Ubuntu

Improving battery life in Ubuntu 9.04

Asked by Ivanico

Just installed Ubuntu 9.04 and I used on battery and I was surprised how fast the battery went dead. I had compiz working (I realise now that that might have help improve the lifespan of the battery) but still, I was only using one application.

Do you guys have any tips or how to improve the life performance of the battery? What things i should check? Also, is there a way for the computer to know that I'm on battery power and disable automatically compiz or no needed features that might improve the timespan of the battery? Something like Windows have i.e. setting options for AC power (like best appearance, performance) and then for Battery (More Battery duration, etc)

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Philip Wyett
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Philip Wyett (philwyett) said : 		#1

How fast did the battery go from 100% down to where it required recharging?

What is the make and model of the laptop?

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Ivanico (ivan-frantar) said : 		#2

It took about 45 mins. I'm using a Dell Inspiron 6000.

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Best Philip Wyett (philwyett) said : 		#3

Firstly I would consider switching off the desktop effects. There is no way at present for compiz to be switched off under certain scenarios.

Also look at cpu scaling to make sure your cpu is not always running at the maximum frequency.

http://hubpages.com/hub/Ubuntu--CPU-Scaling--Battery-life-and-You

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Ivanico (ivan-frantar) said : 		#4

I guess for the moment I'll have to switch off compiz manually when using battery.

Thanks for this passing this info. I think this will help greatly! :-)

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Ivanico (ivan-frantar) said : 		#5

Thanks Philip Wyett, that solved my question.