Ubuntu Support Template
Ubuntu Version:
Kubuntu 24.04.4 LTS
Desktop Environment (if applicable):
KDE Plasma
Problem Description:
I am spending a lot of time running an astrophotography application that heavily uses my GPU to stack images. This process could easily take over an hour. I would like to be able to leave the computer and do something else while this process is busy. But I find that instead, I have to sit by it and do something every 15 minutes or so when the screen blanks to keep the process alive. If I don’t, Power Management kicks and the system goes to sleep, and when I wake it, I find that the process running on my GPU goes away (nvtop shows 0% of GPU activity) and the process will either switch to CPU mode or, more likely, just lie on the floor dead without realizing it is dead.
In my usual mode of operation, I have no need of power management. I leave my laptop plugged in and never worry about my battery. So I can raise the delay to 2 or 3 hours and be all right. But this seems like a band-aid. I shouldn’t have to make global system settings changes for one application.
Someone suggested that a solution to this is to use the “Activity Power Settings” section of the Kubuntu System Settings and simply define an activity in which no sleep is allowed to take place. But there is nothing in that section of settings that allows me to define an “activity” that has these special settings and assign my program to use these settings.
The Help documentation provided in the Kubuntu System Settings dates from 2016, and calls it “per-activity power settings”, but this documentation also provides no guidance on how to define “activities” or to tie them to a particular set of power settings.
I suspect that this may be dead functionality that has hung around for nine years without actually being implemented.
So I’m looking for a way to make this system behave as I want (don’t go to sleep while this program is running) other than global settings.
Relevant System Information:
Lenovo Thinkpad P16 32 GB RAM
NVidia RTDX 3500
Screenshots or Error Messages:
N/A
What I’ve Tried:
Only the global settings change which seems to work byt isn’t ideal.
Another thing I haven’t tried yet is WakePy, which if it works could be ideal. The application I’m running is in python and is open source, and I might even be able to get the developer to integrate wakepy into the app if my experiment proves successful. Has anyone reading this used WakePy?