Hacker News Reader

Comment by lukeschlather | Hacker News Reader

doyougnu was previously running NixOS on a Macbook so their bar for "working" is probably much lower than a normal person's.

I'm on Windows, but if a Linux could give me reliable power management I would switch in a heartbeat. I don't know what it would take to have sensible power management on Linux without major issues.

View on HN

I get six to eight hours on my Thinkpad, running Arch Linux.

This did not happen out of the box. I think I got like two hours of battery life before I began tuning parameters. As usual, the Arch wiki is an excellent resource even if you're running a different distro: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management

That's impressive. I've done the equivalent of tuning everything and still wound up with battery lifetime half of what it should be on Windows.

There's also specific programs that are really bad. Edge used to add 2-4 hours extra battery life when using my Surface to read PDFs. If I used Firefox, it was shorter by a very noticeable amount.

Does straight chrome have similar battery performance?

Chrome was worse compared to MS's Edge, but Chrome based Edge seems worse than previous Edge. My testing isn't as exhaustive on the new Edge.

Huh. Wonder what the secret sauce is that apparently they can't release upstream. Open source FTW?

> if a Linux could give me reliable power management I would switch in a heartbeat

More than `powertop --auto-tune`?

Just tried on my Framework with Ubuntu 22.04:

$ sudo powertop --auto-tune modprobe cpufreq_stats failedCannot load from file /var/cache/powertop/saved_results.powertop Cannot load from file /var/cache/powertop/saved_parameters.powertop File will be loaded after taking minimum number of measurement(s) with battery only RAPL device for cpu 0 RAPL Using PowerCap Sysfs : Domain Mask d RAPL device for cpu 0 RAPL Using PowerCap Sysfs : Domain Mask d Devfreq not enabled glob returned GLOB_ABORTED Cannot load from file /var/cache/powertop/saved_parameters.powertop File will be loaded after taking minimum number of measurement(s) with battery only Leaving PowerTOP

powertop --auto-tune is kind of annoying to use, it usually winds up tuning something that shouldn't be and there's no convenient way to filter what it does, and then suddenly your mouse stops being responsive if you leave it alone for more than 2 seconds.

Also on a laptop you might have stuff being plugged and unplugged all the time. Tbh it's kind of surprising systemd hasn't grown a "powertop that remembers things" arm.

Framework boards has its own compilation of battery tweaks for linux, though I'd also recommend the Arch wiki another user posted in this thread.

https://community.frame.work/t/linux-battery-life-tuning/666...

Have a look at thinkpads. I used x280 and x1 over the past 5 years with more than a week’s worth in folded lid sleep state.

I own/have owned multiple Thinkpads, a couple of which run Linux. The power management on Linux is bad.

What counts as sensible for you?

Experience differs depending on hardware. My Dell XPS 13 got 7hrs out of the box on Manjaro, which I tweaked to get to 8.5-9. On ubuntu I didn't have to bother with the tweaks. That's comparable to Windows on this device...

Try Pop OS.

On System76...

Pop OS on a Dell XPS is giving me good battery life. If you already have your machine and files are backed up, worth a shot.

I didn't have the same experience with pop on a newer XPS. I wasn't able to get more than 4 hours on a full charge.

I’m on a 2020 XPS17. At the time I was having a hell of a time and it took almost a year for everything to be supported out of the box.

Why do people keep doing this to themselves?! I really don't get it. Just buy a laptop from a vendor that actually supports linux, like System76.

Because there are countries out side of America. You may have heard of them.

They also can get these devices. You may have heard that.

Of course, depends highly on the value of "they". Because the "you may have heard..." pattern is worse than useless, here's actual info to compare and decide whether either of these may work for you:

https://knowledgebase.frame.work/de/in-welche-lander-und-reg...

https://system76.com/shipping

Sadly, protectionism is a thing. Launching in new countries is hard and expensive. Perhaps there's a company in country that would do it better than some giant international megacorp.

Framework does not ship internationally yet. System 76 does.

But if I’m buying a laptop for work why would I get a laptop from a manufacturer that has no presence in my country? What am I going to do when things go wrong? Unfortunately, it may be better to take a punt on a manufacturer with global presence.

Then you get what you choose.

"Good battery life" is not my measure of good power management. I can leave my windows laptop sitting out, it will sensibly turn off the screen and eventually hibernate, I don't need to worry about it. A Linux laptop will need babying when it's not plugged in.

Not necessarily

Yes it’s horrible when I’m not plugged in and you have to shutdown before closing the lid for transportation.

But if you want off windows and aren’t willing to go Mac, you take what you can get.

> Yes it’s horrible when I’m not plugged in and you have to shutdown before closing the lid for transportation.

Why? Does it not hibernate?

No it does not. If you’re not careful you’ll open your laptop bag to a hot and barely touchable laptop.

Ouch.

They usually suspend when the lid is closed by default rather than hibernating.

Gnome has power management features like that, didn't even enable them. It's the most installed DE I think, so your characterization of Linux is pretty off.

I like Gnome and its newest incarnation Gnome 40, but at least on Nixos it has some issues so I often rebuild to an i3-based environment instead.

battery life with that laptop was always better on the mac, but I regularly got 4-6 hours on that machine for years, first with Arch linux, and then with NixOS.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com