One major problem I am having with Ubuntu on my Thinkpad x60, is the very short battery life. For example, running Windows I managed to get almost 6 hours out of the 4-cell battery. Which is quite impressing. However, with this setting it was impossible to work(lcd-back-light off, wireless off), but still it was possible to get a maximum battery life. The Linux kernel is still not improved for Laptops, and I hope for future releases the developer team will try to reduce power consumption of the kernel. In Ubuntu, I somehow managed to extend battery life up to 3 hours.(Which is an improvement of 50%)
Under normal working conditions, Windows had between 3-4hours of battery, with Ubuntu I get around 2 hours, which I think is really bad. However, with some tweaking and with the help of a friendly reader of my blog, Apelete Seketeli, whom I want to give credit and thank in this place, I managed to get 50% more Batter Life(~3 hours). But, some USB devices might not work anymore. For example, my USB mouse isn’t working anymore, which is really strange as the laser seems to be on?!
First of all make sure LAPTOP_MODE is enabled. So open the file /etc/default/acpi-support and set ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE=true. The second step is to use a frequency scaling governor. This kernel module is handles the frequency settings of my Thinkpad. And you can select several strategies, such as powersave, performance or onDemand. I use powernowd and I can set the governor to powersave as follows(for each CPU):
echo powersave > /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor
And finally stop the USB module. This may stop several devices to work, however if you don’t need USB devices, for example while you are on train. Just type the following command and the kernel module is removed:
If you test this setup, I would be happy if you give me feedback, let me know how much these settings increased your battery life and how long your battery lasts.
To monitor the actual use of the battery you can use the following command:
Hi !
I have just noticed that bluetooth on the X60 is affected by the removal of uhci module. It seems that you won't be able to enable bluetooth without this module loaded first… Oh, well, I don't think it's a big drawback, but have to report nonetheless…
Hi Kay!
I really don't know if the usbserial will be affected by removing uhci_hcd module. The USB devices are affected and some devices work and others don't. But speaking about another kernel modul I don't know?
It would be great to test it by yourself. If it doesn't work anymore after removing the module, just reload the module by
modprobe uhci_hcd
and it should work again.
Hello!
I will try this out on my X60.
I have only one question. Currently I'm using usbserial to get my UMTS PCMCIA-card to work. Will the shuting down of USB affect this?
I could also use the Airprime-driver for the card but I think that is USB-based to?