Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I've been running a T420s with LMDE for 4 months now, and the one issue that's been bugging me is battery life. Boot up the windows partition: 6.5 hours. Linux partition: 1.5 hours.


That's weird. Can you run a power metering tool to find out what is using so much energy? What the GPU it uses?


I'd love to try that. You mean a hardware metering tool?


Try to run "powertop".


Thanks! I updated my tunables, but top of the overview is the laptop fan.

Update: it's also possible the GPU is the culprit: http://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=786665


Nice!

Let us know what happens.


Here's a snapshot from my powertop:

    Usage     Device name
   3598 rpm     Laptop fan
    1.7%        CPU use
  100.0%        Display backlight
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
  100.0%        PCI Device: Ricoh Co Ltd Device e823
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family KT Controller
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller
  100.0%        Radio device: iwlagn
  100.0%        PCI Device: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 5
    0.0 pkts/s  Network interface: wlan0 (iwlagn)
    0.0 pkts/s  Network interface: eth2 (e1000e)




Consider applying for YC's Fall 2026 batch! Applications are open till July 27.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: