On Mon, 07 Mar 2005 09:42:29 -0700, Robin Laing <Robin.Laing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > M. Fioretti wrote: > > Greetings, > > > > 2) Is there a one stop howto about how to: > > make your (Fedora) PC save as much energy as possible and/or > > turn all networking off automatically, as soon as > > no interactive processes are on (maybe including > > ftp downloads) > > go back to 100% functionality (restart networking, download > > email...) when the user is back to the keyboard. > > > > I know that this is possible, but it would really great to have > > everything in one place for non technical users, those who would get > > the greatest savings and extra security for this because they use the > > computer sparingly. Maybe packaged so that "if you just install this > > one script so and so, it will take care of everything automatically" > > > > I will add my opinion on this. > > As being discussed in one thread. Linux is not a boot when required > OS. It is designed to be run 24/7 and thus may not be the best OS for > "saving" money. On the other hand, it also is useful being on 24/7. [snip] I have never had trouble "booting when required" with Linux. In fact with anacron set up (I took FC3's defaults, for the most part, but shortened the delays), it's kind of perfect. I also think Linux can save a lot of money in some cases, with XP Home costing $200 US (that's a lot of electricity). You can get it for $100, sure, but not legally. Anyway, getting to Marco's original questions. I don't believe this HOW-TO exists, and I think it would be valuable. More and more people are leaving their computers on, or in standby mode, all the time. Especially with the growth of always-on broadband connections--you've got that fast connection but if you have to wait a minute for the computer to boot ... yuck. I recently tried to set up a low-energy server for home. I found it a little harder than I expected to get wattage ratings for computers and their parts. You can google the different processors, and find that in general VIA < AMD < Intel at similar speeds, and the faster you go the more power you need. VIA, of course, is much lower in power requirements than the other two (that's their specialty). What was very hard to figure out was the ACTUAL power usage, vs. the rating. If a hard drive takes 20 watts, is that when you're saving a file or also when the drive is just spinning, doing nothing? If your VIA C3 is rated at 18 watts, is that the most it ever takes, or the amount it takes even when the computer's sitting there doing nothing? I'm sure that a computer sitting idle takes less power than one that's very active, but I couldn't find any predictions or measurements of that difference. That would be a great subject for a Linux Journal article. That is, do some research using one of those kill-a-watt devices to chart ACTUAL power consumption in typical usage for a variety of configurations. Without that data, the best I could do for my system was to aim for what seemed to be very low consumption, without really knowing what the actual consumption would be. (I opted for VIA C3 1Ghz and a 2.5" laptop hard drive. A CF card for a hard drive was too small--this is a small file server--and probably not worth the extra expense given the power savings.) The other main issue for an article like this is that power management is a little harder to get to work in Linux than in Windows or Mac OS. Does the monitor turn off automatically when the computer sits idle for a few minutes? How much less power does it consume in that state? Will the computer go automatically into a standby mode, and how much less power does it consume in that state? How much faster does it come out of standby mode, compared to a full boot? (I confess, I have never really confronted Linux power management for this situation). Good luck, Matt
