Arch Linux

Paul

Member

Registered: 2004-04-12

Posts: 72

Kernel: Laptop Mode

I just read an article at slashdot about a new l00G laptop hard drive. One of the comments mentioned a kernel laptop mode:

Laptop mode will spin down your drive and buffer all writes rather than spinning it back up. When you do a read that requires data from the disk, it will spin up the disk, perform the read, perform all pending writes and spin the disk back down. After a user-defined interval (default 10 minutes) it will spin the disk up just to flush writes -- I prefer to set it to an insanely long time and then just tell it to flush manually at appropriate times (by toggling laptop mode off for a moment).

I wasn't aware there was such a mode - Does anyone know where the config option is?

Paul

kleptophobiac

Member

From: Sunnyvale, CA

Registered: 2004-04-25

Posts: 489

Re: Kernel: Laptop Mode

I'd love the answer to that as well.... but I don't think reiserfs is capable of it.

i3839

Member

Registered: 2004-02-04

Posts: 1,185

Re: Kernel: Laptop Mode

Never heard of Google?

http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/laptop_mode/

aCoder

Member

From: Medina, OH

Registered: 2004-03-07

Posts: 359

Website

Re: Kernel: Laptop Mode

That's so cool.  I'm going to get a laptop now.  If it's not compiled into Arch's 2.6.6, I'm going to be pissed.  I haven compiled a kernel myself in 2 months now, and I don't plan to compile much of anything when we have such great package maintainers to do these things for us!

---

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.
  - John Cage

nightfrost

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2005-04-16

Posts: 647

Re: Kernel: Laptop Mode

That's so cool.  I'm going to get a laptop now.  If it's not compiled into Arch's 2.6.6, I'm going to be pissed.  I haven compiled a kernel myself in 2 months now, and I don't plan to compile much of anything when we have such great package maintainers to do these things for us!

I don't think there's even an option for that. Laptop mode is just a feature of the 2.6-kernel (maybe 2.6.x; I don't rememeber exactly) series. In case you've missed this, here's a link to a PKGBUILD by phrakture: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … laptopmode

EDIT: Seems your lucky, it turns out the feature starts with kernel 2.6.6

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Kernel: Laptop Mode

You know, I'm pretty newbish as far as my computer knowledge goes, but that sounds like a mighty good way to wear out your hard drive...

nightfrost

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2005-04-16

Posts: 647

Re: Kernel: Laptop Mode

yeah, I've had my concerns about that as well... Any hardware gurus care to acknowledge?

EDIT: I found this: http://mailman.linux-thinkpad.org/piper … 20361.html