3. Laptop Features

Laptop-specific features have the main goal of reducing battery usage, in order to extend battery life, thereby increasing the mobility of the system. Other laptop-specific features simplify the usage of common features such as playing a music CD. Most laptop-specific features make use of ACPI, so make sure it is enabled in the bootloader configuration (see Section 2, “Changing your Boot-up Configuration” for more information).

3.1. Power Control, Hibernation and CPU Throttling

Procedure 17.1. Enabling Laptop Support Tools

  1. Install Required Software

    Make sure the kdeutils-klaptop package is installed.

  2. Launch KLaptop

    Choose System+Configuration+KDELaptop Battery from the main menu.

  3. Enable ACPI Control Software

    1. Select the ACPI Config tab.

    2. Click on Setup Helper Application.

    3. Click on Continue and provide root's password, when prompted.

  4. Select Features to Enable

    Put a checkmark on each of the features you want to enable. Here you have a short explanation on the most important ones:

    Standby

    When entering standby some components, mainly the screen, are powered off to reduce power usage. When mouse or keyboard activity is detected, the system returns to the normal mode of operation almost instantaneously.

    Hibernation

    Hibernation allows you to “put your laptop to sleep”, and “wake it up” later when you need to continue using it. RAM contents are copied to the hard disk when entering hibernation and then copied back to RAM when leaving hibernation, so you can continue using your laptop from the state it was when put to hibernate.

    [Note] Note

    For hibernation to work, you must have a swap partition of at least 1.25 times the RAM size.

    CPU Throttling

    To further reduce battery usage, the speed of the processor can be stepped down. Nowadays, most processors are powerful enough to browse the web, manage emails and use office applications, while full processor power may only be needed for multimedia, gaming, and other processor-intensive applications.

  5. Accept Settings

    Simply click on Ok once you are satisfied with your settings.

KLaptop's control icon is shown on the panel. The icon shows whether the laptop is plugged in to the mains or running on batteries, and the charge level. When you right click on it a menu pops up allowing you to throttle the CPU down, put the laptop into hibernation, etc. Select the Configure KLaptop item to set power control, low battery warnings, hibernation and CPU throttling parameters.

Figure 17.1. KLaptop — Battery Controls

KLaptop — Battery Controls

Figure 17.1, “KLaptop — Battery Controls” shows options for monitoring the battery (how often its status should be checked, which is its current status, and others). Make sure the Show battery monitor option is checked to have KLaptop's control icon shown on the panel. Check the Use a blank screen saver when running on batteries option to save even more power.

Figure 17.2. KLaptop — Power Controls

KLaptop — Power Controls

Figure 17.2, “KLaptop — Power Controls” shows options for power control, where you define what to do when the laptop enters automatic power down mode. The example shows that when the laptop is running on batteries (Not Powered) the CPU is to be throttled down 50% after 5 minutes of inactivity; while when the laptop is running on the mains (Powered) the CPU is to be throttled down 87% and the system put into hibernation after 20 minutes of inactivity, but only if the system's load (or level of activity, LAV) is less than 80%.

Figure 17.3. KLaptop — Lid Switch Controls

KLaptop — Lid Switch Controls

Figure 17.3, “KLaptop — Lid Switch Controls” shows options for what to do when the laptop's lid is closed. In the example we've chosen to throttle the CPU down 87% and to put the system into hibernation. When the lid is opened again, the system will return to normal speed of operation.

3.2. Multimedia Keys

Many laptops have multimedia keys usually allowing you to control the CD/DVD player and also the sound volume. Choose System+Configuration+KDE+Regional & AccessibilityKeyboard Layout from the main menu to configure support for them.

Figure 17.4. Selecting a Laptop Keyboard Layout

Selecting a Laptop Keyboard Layout

Check the Enable keyboards layout option and select your laptop's keyboard model using the Keyboard model pulldown list. Figure 17.4, “Selecting a Laptop Keyboard Layout” shows an example for Dell Inspiron 6xxx and 8xxx laptops.

[Note] Note

Some keyboards are listed as Laptop/Notebook ones, other as the specific laptop models ones. Scan the whole list to look for yours. If you cannot find yours specifically, you could try with a similar model.

You can also use the Mandriva Linux Control Center, Hardware section, keyboard icon (see Section 4, “Changing your Keyboard Layout”). The list shown is the same as the one above; however, the tool described above provides more options.