Power management for desktops - really needs attention

[tomcloyd]

I've been running several months with Kubuntu 7.10. My only need to reinstall was this week, when my dual-boot WinXP decided to do some disk repair, and somehow damaged Kubuntu. I've rapidly learned to really love Kubuntu.

Both installs have brought me to the issue of desktop power management, since I'm running an HP server box. I'm used to being able to hibernate my OS, in WinXP. This is good for two reasons:
1. It's time efficient. I can return to work more quickly when I shut down to a hibernated system state.
2. It's energy efficient...return to an active system is quicker, using less electricity. Using less issue is rapidly becoming a survival issue for our society, in case you haven't noticed.

OK, so let's set up hibernation on my desktop. Weeell. Problems emerge immediately:
1. The initial OS has no power management functionality that I can find. Nothing anywhere.
2. Going to the repositories, it appears that all power management utilities are laptop oriented. I understand why, but why does Windows get it about the need for desktop power management, but...Kubutu doesn't?
3. OK. I make a decision and install powersaved. Now...where the *** is it? In the launch menu? Nope. In the applet install taskbar right-click menu. Nope. Secretly added to some part of the system control center? Nope. "Power" doesn't even appear when I search for it, in the available search tool.

So, I get clever and issue locate powersaved, then whereis powersaved (in desperation) commands in a console...producing, in the first case nothing, and the second /usr/sbin/powersaved /usr/share/man/man8/powersaved.8.gz

Well, only /usr/sbin/powersaved has any hope for me. It's executable. I go there, and click it. A long silence follows. Nothing appears to happen. No error messages. Just nothing. Now that's impressive programming folks.

OK, please tell me what the point of all this might be. I just installed an inadequately documented program (the info. available in adept didn't make it clear that this would work for desktop power management, even though it's in the database listing), then I had to expend 15 minutes trying to FIND it (unbelievable - what was the programmer thinking? that this is great game for someone?). Finding it, I can't get it to DO anything.

So...after this investment, I want something. I want to make things better. To what useful venue can I take this problem, a place where it might get attended to?

Thanks for any help

[Snowhog]

Re: Power management for desktops - really needs attention

Short answer: powersaved is a daemon and as such, isn't a 'program' in the way you are thinking.

[kubicle]

Re: Power management for desktops - really needs attention

Isn't 'kde-guidance-powermanager' installed by default (usr/bin/guidance-power-manager)?

And I'm pretty sure you can install and run 'kpowersave' on a desktop machine as well as laptop.

As for powersaved, as Snowhog said it's a daemon (service) which is not meant to be run directly. It's started by the init.d script along with other system services, and runs in the background.

So, I get clever and issue locate powersaved, then whereis powersaved (in desperation) commands in a console...producing, in the first case nothing

locate does not show files/changes newer than the last time the locate database was updated. The database updates daily by default, but you can manually update it with 'sudo updatedb'.

[tomcloyd]

Re: Power management for desktops - really needs attention

I have two questions --

Isn't 'kde-guidance-powermanager' installed by default (usr/bin/guidance-power-manager)?

I don't know about 'by default', but it IS there. However, I have no more idea what to do with it than with the powersave daemon. Really. This stuff is just not obvious, and after reading a pile of forum posts, I'm still clueless as to what to do. I don't seem to have anything to manipulate.

QUESTION 1: What's the point of this? What can I actually do with this invisible program?

And I'm pretty sure you can install and run 'kpowersave' on a desktop machine as well as a laptop.

It's installed now, and it actually created an entry for itself in the launch menu. But, it's truly weird - it doesn't execute. All I could do is use the menu entry to put a icon on the task bar. That led to a configuration menu, much of which applies only to laptops. I very carefully worked through this menu, twice, and got a hibernate button on the logout menu. Merely shutting power down didn't work. No hibernation. Using the logout hibernation button led merely to a system which would boot, then halt right before displaying the login window. Only a reset got me out of THAT.

So...three plus hours into this...nothing.

I've scoured the forums, and haven't found anything that solves this problem.

QUESTION 2: Am I missing something?

...locate does not show files/changes newer than the last time the locate database was updated. The database updates daily by default, but you can manually update it with 'sudo updatedb'.

Thanks. Nice to know this. Too bad it appears not to be mentioned in the 'info locate' output. I really had NO idea.

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts - I'm still reading, if you have any more.

[kubicle]

Re: Power management for desktops - really needs attention

Both programs (guidance-power-manager and kpowersave) should run in the "notification area" (small icons next to the clock, with which you should be able to configure their settings)

At least kpowersave (I haven't used guidance-power-manager in quite a bit) should let you set several power management settings (like automatic hibernate after a period of inactivity) although battery related settings are of no use in a desktop machine.

Things to note:
1. If you start the programs from the konsole, it'll output any errors encountered (likely helps to troubleshoot if the program does not start.

2. Hibernation/suspend issues are not uncommon in the linux land, so there might be problems with apm/acpi on your box. Unfortunately these can be rather tricky to troubleshoot (due to the sheer amount of variables involved).

[aged hippy]

Re: Power management for desktops - really needs attention

If i may add here:
It may depend on your video driver, i have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro, and with the default driver the 'Hibernate' option didn't appear, but as soon as i allowed it to install the restricted drivers (although "Radeon", not the "9800 Pro"), there it was.

I hope this helps.... but i have my doubts....