Tuesday, October 6, 2015

Advanced Power Management Tool `TLP` Sees New Release


TLP 0.7 was released recently, bringing an option which allows setting the minimum and maximum Intel P-state performance, better ThinkPad support and various other changes and bug fixes.

For those not familiar with TLP, this is an advanced power management tool that applies various settings and tweaks to help your laptop save battery power. The app tries to do everything automatically, depending on your Linux distribution and hardware (it runs in the background and doesn't come with a GUI) however, you can manually change its settings by editing the TLP configuration file: /etc/default/tlp

The most important new feature in this TLP release is the addition of an option which allows defining the minimum and maximum P-state performance for Intel Core processors (values are stated as a percentage of the total available processor performance), intended to limit the power dissipation of the CPU (feature implemented by Pali Rohár). According to Thomas Koch, the TLP developer, this should be more effective than limiting frequencies.

This feature requires an Intel SandyBridge or newer CPU with "intel_pstate" scaling driver enabled.

To use this, in the TLP configuration file (/etc/default/tlp), uncomment the following lines (remove the "#"):
#CPU_MIN_PERF_ON_AC=0
#CPU_MAX_PERF_ON_AC=100
#CPU_MIN_PERF_ON_BAT=0
#CPU_MAX_PERF_ON_BAT=30
... and experiment with different values to see which suits your needs best. After making changes to the TLP configuration file, restart TLP by running "sudo tlp start".


Other changes in the latest TLP 0.7 include:
  • USB:
    • USB_DRIVER_BLACKLIST: exclude devices assigned to the listed drivers from USB autosuspend; default: usbhid;
    • USB_BLACKLIST_WWAN: match internal driver list instead of USB vendor ids;
    • USB_WHITELIST: include devices into USB autosuspend even if already excluded by the driver or WWAN blacklists;
  • radio devices: DEVICES_TO_ENABLE_ON_AC/DISABLE_ON_BAT/DISABLE_ON_BAT_NOT_IN_USE: enable/disable radio devices upon change of power source (excluding connected devices) (feature implemented by Pali Rohár);
  • ThinkPad Battery:
    • provide proper return codes for all battery functions;
    • setcharge allowed on battery power;
    • do not activate new thresholds with force_discharge anymore (tp-smapi);
    • tpacpi-bat: support for ThinkPad E325 charge thresholds;
  • tlp-stat:
    • new options: -d|--disk, -e|--pcie, -p|--processor, -s|--system, -u|--usb;
    • show driver and connection state for all enabled radio devices;
    • show driver name in Runtime PM PCI(e) device list;
    • show type and state of docks and device bays;
    • show type of init system;
    • check if TLP's systemd services are enabled;
  • RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_BLACKLIST: exclude PCI(e) devices assigned to drivers;
  • support Dell Latitude docks (feature implemented by Pali Rohár);
  • added support for NM 0.9.10;
  • set performance versus energy savings policy (performance, normal, powersave - requires kernel modules msr and x86_energy_perf_policy from linux-tools);
  • fixed dock/undock event processing for ThinkPad Adv Mini Dock and Ultrabase;
  • use a more robust USB device event processing.


Install TLP in Ubuntu / Linux Mint


To avoid any conflicts with laptop-mode-tools, a tool similar to TLP, it's recommended to remove it before installing TLP. In Ubuntu / Debian / Linux Mint, remove laptop-mode-tools using the following command:
sudo apt-get purge laptop-mode-tools

Ubuntu (14.10, 14.04 and 12.04) / Linux Mint (17.1, 17 and 13) users can install TLP by using its official PPA. Add the PPA and install the latest TLP by using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp
TLP will start automatically but to avoid having to restart the system, the first time you can start it manually, by using the following command:
sudo tlp start
There are also some optional packages you can install - for more on that as well as more information about TLP, see: Improve Power Usage / Battery Life In Linux With TLP. Also see the TLP FAQ.

For how to install TLP in Fedora, Debian, Arch Linux or Gentoo, see the TLP installation page.

To download the source code, report bugs, etc., see the TLP GitHub page.


Thanks to Thomas for the tip! image via Canonical blog
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