HP probook 4530s heat/power opensuse 12.1 vs win7

English Hardware
#1

hi

I have been curious how opensuse works on my new laptop and how it compares to Windows 7 in practical usage regarding powermanagement. So I decided to make a small test and find out using a dual boot setup with the operating systems installed on separate partitions.

Software setup
Windows 7 professional 64-bit SP1, updated with all default recommended windows update patches, HP Power Assistant with a maximum powersave setting plan when running on battery
OpenSUSE 12.1 64-bit LXDE desktop, updated with Yast all default recommended patches, powertop all suggestions activated as recommended by the tool

Hardware setup
HP ProBook 4530s, i2410M, 8Gb RAM, 320Gb harddisk, BIOS F.0A, intel HD 3000 graphics, 15" display, Atheros Wi-Fi/BT combo, Realtek LAN, Ericson LC2010 WWAN, Liteon Webcam, Nec USB3 hub, fingerprint reader (disabled in BIOS), HP multi DVD/CD-R/W optical drive

Operating on battery, minimum screen brightness, connected online using WWAN 3G network, disabled BT/WLAN in network manager (opensuse) / HP connection manager (windows)

opensuse 12.1 (powertop/lm-sensors)
firefox browsing: 13.4-19.2W, temp 42-45 deg C
skype: 24.4-25W, temp 50-51 deg C

windows 7 (HP power assistant/realtemp)
firefox browsing: 8.5-13.1W, temp 36-39 deg C
skype: 13.1-14.2W, temp 42-44 deg C

It is quite clear that the Windows 7 setup uses considerably less power and generates less heat. The software tools might not provide a 100% reading at all time but at least gives a approximate idea on power/heat situation.
What can I do to make opensuse more power efficient and preferably to same as Windows 7 level?

#2

I would read the following blog, all the way to the end including any comments:

GNU/Linux and openSUSE power management regressions - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Further, for setting the CPU speed Governor which also effects CPU power usage and heat, this might also be useful:

C.F.U. - CPU Frequency Utilitiy - Version 1.10 - For use with the cpufrequtils package - Blogs - openSUSE Forums

Thank You,

#3

On 12/27/2011 07:16 PM, hjultomten wrote:
> What can I do to make opensuse more power efficient and preferably to
> same as Windows 7 level?

HP and Microsoft engineers work together, hand-in-hand to maximize
battery life by minimizing heat, fan usage, etc…

in so doing MS helps HP make a more competitive product and HP helps MS
by default loading their OS on millions of new machines…it is a great
relationship for them…so good that MS gives HP a nice discount for
each license bought in return for putting the MS logo on the HP device
and meeting some other legal requirements–those requirements are
usually held as business secrets, and may include HP not being allowed
to help any MS competition achieve similar power savings…

now why would MS wanna do that?? because first they don’t want you to
even try Linux, and if you do they wanna make sure it burns up the
battery at a faster rate…

so, to your question: to make your HP deliver the same energy efficiency
as Win7, just write a nice letter to HP and ask them to please forward
to the linux kernel/driver devs with all the secret information used by
the Windows driver writers…

there are few alternatives: one is to wait and hope eventually the linux
dev’s “reverse engineer” the system and arrive at a better energy use
level…

unfortunately, by the time that is done for your machine you will have
already bought a newer one…one which will probably include’s UEFI
which will make it impossible for you to even try your just completed
experiment…

all of that said, there are ways to minimize energy use (and my friend
from Austin is VERY good at that), but the best you can do is get
somewhat closer to the mark set by the combined efforts of HP and MS
engineers…

ymmv

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Software
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

#4

Thanks for the quick response.

I read the links and found various suggestions. What seems to have done a huge impact so far on my setup is the following line in grub menu.lst:
pcie_aspm=force i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1
(at first I tried adding this line in Yast->sysconfig->bootloader->default_append but that didn’t work out for some reason, not sure why)

When I made the same browsing test running on battery I got this result:
8.6-15.8W, temp 36-40 deg C (estimated battery life 5h+)

That “simple” change in kernel boot basically gave me the same power/heat levels in opensuse 12.1 as for windows 7! Very happy about that.
Will do more testing though to verify video performance as well.

The reason I chose opensuse for my linux test is that HP actually is selling the 4530s with a SLED 11 configuration in some markets. So I was hoping opensuse would work ok on this laptop model too. There are a few linux drivers on the HP website but all for “SUSE Linux SLED 11 SP1 (2.6.32.27-0 Kernel)”. Not sure if that is a good idea to try installing them on opensuse 12.1?
What basically is available are the following: synaptics trackpoint, validity fingerprint, intel hd graphics

#5

Not sure if that is a good idea to try installing them on opensuse 12.1?
What basically is available are the following: synaptics trackpoint, validity fingerprint, intel hd graphics

No, they are not suitable for 12.1, and not required in any case.