Can ubuntu installs tlp by default?

I suggest that the ubuntu installer installs tlp by default, tlp is a good tool to save power, however it won’t be installed automatically. For me, I can install it manually, but for other users maybe they even don’t know what tlp is. Or the installer detects if the computer has a battery, if so, then install tlp automatically.

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Thank you for your suggestion to help make Ubuntu better.

Ubuntu Desktop uses power-profiles-daemon which is integrated into the GNOME Shell and the Settings app. In contrast, tlp is a command line utility. It would be worse to require people using Ubuntu to use a terminal to switch to Power Saver or Performance mode instead of the easy access they have now.

power-profiles-daemon conflicts with tlp; if tlp is running, power-profiles-daemon won’t be.

You might also be interested in the power-profiles-daemon’s explanation of itself and how it compares with alternatives.

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:thinking:

power-profiles-daemon (0.10.1-3) unstable; urgency=medium

  * debian/patches/remove_tlp_conflict.patch:
    - remove the systemd unit conflict on tlp.service. We don't want that in
      Ubuntu since we patch tlp to not do performance modes changes when
      power-profiles-daemon is active but the change can be included in
      Debian also since the tlp maintainer made the packages conflict
      which means we can't end up installed together.

 -- Sebastien Bacher <seb128@ubuntu.com>  Sat, 05 Mar 2022 18:17:30 +0100

I think the underlying question is “why Ubuntu does not offer by default more aggressive power saving like TLP does”.
I install TLP on every laptop Ubuntu install I do.
PPD is by far not as efficient.

Also I’m not convinced by PPD’s activity in Gitlab.

I like to stick with the environment’s power management – I’ve found that both Cinnamon (Linux Mint) and Gnome’s power options are adequate. Laptops generally are not as effiencient on Linux, but newer kernels are really cranking up the effiency.

From my recent experience with recent Ubuntu kernels 5.19 and 6.1 in Jammy, TLP still makes a big difference.
I’ll test again using powertop, in Lunar.

Laptops ARE efficient using Linux. Maybe some power savings are not applied vs Windows but OS itself is less demanding (I do use W11 vs Ubuntu and there’s no real difference, for my hardware/usage at least).

A couple of years ago there was a significant number of Ubuntu bug reports caused by people trying out TLP. Something would inevitably break (usually failing to wake from sleep) and Ubuntu would get blamed for it.

But that was a couple of years ago. I don’t remember the last time I saw a bug caused by TLP.

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Oups, I cannot test this atm since my Nvidia gpu is not offloaded using hybrid setup in Lunar.
(Was ok in Jammy with the same driver and 6.1 oem kernel. Is that a known bug?)

I’m using NVIDIA with the 6.1 kernel in lunar right now, but it’s single GPU mode and I’m not testing hybrid (yet).

You might just be experiencing https://launchpad.net/bugs/1975650

Having data would help in a such discussion. Could you provide details on your hardware configuration and the difference you see on your system with and without tlp? Also do you use the default configuration or did you activate extra options and which ones?

If there is an efficiency problem the preferred solution would be for us to identify the issue and fix it at the right place (kernel driver, userland service, …) rather than relying on having an extra service installed to make things behave right

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Ok with that but after my Nvidia bug is solved.
I suppose almost every user that cares power usage in a laptop does use an hybrid setup.
I look at Daniel’s link now.

Nope. I try CKT ppa’s *89 version with dkms but that’s the same.
I have marked this thread, I’ll be back when tests will be relevant.

I did not know that, so would you recommend not install tlp since it has conflicts with power-profiles-deamon?

I opened this BR:


but in fact I don’t know if it’s nvidia-driver or kernel or whatever related.

Ok, I still experience high power usage with Nvidia drivers (new stuff linux 6.2 from bootstrap ppa, 530 driver from graphics ppa included) in an hybrid session.
BUT since kernel 6.2 supports my RTX 3070 Ti with Nouveau, I decided to try this.
(The bad new is that’s an initial support, and I confirm this. Not about performance but simply unplugging a display is quite an experience.)

So, waiting as needed to have the lowest poser usage (Wayland and with 6.2, but that’s the one for Lunar):

  • PPD low power : 8.11 W
  • TLP (with low-power mode too, without PPD) : 7.37 W

There’s still a noticeable difference but far less than some (little) time ago.

@seb128

[i7 12700H, RTX 3070 Ti, intel wifi/bt, …]

Options I change in TLP defaults:

https://github.com/linrunner/TLP/blob/main/tlp.conf.in

CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_AC=performance
CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT=powersave

CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_AC=balance_performance
CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_BAT=balance_power

PLATFORM_PROFILE_ON_AC=performance
PLATFORM_PROFILE_ON_BAT=low-power