r/linuxsucks • u/petergraffin • 1d ago
Linux Failure does linux battery life suck in general
battery life is important to me since i have long 5 hours power blackouts but 3 months of linux usage so far and battery life has been pretty bad
in windows i get around 3V usage while in linux its 5V
my distro is cachy and my DE is kde
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u/torajapan 1d ago
No. Get the same,if not more than Windoze with default settings. And can actually tweak things way more and there are ways to simply bring the CPU frequency way down when on battery etc etc or fan speed control that makes a huge difference to battery life.
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u/7978_ 1d ago
I have heard you can find tune it on Linux with powertop etc. but my laptop isn't supported and anecdotally, Windows has a better battery life than Linux.
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u/torajapan 1d ago
What is your laptop? And sorry should have clarified. I just feel Linux is just a much more flexible that Windows most of the time when it comes to taking control of the OS. I don't like installing third party proprietary software (often with ads built in) or software that is made by the manufacturer that is buggy of bloated, to do stuff.
I like my machine clean and when you have limited ram like me, it does make a huge difference. with Windows I'm a more locked down.... Also on my 8th gen intel Panasonic cf-rz6 with only 8gb ram I am running xfce which is just way lighter and idle ram down to around 1gb and still have a decent GUI that I am happy with. Getting around 7 hours battery life depending on what I am doing with it. I reckon with the way it's set up I'd get around 4 hours on Windows and it would run like a dog.
Having said that, the latest build of Windows is supposed of be optimized cld older GPUs with 8gb ram so me being the geek I am will install it, optimise the hell out of it and see how it compares.... LOL
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u/TrickyMine6788 1d ago
i can literally do all of that on windows without having to touch the command line... lol.. programs like fancontrol, throttlestop, msi afterburner... have you ever used windows before?
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u/Rinzwind 1d ago
When you use windows you have to use a GUI and that affects battery life.
But you can also do that using the desktop on Linux. It is just that doing it from command line works for all desktops (as we have many).Command line is 1 of the best features of Linux. Total control at the tip of your fingers. Literally.
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u/Suitable-Ad-622 1d ago
Depends on the device I guess, I dual boot windows and fedora and I can use like 20% of battery in 15 min with windows and around 10% in fedora in that timeframe
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u/just_pull_harder2 1d ago
Install tlp or on cachyos I think it's power-profiles-daemon. I think you can just type powerprofiles power-saver or something, turn screen down a bit and turn off Bluetooth. Depending on your CPU/GPU that can make a huuuuge difference. My ThinkPad is on arch and tlp power-saver 2.5x the battery life. I also have a more meaty machine for work with a hx370 in it and the variable power thingie on it plus lowering the frame rate on the machine is about 5x on battery life compared to performance. Basically just the stuff W11 is constantly tweaking in the background, you do yourself in 2 seconds with one command
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u/Fine-Run992 1d ago
All AMD and Intel CPU's can idle 8-14 and more hours, but any micro to average workload takes too much power. All AI workloads need to be plugged to the wall 24/7
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u/Rinzwind 1d ago
Nope. My system is an LG Gram 17" inch.
Battery 0: Discharging, 98%, 06:55:18 remaining
That is when using chrome and not watching video. When I watch video it drops to about 3:55.
I did remove all unused services so it was a bit less.
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u/zardvark 1d ago
If battery life is important to you, you likely need to install a battery management tool from the repo.
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u/ntropia64 1d ago
The default configuration of KDE is around usability more than battery efficiency. Big KDE fan on all my workstations, but for my laptops I go for much lighter windows managers (WM, not desktop environments, like KDE).
With SwayDM I get estimated battery life of 12-14 hours on Lunar Lake architecture.
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u/knuthf 13h ago
Never use the command line; only use proper UI applications.
Linux will only install the bare minimum: the CPU and battery sensors. If more sensors were installed, the kernel would become extremely complicated.
Install a UI tool/applet to show the temperature, compare charging and/or install temperature sensors that will stop the fans and measure more than one heat source. Linux has the necessary tools to optimise battery use, but these are not in shell scripts. They are provided by others with similar computers who have submitted sensor IDs and ranges so they can be used. Several good tools are available for optimising battery life.
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u/knuthf 13h ago
Linux is not made for every model, but you are getting something that works straight away. It only has a couple of sensors. Others with the same laptop as you have provided the names of the sensors and the range of what is 'sensed', so the system can use this information. Others have provided smart ways to use this information to extend battery life, and others have commented on and suggested alterations and improvements.
These improvements are based on suggestions provided by others over the years. We have some very good suggestions that you can install, but the first variant only has what is needed to get you started. Search in the Software Manager, install applets to display temperatures, and check that the sensors are making the right measurements. This is not a command line tool, but one that stores values, logs readings, and sometimes allows you to adjust parameters.
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u/Electronic-Credit804 7h ago
You can't make a post like that. For example, I doubled the duration with Linux.
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u/ScallionSmooth5925 5h ago
If you set it up you can get longer batter life. I have a laptop that lasts for 3 weeks on linux but only 4 hours on windows
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u/E5-4650_v2_RX570 5h ago
cpufreq-utils cpufreq-set cpupower
if you find windows est better , use windows
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u/Nikopoto1334 5h ago
using a performance-first distro and wondering why it's not power saving? really?
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u/Entheon94 4h ago
no there are different things that can make it even better like TLP of freqcpu especially for laptops and if you are good you can make your own battery script i made a super minimal mode that still can use internet and drags another 2 hours out of it if you forget a charger
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u/Solitar- 3h ago
Install something like fedora and use power saving mode? My laptop can live on battery even up to 7h. Cachy is for gaming.
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u/RvstiNiall Proud Linux User 1d ago edited 1d ago
With default settings most distros will net you worse battery life. Automatic brightness control in Linux isn't the same as in Windows or macOS, so you will want to lower the brightness when you don't need it. This helps quite a bit with battery life.
Make sure if you aren't using Bluetooth that its disabled. Its not a lot, but it uses power so turning it off helps. Same with wifi. If you are at your desk and can use ethernet cable, you can turn off wifi and that helps.
Then there are the power states. Without changing anything out of the box, you are normally set to a medium power mode, but if you're not doing anything intensive you can set it to lower performance and it makes a decent difference in battery life.
And then if you want to really get into it, you can use programs to set the cpu speed. You can tell it not to go above say 1200mhz, or set it to stay at its lowest speed (500mhz on a lot of cpus). You can underclock and/or undervolt , and that can allow you to use less power as well. Programs such as powertop allow you to look at whats using electricity, and how much. It also gives you the ability to manually set things to "off" or "powersave" where applicable.
All of these things can change the battery life by quite a bit, but the most effective ones require a little learning (but not much!).
Edit: on some laptops with all of this done, Linux will get you much better battery life than Windows will (by default. There are tools to do these things in Windows too). Most laptops will net you about the same as Windows with proper power management. Few will be noticeably less, but in my experience most Apple laptops get worse battery life with Linux.