steel tusk
I have decided to switch to Linux Mint from Windows. I want to know whether battery issues of Linux Mint OS are resolved or not. I read one Reddit post that was posted 2 years back about battery life - https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/z6yo7v/laptop_battery_life/
Please help.
lean whale
I'm not an expert, but I have a few things to share:
1.) You should probably provide some hardware specs.
2.) If you're using an AMD CPU, there were some kernel updates a while back that should provide better battery life.
https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxmint/comments/1efkvi9/significant_battery_life_improvement_after/
3.) The latest Mint version has power profiles, as well. You can set it up in System Settings > Power Management > Power mode.
dire warren
Hi All Might. Not sure about battery issues, I don't recall anything strangely grave in magnitude.
However, do take note that it may be a bit worse compared to Windows, though in rare occasions, some report otherwise.
Local Federal Agent is correct. There are now power profiles in the latest version of Mint. That's an easy way to deal with it.
If you plan on using editions of Linux Mint aside from Cinnamon, the power profiles interface may not be readily available (I'm not sure, I haven't checked).
In such case, you may use the CLI frontend, powerprofilesctl.
If you are on a Thinkpad, as from what I can recall from documentations and comparisons, tlp might be better for your case.
In such case that you plan to add another power profile related utility, consult with our volunteers here.
You may have to remove existing ones to avoid conflict.
steel tusk
I'm not an expert, but I have a few things to share:
1.) You should probably pr...
Hardware specs:
Laptop: Acer Aspire 5 (Model: A515-51)
Installed RAM: 12GB
System type: 64 bit
SSD 256 GB
Currently running Windows 11
Intel Core i5
GPU - Intel(R) UHD Graphics 620 (I don't have any dedicated GPU like NVIDIA or AMD)
Battery:
DESIGN CAPACITY 48,944 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 40,204 mWh
I plan to replace Windows with Linux Mint for daily use because this distro comes close to replicating Windows UI. Is it a good option? If yes then what version or edition should i use?
dire warren
I think it's nice for battery that you don't have a DGPU. I hope the battery life is alright.
As for your question, Mint is indeed a good option. We suggest going with the flagship edition, Cinnamon.
Your hardware should be more than capable to deal with that.
dire warren
Not much. Do tell us about it here if you do the switch!
rustic snow
I think it's nice for battery that you don't have a DGPU. I hope the battery lif...
so a DGPU would cause issues?
dire warren
Not really, but of course, power consumption wise, if you take that into account, that's another thing sapping your battery.
It should be pretty much intuitive.
rustic snow
mint is not capable of shutting off the dgpu or something?
I mean, it's a gaming laptop so battery life ain't its strong suit tbh, but if it saps power significantly more than windows with the DGPU disabled, I might have a problem
dire warren
mint is not capable of shutting off the dgpu or something?
That's the default behaviour. You can choose which GPU to use.
rustic snow
ah that's good to know. I'm also worried about the control software, but I hope to deal with that when I do the switch. Currently waiting on my hard drive which I have ordered so I can copy all the files as a backup, and then use it as an install media to boot into mint
btw mint can generate an install drive on a partitioned part of a hard drive, right? I heard you can right click the mint iso and turn it into a boot drive inside mint without any dedicated software
I'm already daily driving mint on my desktop so I want to try having it on my laptop too
dire warren
wdym? can you please rephrase that? sorry i'm a bit disoriented as of the moment
rustic snow
sorry I'm not good with words haha...
I heard that inside linux mint, you can right click the install ISO, and then tell the OS to make the ISO into a bootable USB or something, right?
so I don't need to install etcher or anything to create the install media
dire warren
i'm not sure, i haven't tried that
but the way i understood it... from the mint installation, you can generate an ISO of it?
rustic snow
nah I have downloaded the mint ISO, but I need to make a boot media, right?
usually you'd need balena etcher or something to create the usb drive to plug in and install mint
but I heard that mint itself (I'm already running it on a separate pc) can do that without needing to install another software
ah, nevermind. It can only select a whole drive, not a partition seemingly
dire warren
ohhh...
yeah the whole drive
because it will flash it there, format the drive in a particular way it's supposed to be
it's pretty technical as it gets, so that's the simplest description i can give
rustic snow
I was thinking if I could make a partition on the external HDD (I don't have a USB stick) and make that the boot medium
because I don't want to format a 2TB hdd just so I can turn it into a linux mint install drive
dire warren
oh, i see... please don't, that's what i would advise you to do
rustic snow
don't what? partition and turn that into the boot medium, or partition the whole HDD?
I installed mint on my daily drive PC by partitioning the secondary internal HDD, and making that 5gb partition into the boot drive with the files on it
so I thought an external HDD would work too
dire warren
if you're planning to install linux mint, the safest way to do it is get a USB and flash the ISO there
rustic snow
if you're planning to install linux mint, the safest way to do it is get a USB a...
don't got one, that's my problem
dire warren
hmmm... okay wait, i'll try to explain this
rustic snow
I was able to install mint on my PC because I have 2 storage drives, internal ones, so I partitioned the second one in windows, copied the ISO files over, and then booted to it
so I installed mint without an external USB stick
it was a bit janky but I pulled it off in the end
dire warren
you can use your external HDD... copy the files over somewhere else... then install ventoy on the HDD
once you put ventoy in there, you may resize the 'Ventoy' partition to allow for an unallocated space
which you can format and use for your files
rustic snow
so basically what I did with my secondary SATA HDD?
I shrunk the NTFS partition, unallocated 5gb space, then turned that into a fat32 partition
then booted into it
dire warren
not sure how did that work... but if it did work, i guess it's not so bad to try
just be sure to keep a backup of your stuff, so things are alright
rustic snow
the only thing that method does as far as I know is you can't partition the drive where the install media is on
so drive D: was not touchable, but I could partition the C: drive SSD to install mint
oh well, we'll have to see if it works out
thanks for the help, fingers crossed my zephyrus G15 can handle mint
dire warren
just a heads-up, if you manage to boot to the live environment, check if everything is working before you install
rustic snow
but what should I check?
I guess the only things that come into my mind would be the DGPU controls and the fingerprint sensor
dire warren
network and audio too
rustic snow
but either way, I'll be wiping the old OS so I might as well just install mint first
if it don't work out I'll install windows 10
win10 support has ended so I'm wiping it, if mint doesn't work, my backup is win10 LTSC
both OSses require a wipe anyways
minor bobcat
you can use your external HDD... copy the files over somewhere else... then inst...
This is best done DURING the ventoy installation step. You go into its "partition configuration" section in Options menu.
if prepping a Hard drive this way to make it into a "live medium", then say if the hard drive is 320 GB, tell the options in ventoy installer, (in the partition config mentioned above) leave 300 GB space at end of drive. Set as GPT also. Then click Install.
dire warren
Oh... that's what I've forgot. I'm sorry and thanks!
minor bobcat
@steel tusk any news on this post from you?
have you tried a live boot just with USB and use Mint live for a full 24 to 36 hours to test it out, even for battery ?
steel tusk
<@1308391265163018272> any news on this post from you?
i dual booted my laptop. most of the essential features like bluetooth, wifi, disks, usb ports, battery work fine.
minor bobcat
aight
steel tusk
i'm setting it up to see if all the applications i installed in windows (VS code, python, java, vlc etc) work or not
minor bobcat
i'm setting it up to see if all the applications i installed in windows (VS code...
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