TuxMobil: SuSE Linux on Laptops and Notebooks

This is an overview of resources for Linux on laptops and notebooks provided by SuSE Linux .

SuSE offers a mailing list for discussion about mobility in the openSUSE distribution <opensuse-mobile_at_opensuse.org>. You may subscribe at the SuSE mailing list portal . Before asking questions there have a look into the OpenSuse Hardware Compatibility List - HCL: Laptops , the opensuse-mobile mailing list archive and the OpenSuSE documentation portal .

SuSE Linux Laptop and Notebook Applications

SCPM

The SCPM software allows you to switch laptop or notebook configuration profiles. You can boot directly into one profile and then switch to another profile at run time. This is the successor of SuSE's older "scheme" management software.

PowerSave Daemon (powersaved)

The SuSE powersave daemon greatly extends the battery lifetime of laptops and notebooks by making use of following features:

CPU Frequency Scaling

The powersave daemon dynamically adjusts the frequency of the laptop or notebook according to the current processor usage. Nearly all processors that support CPU frequency scaling are supported (PowerNow!, SpeedStep and Via longhaul).

Throttling

The machine can omit clock ticks (so called processor clock throttling). Even this feature is not as effective as CPU frequency scaling it still might save a lot of power on machines that do not support frequency scaling or processor power states (ACPI C-states).

Other Features

Disk sleep timeouts can be configured and necessary file system parameters are set, to avoid the disk to wake up by file system synchronizations.
Save suspend_to_disk (ACPI S4/APM suspend) and suspend_to_ram (ACPI S3/APM standby). Versions above 0.8.x ACPI support S1 also. The user can configure kernel modules that are not capable of sleeping states. Those get unloaded before the sleep is triggerd and reloaded on resume as some cause the system to freeze or not work properly after resume. Services can also be configured to be restarted to get adjusted to possible device/network changes after resume.
Newer versions can also affect screen saver and DPMS settings.
Hooks are implemented to easily allow extentions through own scripts/programs on certain events (e.g. constant low cpu usage, low battery, high temperature and ACPI events like power/sleep/lid button).
All features are configurable to take place differently when working on battery or AC power source.
The tool supports APM (standby/suspend, battery monitoring, ...) as well as ACPI machines.

HOWTOs

SUSE LINUX Administration Guide Part II. Configuration / Chapter 7. Linux on Mobile Devices

A dedicated chapter focuses on the use of Linux on mobile devices especially on laptops. It covers the configuration of PC cards (PCMCIA), the management of multiple system profiles with SCPM, and wireless communication with IrDA and Bluetooth.

SuSE Linux on Laptops and Notebooks