Power Savings and Performance Modes on Ubuntu System

Question

This might be the only thing I miss from windows.

There is no way to tell the system to run in high performance mode or in power saver mode.

May be this feature which is already there and I am not sure.

So, Is there a way to change the system operation mode into high-performance? Basically, over burning the rams and processors enabling to do several power effective task like running two OSes on VMWare and not having any performance degradation.

Or, changing the system's mode into power-saver mode affecting the battery life my a lot?

_{P.S: I dont think what can of hardware I have has to depend while answering this. But if is, I will include my system details as well.}

Answer 1

You could install Jupiter (http://www.jupiterapplet.org/)

Which adds this this features to your system and allow you to control it using an indicator

Just add the PPA ppa:webupd8team/jupiter to your system using this command

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/jupiter

Update your reposites and install it using these command(s)

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install jupiter

and you are good to go

Answer 2

Energy save mode in Windows is mostly CPU limiting. You can do that with

sudo cpufreq-set -u 0.8Ghz

or whatever the desired value is. Check minimum and maximum frequency available with

cpufreq-info |grep limits

I do that regularly when using a Laptop on battery.

Display brightness adjustments etc. are up to you.

Answer 3

From a Terminal you can do:

sudo pm-powersave false

to run in high-performance mode.

And to run in powersave mode:

sudo pm-powersave true

Documentation: PowerManagement/ReducedPower

Full disclosure: I feel this really should set the CPU governors, but I'm not actually sure it does that! It might have been a bug on my system that has given me doubt, so it might work just fine for you. I'd welcome feedback from others on this.

Answer 4

You can try slimbook battery. I am using it on one of my laptops,but my opinion is that Ubuntu drains the batteries. Add the ppa:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:slimbook/slimbook

And then install:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install slimbookbattery

Answer 5

It seems like this is now a feature in Ubuntu 22.04.

Answer 6

If you have an Intel CPU, (and are using gnome) you can install an extension that does that.https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/945/cpu-power-manager/

Answer 7

Check this: https://packages.ubuntu.com/hirsute/power-profiles-daemon

install:

sudo apt install power-profiles-daemon

Answer 8

Assuming you have installed the linux-tools-common package, you may then ask for a given CPU frequency governor with one of the following cpupower command (governors names may vary depending on your system):

# Set governor to powersave
sudo cpupower frequency-set -g powersave
# Set governor to performance
sudo cpupower frequency-set -g performance

You may also directly configure CPU frequency settings, e.g. for capping the upper allowed freq.:

sudo cpupower frequency-set -u 2.0GHz

Check cpupower frequency-info before going on with these commands in order to be able to rollback your settings.

PS: tested OK on Ubuntu 20.04.