Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Power Management Tool `TLP` 0.8 Released

Ubuntu Laptop

TLP 0.8 was released recently, bringing various ThinkPad improvements, systemd "predictable network interface names" support along with 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

A complete list of TLP features can be found HERE.

Changes in TLP 0.8:
  • General:
    • TLP_DEFAULT_MODE: change default operation mode to AC when no power supply can be detected (concerns some desktop and embedded hardware only)
  • Radio Devices:
    • Resume: restore bluetooth state
  • Radio Device Wizard (tlp-rdw):
    • Support ThinkPad OneLink Dock Basic/Pro for dock/undock events
    • Detect systemd "predictable network interface names" for WWAN
  • ThinkPad Battery:
    • tpacpi-bat: new upstream version 2.2: get ASL path from /sys/class/power_supply/*/device/path; avoids unnecessary "AE_NOT_FOUND" kernel messages
    • tlp-stat:
      • Show "No batteries detected."
      • Explain battery status "Unknown" as "threshold effective"
      • Show battery cell group voltages (verbose mode, tp-smapi only)
      • Show acpi-call suggestion for ThinkPad *40, *50, X1 models
  • USB:
    • Remove USB_DRIVER_BLACKLIST
  • tlp-stat:
    • Show warnings for ata errors by default
  • Bugfixes
    • tlp-stat: detect kernel config with PM_RUNTIME=N
    • tlp recalibrate: fix exitcode check
    • USB autosuspend: write power/control if actually changing only
    • Ignore missing files in /proc/sys/fs/xfs

According to the changelog, the "USB_DRIVER_BLACKLIST" feature was removed because it caused issues with AC/BAT switching (the CPU governor didn't change when going from AC to battery or the other way around) and USB hotplugging (required for udevd v221 and higher) - issue HERE.


Install TLP in Ubuntu or Linux Mint


To add the official TLP PPA and install the tool in Ubuntu or Linux Mint, use the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tlp tlp-rdw

TLP will automatically start upon system startup, but to avoid having to restart the system to get it running for the first time, you can start it (required only the first time) using the following command:
sudo tlp start

For more information about TLP, optional ThinkPad only packages you may whish yo install, etc., see our initial article about TLP and the TLP website.

For Debian, Fedora, Arch Linux, Gentoo or openSUSE installation instructions, see THIS page.

Report any bugs you may find @ GitHub.
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