Optimizing Solus for Battery Life

infinitymdm My question is: how do I optimize my Solus install for improved battery life? Tips? Tricks?

There are a ton of threads on this issue.

The bottom line is that you can improve battery drain on Linux, but it is not going to get to the point where it is Windows-equivalent. TLP can help, as Cloak notes (some users have experienced significant gains, others not), but the Linux kernel does not have the tools to fine-tune laptop power use in the way that Windows does, constantly adjusting based on usage, so most users find that Linux still drains the battery faster than Windows no matter what you do. You can improve things, but don't expect miracles.

I did a lot of testing a few months ago on my Dell Latitude 7390 laptop (Intel Core i5, Intel 630 onboard graphics, 16 GB RAM, 500 GB M.2 SATA). In my case, I can get Solus to about 72% of Windows battery life, and that's the best I can do on that laptop. I haven't done that same level of testing on my Dell Inspiron 11-3180 (AMD A9-94203e, R5 onboard graphics, 4 GB RAM, 128 eMMC), but the result seems to be about the same. I don't like the reduced battery life, but I've learned to live with it as a cost of running Linux.

I don't use NVIDIA because I don't need a discrete GPU, but I have read that NVIDA GPU's use a lot of power in comparison to onboard graphics. If you need the power of the NVIDIA GPU (e.g. games or intensive graphics work), you'll have to live with the power drain. If not, as Cloak suggests, you might see significant improvement using Intel's onboard graphics instead of NVIDIA.

Because Linux uses more battery power than Windows, you also might find, as I did, that your laptop runs hotter using Linux than it does using Windows. Because you have a reasonably modern Intel-based laptop, the thermald daemon will help keep heat under control. In theory, this should also reduce battery drain, but my experience is that thermald did not make a significant difference in this respect. Thermald upped the ante from 72% to 74%, as I recall. Not a big change, but every little bit helps, and there is no reason to run hotter than absolutely necessary.

infinitymdm My question is: how do I optimize my Solus install for improved battery life? Tips? Tricks?

Another thought: Check your display brightness settings. You may well have had Windows set to a lower brightness level than the default level set when you installed Solus. Even a 10% difference in the brightness level can make a marked difference in battery life. While you are at it, check your power management "on battery" settings (e.g. "turn display off after ..."), and set them to the most efficient you can tolerate in daily use.

Edit/Update: Numerous articles offer tips and tricks. For the most part, the articles offer identical advice. You might want to look at one or two as a reality check. Another consideration: Check the apps you are using (some browsers, for example, are notorious power hogs, others less so because they use sleeping tabs and so on) and check your startup and "run in background" settings to cut out applications that you don't need except when you need them.

Instead of TLP I prefer using Powertop. It has an auto-tune option but myself I've generated a html report via powertop --html, looked through the report and what it suggests.

I've ran into TLP suspending things like my USB mouse and keyboard, despite that those kind of devices should be blacklisted in TLP.

infinitymdm My question is: how do I optimize my Solus install for improved battery life? Tips? Tricks?

A year or so ago, I explored using Solus on a laptop. At that point, I was getting 60-65% of Windows battery life. I decided at that point not to use Solus (or Linux in general) on laptops. When I decided this summer to use laptops as my primary Solus computers, I dug deep, made changes to the system and to the way I use the system, and now am getting 70-75%.

I experimented with both TLP and powertop, didn't see much improvement, but read about issues with those apps and decided to try to do without either. Basically, with the exception of thermald, I use my head to reduce power drain.

Briefly, let me tell you my "tips and tricks":

(1) I don't use Bluetooth, so I disable Bluetooth.
(2) Because I am using a browser most of the time, I focus on setting up my browser (Edge) for maximum efficiency:
(a) "Efficiency Mode" is activated.
(b) I turn off "Continue running background extensions and apps when Microsoft Edge is closed."
(c) I use "Sleeping Tabs", set to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity.
(d) I keep track of the number of tabs I have open, keeping as few tabs open as conditions warrant.
(e) I avoid "power hog" websites (like AARP's games page) that use a lot of ads when I am on battery.
(f) To the extent that I open "power hog" websites, I shut them down as soon as I am done using them.
(3) I adjust display brightness to the lowest level that works for me in the applicable lighting conditions.
(4) I adjust power settings for battery use to shut down the display quickly and put the computer to sleep quickly.
(5) I set "start up on boot" to open as few apps as I can consistent with my use of the computer.
(6) I take a look at regularly used apps that to find "power saving" options and use those options.
(7) I close apps after I'm done using them to minimize the number of running processes/services.
(8) When I know I'm going to be away from the laptop for 30 minutes or more, I shut it down.

In other words, just a lot of small things. I no doubt have developed other habits that I now use unconsciously and didn't think to list, but the bottom line is that I use my Linux laptops like I used my gas hog 1958 Edsel when I was a teenager, was always short on gas money but wanted to get to town.

ReillyBrogan

... it needs a newer TLP to activate it. I'll look into updating it ...

I tried latest TLP 1.5.0 locally and it works fine with current kernel using natacpi.
To build the new version I had to change the patches applied for version 1.3.1 and during this review I was wondering why the SOlus packages modifies lots of the default seetings in /etc/tlp.conf?
As per this older post [Tip to improve battery life]Amazing battery after setting some tlp options! it seems that this modifications are not optimal anyway. Unfortunately the links to the settinsg file in that post currently doesn't work, so not able to compare. But as I checked the recent Ubuntu TLP package, I found that this just provides the unmodified default tlp.conf.
So shouldn't the Solus tlp package also better stick to the defaults and remove the patch?

Having messed around with TLP settings and CPU governors on an Intel-only laptop, I began to suspect the real culprits were budgie-panel and especially budgie-wm. They consistently demand more CPU than the equivalent components of lightweight DEs like XFCE (tested Zorin OS Lite 16.04), even when idling. I haven't tested other Solus MATE or Plasma to see how they fare in comparison.

Of course there are also third-party applications that may be the cause of diminished battery life; of browsers I've found Chrome to be the worst of these.

joluveba Well, Solus doesn't provide XFCE desktop so MATE would still be the most lightweight option.