Can someone tell me how the power management works under KDE 4.2, or tell me where I can find background information?
I noticed when I upgraded to KDE 4.2 that there is now an item “Power management” under Personal Settings > Advanced > System. What is the underlying application? There is an item “Allow PowerDevil to manage screen power saving”, but when I check with Yast2, the PowerDevil package isn’t actually installed.
And what would happen if I actually installed PowerDevil alongside? Would it conflict with whatever other application is running? Or are both simply frontends for some system routine?
Cheers,
homoludens
Powerdevil as is visible in Yast is the old power control in 4.0 and 4.1
and is NOT required in 4.2
kdebase4-workspace 4.2.3***
contains the powerdevil.so
When you search for powerdevil, check the rpm provides box
You cannot/should not install powerdevil from 4.1
FYI: Also check in Display - Power Control (If you are looking to disable power control of the screen)
Thanks for the info! 
I see, so the utility available through Personal Settings is an integrated version of PowerDevil? Interesting. I remember reading a number of positive reviews a while ago, and I used to have problems with whatever the regular power management application was in KDE 4.1, so a big cheer from me!
Apparently, I’m still also running KPowersave (there’s an icon in my system tray). Can I / should I delete it? And if so, kde4-workspace doesn’t provide system tray integration, does it?
(I’m using a laptop, and it’s quite useful to have quick access to different power management schemes.)
Cheers,
homoludens
I’m still using powersaved/kpowersave with KDE 4.2 and KDE 3 environments. I have the system tray widget installed so it displays the system tray icon as normal. (Haven’t been game enough to use Power Devil yet though I’ve heard it has improved).
I deleted all powersave as it interferes with suspend and resume.