Re: [PLUG] Power consumption difference

Thanks for the comments, all.

Rich, it was wondering whether I needed to replace the battery on my relatively new (two years old next month) laptop that started me down this road. My battery used to last me through Board meetings (I am a Supervisor of my township). With EndeavourOS last year it did, but with Manjaro Linux this year, it does not. At the April meeting, I will see whether EndeavourOS gets me through the meeting. If it does not, then I will need to look at replacing the battery or reverting to an older laptop.

Martin, the laptop is a System 76 darp8 (https://tech-docs.system76.com/models/darp8/README.html) which has Intel IrisXe graphics. I'm not sure how a power meter would help when running on battery. It would potentially help measure the difference when I am running plugged in, but it's when running on battery that I am interested in.

Keith, you're right about software's ability to manage hardware. I bought a System 76 laptop because I thought I'd have better Linux compatibility. However, this laptop with EndeavourOS would not reliably boot kernels 6.10 through 6.12 (fortunately 6.13 boots reliably), which was what led me to Manjaro in the first place – the Manjaro kernels all boot reliably.

Regards
– Bhaskar

On Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 4:22 PM Keith C. Perry via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:

Your KDE number is interesting. I typically use KDE on my HP Envy convertible lappie and it gets at least 6 hours on Kubuntu 22.04. Meanwhile, my Samsung Galaxy Book running Ubuntu 24.02 (default gui, Gnome?) is maybe 4 to 5 hours.

In my experience battery issues tend to be hardware and / or the software's inability to properly manage the battery. The Samsung Galaxy Book literally will be dead after a week or so even when it is "off". That hardware just doesn't run Linux (and apparently off doesn't mean off but I digress). I was running Manjaro until I tested Ubuntu 24.02 and found that is works. In both cases, the same hardware issue remains.

I think there is some bms infrastructure that is not completely understood by the kernel or maybe just a poor device battery management system.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Keith C. Perry, MS E.E.
Managing Member, DAO Technologies LLC
(O) +1.215.525.4165 x2033
(M) +1.215.432.5167
www.daotechnologies.com

From: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
To: "Philadelphia Linux User's Group Discussion List" <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 1:59:11 PM
Subject: Re: [PLUG] Power consumption difference

It’s 99% the DE. I don’t have anything to do with Manjaro, elaboration on request, but I have Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, Hyprland and a few others on my Framework 13 (AMD). My tuned Hyprland has the lowest battery burn, my Cinnamon is pretty mid, and KDE Plasma burns my battery with all the pretty widgets and heavy infrastructure. I’m guessing my battery is lot more dense, since my runtimes are roughly 9, 7, and 4 hours for Hyprland, Cinnamon, and KDE respectively, but it’s a ratio of how much you have and how fast you burn it.

On Wed, Mar 26, 2025 at 12:08 K.S. Bhaskar via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
My laptop can boot either Manjaro Linux or EndeavourOS, both Arch Linux derivatives and both patched reasonably recently (within the last week). Manjaro has a 6.12.19-1-MANJARO kernel with the Plasma desktop, and EndeavourOS has a 6.13.7-arch1-1 kernel with the Cinnamon desktop. Both have the power profile set to Balanced. Interestingly, when running on battery, no external devices connected, Bluetooth and wifi turned on, I seem to get 1-2 hours when I run Manjaro and 2-3 hours when I run EndeavourOS. In both cases, I am just doing light work like e-mail, reading online documentation, etc.; nothing like compiling, or playing games. I just noticed this difference recently and have not done formal measurement. I wonder whether the difference is the kernel, the desktop, or something else (like random variation into which I am trying to read something meaningful).

Regards
- Bhaskar
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___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug