Low Battery Curse ft. Ubuntu [solved]

Notification – The system is running low on power  * well shit, not again *

I started using Ubuntu about 8-10 months back on my new system ( a Lenovo Ideapad 510 ). Now at that time, I was new to Linux. But then too the battery backup issue kept bugging me. Windows provided a solid backup of about 3 – 3.5 hours but in Ubuntu the system dies in about an hour. This was quite frustrating to me. So I dug deeper. The deeper I went and the more solutions I tried I came to only one conclusion. That the real problem was Ubuntu itself. My system heated to about 45-48 degree Celsius as if I was playing a 60 frames per second game on ultra settings. Cutting to the chase, here’s the summary on all that you could try till you get angry enough and Install Xubuntu or Lubuntu or something else entirely.

1. Overheating (click)- This is the most prominent cause of battery depletion and reduction of overall battery life. Check out the link for ways to decrease and monitor the temperature of your processors and system using Lm-sensors.
2. Personal views – Powertop does nothing. No change in performance whatsoever. The command ‘top‘ gives a detailed explanation of the processes running in the computer and their CPU usage. TLP also shows minor improvement in battery life.
3. Thermald gives a detailed review about the temperatures and also provides information in the form of graphs. Also ensure that the vents are clean and heat is distributed properly and is not being trapped.
4. In some systems the fan speed can be altered using specific commands. Google that. Also for specific systems there are separate fixes and some driver upgrades by get the job done.
5. Check auto-start applications and background processes that are running while using Ubuntu task manager.
6. I found this manpage for Ubuntu to be quite helpful, brief and later on useless. But worth a shot.

Conclusion

Dump Ubuntu for better and more efficient distro’s like Xubuntu or Lubuntu which are faster and lighter and based on Ubuntu only. I been using Xubuntu for over 3 months now and the experience has been great. It is faster than Ubuntu and more customizable. Got its own battery manager and hordes of options for battery conservation and management. Battery backup now at par with windows to about 3 hours and temperatures of about 30 to 35 degree Celsius.

As we all once were new in Linux, we often found us at crossroads as to which distro to start with, which one to choose. I was nervous too. But whichever do you choose. There is no wrong choice here.

The most comprehensive guide to choose …

Do mention, some methods or tricks that I missed would love to include them, so that more people can benefit from this article. Thanks for reading.