I’ve installed TLP on my Lenovo ThinkBook laptop and was wondering if there are additional steps I can take to extend the battery life when using the laptop unplugged.

Could you please share more tips and tricks for maximizing battery life on Linux laptops?

  • vbatts
    7·
    9 months ago

    In the bios of many thinkpads there are options about powering USB ports while the machine is suspended or powered off. I disable that, because I want battery life even when suspended. Also an option about some windows suspend or S3 suspend, I chose S3 suspend, but don’t have clear evidence this choice makes a difference.

    • rotopenguin@infosec.pubEnglish
      5·
      9 months ago

      I don’t think that you’re losing any power with the “usb ports powered” option on. It’s just there if you want to use your (sleeping) laptop as a $1000 power bank to charge your phone.

      Personally, I turn it off just because I would rather use a $20 battery pack instead of wearing out my laptop.

      • vbatts
        1·
        9 months ago

        yeah, ok. So I just went back to test the S3 Sleep power state option, and switched it to the Windows’y one, which the BIOS says Linux supports and it does, but now the machine seems to still burn battery when it’s suspended … So, I have found the larger culprit.

        • rotopenguin@infosec.pubEnglish
          1·
          9 months ago

          We are well into the age of “OEMs dgaf if S3 works”. Windows has not used it since sometime around 7, so it’s been bitrotting in every vendor’s firmware. With some models, you may have S3 working on day one, but a firmware update kills it and that’s too bad.

          S0ix idle is actually quite nice when you get it working, but when it is not the tools to diagnose it are terrible. The terminology around sleep states are also terrible, (what’s a package or core or platform C state? Could one of them find a different letter?). I have gone over the arch wiki, and DELETED Intel documents so many times…