TLP

TLP is a command-line program originally written for IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads that automatically activates various power-saving settings for notebooks on Linux. It performs those optimizations that experienced users would have to determine themselves using Intel’s command line tool Powertop and then apply manually. In this respect, TLP achieves similar results to the powertop --autotune command, albeit with some differences that are explained in detail by the TLP developer.

In a nutshell, it works like this: It examines which processes wake up the CPU from the “idle” state and thus consume energy. An attempt is then made to limit or even switch off as many of these processes as possible in order to save energy.

Is TLP still up to date?

Notebooks usually consume more power under Linux than under Windows – if only because the manufacturers usually deliver their devices with Windows and driver software optimized for it. However, the hardware support of the Linux kernel has constantly improved in recent years. In addition, modern Linux distributions are now delivered with effective energy-saving settings. Therefore, a tool like TLP is no longer a “must”, but a “can”. TLP is still being further developed and can further improve energy management and tailor it to your own needs.

Even though the program supports some special cases for Thinkpads, it runs smoothly on devices from other manufacturers. All parameters can also be configured manually. Instead of editing the configuration file /etc/default/tlp, you can also use the GUI TLPUI, which was not developed by TLP and is written in Python 3. Although it is not supplied, it can be installed as a flatpack.

How to run TPL

TLP is installed as a service. It is started automatically as soon as the system is started. In principle, the energy-saving settings are not retained, but are determined and applied each time the system is started. TLP takes care of this automatically.

Installation

TLP may be installed directly from Ubuntu’s Main repository:

sudo apt install tlp

The latest updates may be installed from the developer’s PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linrunner/tlp sudo apt-get update

The TPGUI application is on Flathub.

Alternativen

The aforementioned command line tool Powertop from Intel either works in an interactive mode or generates a report with possible energy-saving suggestions – tedious but detailed. Slimbook Battery is a graphical application from the Spanish laptop manufacturer Slimbook, which – not only for slimbooks – allows the management of energy profiles in a graphical interface and uses TLP, among other things.