Linux lowering battery life?

[KemoKa]

I just installed Linux Mint onto my laptop since moving my Windows 10 drive to my new desktop, and while I like Linux, I can't help but notice something that has bothered me every time I install linux on a laptop: I seem to lose battery much, much more quickly on Linux than I do on windows. This has happened across multiple platforms, debian, ubuntu and Mint (admittedly, all are Ubuntu-based) but I was wondering what exactly was causing this? is it a graphics driver issue? is it an efficiency issue? everything I have seen with respect to Linux has pointed to it being far less resource-heavy than other operating systems (which is why you can run it on a tablet or a watch or a raspberry pi), so I would think that it would make for similar or better battery life than windows. I know it's not an issue with it being an HDD now, because even on an HDD, the laptop would get upwards of five hours, but now... it's decreasing too quickly to last that long, even with everything turned down.

Is there anything I can do to make this better?

[Beefmaster]

what exactly are you doing on your computer?

 

if you are gaming it is because the game is not optimised for it. 

 

your laptop might just be getting to the end of its life. if you wan ti try a different linux operating system try mathew morres respin of manjaro it is my go distro.

 

if this is found across just ubuntu please report this on the forum and help the development of linux 

 

#linuxmasterace

[Guest]

Sadly, Linux just isn't great for battery life.

[KemoKa]

what exactly are you doing on your computer?

 

if you are gaming it is because the game is not optimised for it. 

 

your laptop might just be getting to the end of its life. if you wan ti try a different linux operating system try mathew morres respin of manjaro it is my go distro.

 

if this is found across just ubuntu please report this on the forum and help the development of linux 

 

#linuxmasterace

I have been using my laptop with windows for the better part of a year now, and it has been a monster. It's a Q3 2012 model, so there's no way it's dying. I know that gaming on it is out of the question as graphics driver support for linux is abysmal at best, but even on idle it's just not lasting very long. It gets over 8 hours on a Windows SSD with no effort and over 5 on a HDD. it's amazing. If I could get Linux to do it, I'll be hacking away like crazy.

[QueenDemetria]

I stopped reading the OP after the first few sentences, but sadly linux is terrible on battery powered machines(this is why Android had a terrible battery life for the longest time). I'm not sure about Linux Mint, but on Ubuntu you could install indicator-cpufreq(also cpufreq-utils) and manually restrict your CPU frequency(this also lowers the CPU voltage). If your system has a nVidia GPU, then you can take advantage of Optimus with the official drivers(although you have to manually switch cards, unless if you use a program called bumblebee, at least I think so). Doing these will improve your battery to a usable level, but it won't be as good as Windows. The only machines that have a really good battery life with Linux(or Ubuntu mainly) are Dells, since they are working hard to support Ubuntu.

[frontliner]

Most of the powersaving features are only available in Windows so that is the main reason why battery life isn't as good.

[KemoKa]

Cool. I guess we're just gonna have to wait for Linux to really get going on this... Another point on my list of things Linux needs to sort out before it's ready.

Back to Windows 10...

[HullZ]

I just installed Linux Mint onto my laptop since moving my Windows 10 drive to my new desktop, and while I like Linux, I can't help but notice something that has bothered me every time I install linux on a laptop: I seem to lose battery much, much more quickly on Linux than I do on windows. This has happened across multiple platforms, debian, ubuntu and Mint (admittedly, all are Ubuntu-based) but I was wondering what exactly was causing this? is it a graphics driver issue? is it an efficiency issue? everything I have seen with respect to Linux has pointed to it being far less resource-heavy than other operating systems (which is why you can run it on a tablet or a watch or a raspberry pi), so I would think that it would make for similar or better battery life than windows. I know it's not an issue with it being an HDD now, because even on an HDD, the laptop would get upwards of five hours, but now... it's decreasing too quickly to last that long, even with everything turned down.

Is there anything I can do to make this better?

Its pretty easy to explain.

All the processors are made by intel and they know they are going to be used with windows. So they implement all kinds of battery saving tools etc which the Windows OS then uses.

Those tools are not implemented on Linux.

Thats it. There are a few tool that could help with your issue, but in my experience I could only reach the battery life of win XP with a bigger battery on linux

I know that sucks and is bad news but at least I have a more responsive system like I would have with Windows

[HullZ]

Cool. I guess we're just gonna have to wait for Linux to really get going on this... Another point on my list of things Linux needs to sort out before it's ready.

Back to Windows 10...

Wont ever be ready for you then

[KemoKa]

Its pretty easy to explain.

All the processors are made by intel and they know they are going to be used with windows. So they implement all kinds of battery saving tools etc which the Windows OS then uses.

I should perhaps add that my laptop runs an AMD A10 APU. Which is an all-round monster for the laptop's class, but is also surprisingly efficient. That efficiency just disappeared...

Ah well...

[BuntzenB]

I just installed Linux Mint onto my laptop since moving my Windows 10 drive to my new desktop, and while I like Linux, I can't help but notice something that has bothered me every time I install linux on a laptop: I seem to lose battery much, much more quickly on Linux than I do on windows. This has happened across multiple platforms, debian, ubuntu and Mint (admittedly, all are Ubuntu-based) but I was wondering what exactly was causing this? is it a graphics driver issue? is it an efficiency issue? everything I have seen with respect to Linux has pointed to it being far less resource-heavy than other operating systems (which is why you can run it on a tablet or a watch or a raspberry pi), so I would think that it would make for similar or better battery life than windows. I know it's not an issue with it being an HDD now, because even on an HDD, the laptop would get upwards of five hours, but now... it's decreasing too quickly to last that long, even with everything turned down.

Is there anything I can do to make this better?

 

This post helped me in my linux battery endeavors http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/easily-increase-battery-life-tlp-linux/

[BuntzenB]

Also something that you can do in linux is make you screen brightness lower that it usually goes (without adding a layer of black over the screen like some apps on windows or in the Mac app store)  full guide here http://askubuntu.com/questions/104162/decrease-backlight-below-minimum

[linusforsell]

One problem I ran into while running Linux, a couple of years ago, think it was Ubuntu 11 or something, the thing draining my battery was the GPU. For some reason it'd run at 100% at all times, consuming every bit if battery that it came across, until I forcibly throttled it. Can't remember my solution, and it's been many years since I used it, but it might serve as a clue—who knows? Throttling the GPU added 3-4 hours of battery, making it last only slightly more than half the time it had lasted on a Windows 7 installation.

[LogicalDrm]

I've been having same problems with my Lenovo T60 laptop. Fair enough it being really old, all the way from 2007. But in XP I could get up to 3.5h of battery life, even with wifi. With media use just over 2h. With Ubuntu those numbers are 2.5h and something like 1.5h.

 

I tried the method mentioned by @BuntzenB but with my (short) tests it didn't do that much. I also installed another batterysaver but so far it seems like I just have to enjoy the retirement years of that laptop.

[BuntzenB]

I've been having same problems with my Lenovo T60 laptop. Fair enough it being really old, all the way from 2007. But in XP I could get up to 3.5h of battery life, even with wifi. With media use just over 2h. With Ubuntu those numbers are 2.5h and something like 1.5h.

 

I tried the method mentioned by @BuntzenB but with my (short) tests it didn't do that much. I also installed another batterysaver but so far it seems like I just have to enjoy the retirement years of that laptop.

 

sory.

the "fix" for my laptop from 2010 is buying another battery on ebay

[KemoKa]

doesn't matter that much. I'll probably switch back to Windows 10 and then when Linux gets full graphics driver backing from AMD and Window's death knell is sounded, I'll switch back to Linux. It's the future, I'm not denying it. it's conquered every single platform except PCs. That's gonna be the biggest hurdle because Windows 10 is actually terrific and Microsoft has had the PC in its iron fist for years now.

[Opcode]

Sadly, Linux just isn't great for battery life.

Linux surpasses Windows by a long shot in terms of battery life on Laptops. This was already tested back during the 12.04 LTS release in which Canonical capitalized on. If a Ubuntu based distribution is just chewing through battery life then it's user error. I would make sure everything has the proper drivers. With my uncles laptop the GPU ran at 100% as did the fan because of no driver in place to kick it down to a lower power state.

[Opcode]

Not true, sometimes you get a bugged driver, something go wrong, you have to add specific command on Grub...

Some of them most people don't even care or don't have time/knowledge to fix them properly =/

Windows does have better out of the box battery life due to more mature drivers and initial configuration. Tho a properly tweaked Linux install will far surpass Windows on battery life.

[bradscoolio]

- snip -

 

An issue that is still prevalent with amd gpu's running the opensource drivers. Once you install the fglrx proprietary drivers all the power-management issues with the cards is fixed.

[LogicalDrm]

Soo... my battery problems could also be because of gpu drivers. AMD (or Ati ) X1400 as it happens to be. I'll have to look into that more and also do better battery test.

[MerkBertmern]

....Tho a properly tweaked Linux install will far surpass Windows on battery life.

Is this actually provable/show to be true in specific cases for the more commonly used Linux distros? or just kinda anecdotal, or theoretical?

[MerkBertmern]

Never saw Linux surpassing Windows on battery life, even with a Dell Laptop that came with Ubuntu installed. 

Some Linux distributions have lighter GUI and because of that use less power, but it's not the case of Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, elementaryOS and other main distros.   

Bah, thought so.

 

I was just getting hopeful, even though it sounded a bit iffy from how he was posting....bah.

[KemoKa]

Bah, thought so.

 

I was just getting hopeful, even though it sounded a bit iffy from how he was posting....bah.

I was too, but he cited no sources. If the graphics drivers were already sorted out, I would have not asked and we would not be having this conversation. Next year it should be sorted out (unless Valve decides it lives in a time dilation field) so I'm not too worried about it in the long run, it's just that for now, the drivers look half-baked at best and they are terrible.

[MerkBertmern]

......(unless Valve decides it lives in a time dilation field)......

huh...imagine that. they'd have to call it valve time or someth- oh. ooohhh. :[

 

but in seriousness, I kinda expected them to get here by now : / valve coming to linux, AMD on the open source hype, kinda hoped that would be the last straw to get linux competing with windows for attention on desktop, atleast for gaming.

 

Oh well, maybe in a year or two. Just like I said a year or two ago...

[KemoKa]

Well, Linux has already dominated the server market and the mobile market. Now all it has to do is reach it's... 3rd... target, the consumer PC market.

...uh-oh.

Gaben really doesn't intend to release the Steam Machine. oh noes.