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Power management in Linux

post #1 of 10
1/15/05 at 4:07pm
Thread Starter 
I recently decided to install Fedora Core 3 on my Inspiron 1150. There are two problems I have, first one being that when I close the lid on my laptop the lcd screen does not shut off. Second, there seems to be no suspend/standby/hibernate support whatsoever out of the box. I searched tons of linux+laptop related forums and found out that the only thing that might work is software suspend but that seems to require a bit of skill to do right. Surely there must be some people here that are using Linux on a laptop that do not know how to compile a kernel.

So my question for you guys is how do you deal with the power management issues in Linux? Not being able to hibernate/suspend I can deal with since I can shut off the laptop when Im done but wouldnt having the LCD on all the time wear it out faster? Do you guys (that dont use software suspend) just leave your laptops on 24/7 and shut them off when you are done? Please I would appreciate any help or info, this is basically the only issue preventing me from reinstalling Fedora and I would really like to ditch windows for good.
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post #2 of 10
1/15/05 at 8:39pm
I would think you want to look at ACPI stuff in the kernel. I run mine 24/7 so the majority of what I use is battery and temp monitoring. I haven't used FC3 on it and probably won't. As to the LCD not turning off Mine has a physical switch that controls that. I've never played with your model.Maybe some of the other Dell info will cross over to yours. http://www.linux-laptop.net/dell.html
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post #3 of 10
1/15/05 at 11:52pm
In most laptops the LCD turningoff is built into the laptop, controlled as was mentioned earlier by a physical switch.

Look on your screen for anything that might trigger the switch(Around the outside edge obviously) Most of the time it will be a peice of plastic pointing out towards you.

The other option is that the switch itself is in the catch for the laptop lid, a possibility though I havent seen it yet myself, and if that is true then it would be much harder to test to see if it was working, but it is possible usually.

Seablade
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post #4 of 10
1/16/05 at 4:45am
Thread Starter 
I know what you guys mean about the switch, I had a old Toshiba laptop that had that. Odd though the Inspiron 1150 does not, I dont think its in the catch either cause before the latch even touches it, the screen goes off in Windows XP.

Anyways seems as if acpi support in Linux is just horrible, besides software suspend Ive tried just about everything to get my system to sleep/hibernate/suspend with no luck. If anyone is interested though I did (finally) find a way to shut my LCD screen . The command is "xset dpms force off", just move your mouse or hit a key to bring it back up.
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post #5 of 10
1/16/05 at 1:37pm
You can always bind it to a key combination in Gnome/Metacity. Look in Gconf Editor > apps > metacity. You need to add a key combination and a command combination.
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post #6 of 10
1/16/05 at 2:45pm
SuSe has power management similar to windows XP.
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post #7 of 10
1/25/05 at 10:00am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwin
SuSe has power management similar to windows XP.
Yep, thats what Ive been reading. I decided to try it out (9.2) and hibernate does work out of the box after enabling acpi. But now I cant get my LCD to shut off in Suse! So basically its Suse 9.2 = hibernate (yes), LCD power off (no) or its Fedora Core 3 = LCD power off (yes), hibernate (no)
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post #8 of 10
1/25/05 at 1:13pm
Have you checked your Xserver config for something along the lines of DPMS off timers. That just kinda sticks in my head.
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post #9 of 10
1/25/05 at 3:14pm
Section "Monitor"
...
Option "dpms"
Endsection

However, this only enables software controlling of screen... If that line is in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf, you can try turning it off with the command, xset dpms force off.

BTW, I FINALLY got suspend-to-ram working! S3 works now! Using gentoo 2004.3 on my dell 700m, I compiled kernel 2.6.10-morph17, and suspend worked without screen. After quite a few months of searching, I stumbled across this gem: http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~mjg59/lapt....1.orig.tar.gz It reinitializes the screen after an S3 suspend, so I can get everything back to the way I need it with echo "mem" > /sys/power/state && /root/emu/video_post
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post #10 of 10
1/29/05 at 4:37am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jamesshuang
Section "Monitor"
...
Option "dpms"
Endsection

However, this only enables software controlling of screen... If that line is in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf, you can try turning it off with the command, xset dpms force off.
I enabled dpms through SaX2 from the System menu instead (the only way itll work) and all is good now. I can hibernate and my display shuts off after the specified time. Suse is definitely the distro for the mobile user.
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