[Novalug] battery life and powertop

Donald Harvey donald.harvey.jr@gmail.com
Sun Nov 3 18:00:03 EST 2013


hello , im using suse 12.1 asparagus on my laptop ..lenovo g770 series
my question is im not really getting great or enough battery life out of
it. I'm very mobile and i use it more without it plugged into power source
than i do with power ..so i install powertop but it doesn’t seem to work.
In (install software)Software Manager.. powertop is available but not the
current version ..version im using is 1.3 but it is up to 2.0 or 2.4 ..so i
installed the version available from suse and i get some options ..it's
easy to use although im not sure if it runs in the background .. after you
apply changes it recommends i  close terminal ..if changes are still runs
im not sure ..but so far it seems useless..what im trying to do is change
the turbo state which is set by suse in the kernel i believe it is  default
kernel setting (standard)my understand for reasons for performance..i would
like change to a cor p state or lesser state for battery reasons as you
know ..my lenovo has a i5 chip sandy bridge but laptop doesnt not have
intel powersaving options in the bios..im starting my research and what i
have found is something about kernel options and repo? and to make powertop
work and make changes permanent.(powertop workings)yes' I have to do a few
things ..im out of my league and a beginner so for the time being  im
trying to find a easy way..what i have done is installed yast2-
power-management and enable pm, profiler ..and then change my power setting
to powersaving which is suppose to give you the best longevity out of
battery ...12.1opensuse is more graphical and with this new kernel it
consume more power ..11.4 on thee other hand was much better at consuming
power ..with 11.4 id get about 3 hours with 12.1 i get about 1.5 with all
the setting turned off.. so i found in another form  which gave me and
idea...so i opened software management and i typed kernel , i found a few
options ..i scrolled down and found a checked box ..it looks like its a
default setting to opensuse SETTINGs . (Kernel-desktop)under description it
reads This kernel is optimized for the desktop. It is configured for lower
latency and has many of the features that aren't usually used on desktop
machines disabled.
beneath this is another option this option to be installed is called
kernel-desktop-base it reads This kernel is optimized for the desktop. It
is configured for lower latency and has many of the features that aren't
usually used on desktop machines disabled. it's a lower latency than the
current default setting ..so I enable it from  software manager or
installed it and uninstalled the default desktop kernel or kernel-desktop
is what it is called.  for this option kernel-desktop-base. i guess
powersaving ability is better.. i have not tried it yet ..because i am not
at home yet ..so i dont have any information about it. or if changing the
default desktop kernel in software manager to this desktop-base is going to
work ..but what im trying to due is get the best battery out of my laptop
and still keep suse i really dont like 12.1 and 13.1 i might not like
either..i know this kernel, my understanding is new and has some features
kernel 2.6 is suppose to be better at conserving power ..but i don’t know
how to compile my kernel or switch the kernel to a better battery hog..or
what kernel works best for this . kernel 3.1.10-1.29.1 is the kernel on my
os and their some option for or on this kernel that is suppose to work with
intel powermanagment ..but not sure how to get that going. Or"  another
kernel similar to this one with those intel power options SOMETHING TO THAT
EFFECT. ..but my lenovo g77o has no bios settings for intel power manager
so i don’t think I can use that option even if i could ..I think ..when i
run powertop i do what it tells me until i get to this suggestion made by
powertop the suggestion is called Enable the CONFIG_INOTIFY kernel
configuration option..after reading some forums ..i get that it is said
that this is a glitch in powertop version 1, because of the new kernel and
all users should run and ditch power top 1 and use powertop 2
this user said this
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2011-08/msg00070.html
gave me some understanding..
again any information would be great
i would like the option to be basic and simple if or..just general to semi
novice (ha) :) or what ever but my battery life sucks on suse
donald
donald.harvey.jr@gmail.com
5716236990 can call would be great too
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