It works, but battery life is lower

C

Cedric62

I'm a non-technical person, and I recently installed FreeBSD 14.1 and Xfce onto an older HP Notebook (15-ba9000bx) without too much trouble. However, I now have a few questions about lower battery life and also seemingly slower performance. Previously I had been using Kubuntu 22.04 on this vary same machine, and under Kubuntu the battery seemed to last up to two to two and half hours, but under FreeBSD I don't seem to be able to go an hour or so before the battery begins to run flat. Also, I've noticed that it takes slightly longer for FreeBSD to completely boot, and it seems that the same browser doesn't launch nearly as quickly it did under Kubuntu.

I'm not knocking FreeBSD, it must actually be a pretty good system if a newbie can install it, but I'm wondering if my problems are due to the older laptop that I'm using, or do I possibly have too many processes launching at starup? Also, I created a four Gigabyte swap file during the installation process if that matters at all.

I really like the idea of using FreeBSD, and I'm considering using it to replace Windows 10 on primary desktop which I use for home, work, and not so much social media. I have vision impairment, I'm in my sixities, so I'm hoping to find a system that doesn't require constant maintenance and that I can use without too much trouble. Any info greatly appreciated.
 

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Generally speaking Linux has a lot more resources and manufacturer attention, so it will get better battery life and so on. There have been developers very focused on boot times so yes Linux will boot faster (there is a FreeBSD developer who has made strides in this area, so FreeBSD is a lot better than it used to be.)

There will be people who jump in to help with better battery life and performance tweaks etc. but think that will quickly conflict with your desire for a quiet life. To be honest, I think any modern desktop will cause you some grief at some point, whether it is Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, etc.

Welcome to FreeBSD and hope it works well for you, but just keep in mind that the "quiet life" might be difficult to attain no matter what you use.
 
Cath O'Deray said:
I can't find a match for that, is there any other identifier?
Click to expand...
I think that I made a typeo in my original post. Below is some info I found on the bottom side of my laptop's casing. I've had it since about 2017 or so, the online literature seems to describe it as budget laptop, but it has basically been a reliable device since I've owned it. I upgraded the hard drive from 500GB to 1TB about a year ago, but I don't know that is a factor or not.

Model: 15-ba009dx
Product: X7T78UA#ABA
 
do you have powerd set up

Code: 
/etc/rc.conf

Code: 
# power settings
powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a hiadaptive -b adaptive"
performance_cx_lowest="Cmax"
economy_cx_lowest="Cmax"
 
cracauer@ said:
Not quite. Your FreeBSD disadvantage seems to be much larger.
Click to expand...
Well, I could probably live with it the way that it is, but I wonder if there is a way I can get some benchmark numbers for a comparrision? I have a second similar laptop which is still running Kubuntu, so I'm wondering if there is a command I can use on both machines that would give me some basic benchmark info? I know very little about Linux, and next to nothing about FreeBSD, so I appologize for such a basic question. Maybe I need to go to the library and get some books.
 
NapoleonWils0n said:
do you have powerd set up

Code: 
/etc/rc.conf

Code: 
# power settings
powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a hiadaptive -b adaptive"
performance_cx_lowest="Cmax"
economy_cx_lowest="Cmax"
Click to expand...
No, this option was not enabled. I will try making changes, observe for a few hours, and then see what happens. Thanks for the info.
 
heres my config files

root config file
github.com

GitHub - NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-root-xps: freebsd root dotfiles for dell xps 15 2019

freebsd root dotfiles for dell xps 15 2019. Contribute to NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-root-xps development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

dotfiles
github.com

GitHub - NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-dotfiles-xps: freebsd dotfiles dell xps 15 2019

freebsd dotfiles dell xps 15 2019. Contribute to NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-dotfiles-xps development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

bin directory
github.com

GitHub - NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-bin: freebsd home bin directory

freebsd home bin directory. Contribute to NapoleonWils0n/freebsd-bin development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com

notes
github.com

GitHub - NapoleonWils0n/cerberus: cerberus code library

cerberus code library. Contribute to NapoleonWils0n/cerberus development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
 
There is "pw.pci.do_power_nodriver" sysctl, try setting it to 1 to power down PCI devices which have no driver attached.
You may also set the kern.hz entry in /boot/loader.conf, maybe you can gain some more by playing around that one.
 
bsduck said:
I've never noticed any difference in battery life with or without powerd on my machines. Is it really still relevant these days?
Click to expand...
not for CPUs with C-states and if they are enabled (performance_cx_lowest="Cmax" and economy_cx_lowest="Cmax" set in /etc/rc.conf). It doesn't make much sense trying to adjust the frequency of a core that has its clock disabled (i.e. switched off)
 
bsduck said:
I've never noticed any difference in battery life with or without powerd on my machines. Is it really still relevant these days?
Click to expand...
I was thinking that might be an indication of something else going on. I guess the only time it would matter is if I happened to be on a road trip, and there wasn't an electrical receptacle to plug into. Anyway, I have a lot to learn.
 
I keep a thermal throttle on my CPUs, to avoid wear. The latest Intel debacle has shown that to be a right decision.
 
This page has useful tips:

https://wiki.freebsd.org/TuningPowerConsumption

Following everything here, my X230 laptop can go from 15W to 8W (Linux gets about 7W so there really isn't much in it).
(On a AMD ThinkCentre M75q Tiny, FreeBSD actually scores 1W better than Linux at ~9W).

Disk SLUMBER (via hint.ahcich.X.pm_level) is considerable. I recall it saving up to 2W on the laptop's SSD!
 
HP ZBook 17 G2 with a 27" display on DisplayPort. I booted at 00:15, forgot to connect the mains power adapter. A low battery warning (10%) appeared eighty minutes later.

Anecdotally: during the period when I was unaware of using the battery alone, things seemed extraordinarily slow. Most noticeable: Firefox took much longer than usual to start.

Code: 
% grep power /etc/rc.conf
powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a hiadaptive -b minimum -n adaptive"
powerdxx_enable="NO"
%
 
Cath O'Deray said:
Anecdotally: during the period when I was unaware of using the battery alone, things seemed extraordinarily slow. Most noticeable: Firefox took much longer than usual to start.
Click to expand...
Some laptops also have extremely low power limits set for battery operation, this massively cripples the CPU but makes for nice runtime numbers on paper...
 
I noted battery life shorter on zfs and better on ufs ( maybe tinfoil hat moment) so im back on ufs.
This my rc.conf
Code: 
powerd_flags="-a hiadaptive -b adaptive"
performance_cx_lowest="Cmax"
economy_cx_lowest="Cmax"
kld_list="acpi_video"
ahci_load="YES"
Also i have ThinkPad T480 i7-8650U motherboard
my /etc/sysctl.conf contains hw.acpi.video.lcd0.brightness=30
I have 2 batteries up to 12h of battery life for my use case.
While im typing now - my laptopt uses 6.50W-7.20W 2tabs of fifefox and Alacritty terminal open.
If i do nothing, nothing is open - once screen blanks out it uses 2.7W
I dont know if my rc.conf is correct never checked with the lads on FreeBSD.
Also i have ibm module loaded so i could use my 2 batteries in one go.
Still not configured usb power when nothing is attached to them.
/boot/loader.conf
compat.linuxkpi_enable_dc=2
compat.linuxkpi.enable_fbc=1
hw.pci.do_power_nodriver="3"

hw.pci.do_power_nodriver (Defaults to 0)
Place devices into a low power state (D3) when a suitable de-
vice driver is not found. Can be set to one of the following
values:

3 Powers down all PCI devices without a device driver.

2 Powers down most devices without a device driver. PCI
devices with the display, memory, and base peripheral
device classes are not powered down.

1 Similar to a setting of 2 except that storage con-
trollers are also not powered down.

0 All devices are left fully powered.

A PCI device must support power management to be powered down.
Placing a device into a low power state may not reduce power
consumption.
 
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