … up#BCM43XX

kclive18

Member

From: Columbus, Ohio, USA

Registered: 2008-05-08

Posts: 219

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

b43 is the better and more recent driver to use with the 4318 (my laptop has one and it works great with b43).

---

My Rigs:
- Mid-2007 iMac 20", Intel 2GHz Core 2 Duo, 2x1GB DDR2-800, 250GB SATA HDD, and...MIGHTY MOUSE!!! , OSX 10.5 Leopard, ATI Radeon 2400XT 128MB
- HP zv6203cl, AMD Athlon 64 3200 S939, 2x512MB DDR400, 80GB 4200rpm HDD, ATI Radeon Xpress 200M 128MB, Arch i686
- 1986 Gibson SG Junior Cherry Red, Ibanez 15W amp, DigiTech RP250 modeling processor

cjpembo

Member

Registered: 2008-08-06

Posts: 105

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

If your laptop is listed here:

http://suspend.cvs.sourceforge.net/susp … iew=markup

suspend to disk or ram may work quite well.  If not, you can still get it done.

For power savings, check out powertop:

http://www.lesswatts.org/projects/powertop/

pacman -S powertop

I nearly doubled my battery life using the powertop tool.

Hints:

use a wm like blackbox
put your wireless card into power saving mode
reduce wireless router wakeup from 100 to 1000 ms
xset dpms 0 0 240
xrandr --output VGA --off
xrandr --output TV --off

Chris

solarwind

Member

From: Toronto

Registered: 2008-03-18

Posts: 546

Re: Suitable For Laptops?

Thank you!