Ubuntu
gnome-power-manager package

Support for battery recharge thresholds

Bug #120457 reported by Justin Sheckler
22
This bug affects 3 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Undecided
Unassigned
guidance-power-manager (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
Wishlist
Unassigned
kdebase-workspace (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned
tp-smapi (Ubuntu)
Invalid
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: kde-guidance-powermanager

The Windows drivers for my Lenovo ThinkPad Z61t laptop support a mode where the battery has to fall below 86% power before recharging. According to their help text; this maximized battery lifespan:

"If you primarily use your computer with the ac adapter attached and only infrequently use battery power, battery deterioration may occur faster when the battery is constantly charged at 100%. Lower the charge thresholds of your battery if you use your ThinkPad computer often while on ac power."

Is there any chance of implementing something like this for Kubuntu?

Tags: wishlist
Revision history for this message
Kyle Wright (kylewright) wrote :

I am quite interested in this concept, as I often use my laptop on AC power. From experience, battery deterioration does occur more quickly when you run a laptop on AC power, so it only makes sense that adjusting the thresholds could only help us out on battery life.

Revision history for this message
Luka Renko (lure) wrote :

Powermanager does not control when charging of battery starts - this is completely done in HW. Is it possible to control charging behavior on Thinkpads through some API?

Changed in kde-guidance:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
Wouter Deconinck (wdconinc) wrote :

For thinkpads this is possible using the following sysfs nodes:
echo 40 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh
echo 70 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/stop_charge_thresh
This will start charging when remaining charge drops below 40% and stop charging when charged for 70%.

One could consider looking in the smapi directory, loop over the batteries, and set preset values for start and stop.

This functionality requires the tp_smapi module, which is not included in the main tree, but also provides some other useful features (hard disk protection).

Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)
affects: kde-guidance (Ubuntu) → guidance-power-manager (Ubuntu)
tags: removed: guidance-powermanager
Revision history for this message
Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman) wrote :

Guidance Power Manager has been removed from Kubuntu 10.04 and onwards since it is unmaintained. Unfortunately, this means that no new features or bugfixes will be made.

Changed in guidance-power-manager (Ubuntu):
status: New → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
Mechanical snail (replicator-snail) wrote :

I'm not sure what package KDE's current power manager is in. Please change this if you know.

Revision history for this message
Mechanical snail (replicator-snail) wrote :

Information on tp_smapi: http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi#Installation_on_Ubuntu

Mechanical snail (replicator-snail)
tags: added: wishlist
Revision history for this message
Harald Sitter (apachelogger) wrote :

Why should this be implemented in the individual power managers rather than the drivers/kernel stuff?

affects: kubuntu-meta (Ubuntu) → kdebase-workspace (Ubuntu)
Changed in kdebase-workspace (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Daniel Dietrich (shaddowy2) wrote :

As a workaround, for now you can use a small script called 'TLP' to set the threshold. It requires the 'tp-smapi' module
See: http://ubuntu-tweak.com/source/linrunner-tlp/
More information can be found at http://thinkpad-wiki.org/TLP_-_Stromspareinstellungen_f%C3%BCr_Ubuntu (german)

Revision history for this message
Redsandro (redsandro) wrote :

I found this bug because that is exactly what I am trying to do. However the tp_smapi doesn't stick on new Lenovo hardware. See bug #814380

Revision history for this message
Evgeni Golov (evgeni) wrote :

exactly this is supported by tp-smapi, so I see no way how this can be a bug in tp-smapi :)
if some newer hw isn't supported, well, not this bug (but some other, already reported, one).

Changed in tp-smapi (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid
Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)
Changed in kdebase-workspace (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Invalid
Thomas Hotz (thotz-deactivatedaccount)
Changed in gnome-power-manager (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
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