TLP - ArchWiki

# TLP

Related articles

- Laptop
- Laptop Mode Tools

From the project page:

  TLP brings you the benefits of advanced power management for Linux without the need to understand every technical detail. TLP comes with a default configuration already optimized for battery life, so you may just install and forget it. Nevertheless TLP is highly customizable to fulfil your specific requirements.

## Installation

Install tlp from the official repositories - pay attention to its optional dependencies that may help provide additional power saving.

To complete TLP's install, you must enable the systemd services `tlp.service` and `tlp-sleep.service`.

You should also mask the systemd service `systemd-rfkill.service` to avoid conflicts with TLP's radio options:

    # systemctl mask systemd-rfkill

## Start

After installation TLP will be automatically activated upon system start. To start it immediately without reboot or to apply changed settings, use:

    # tlp start

## Configuration

The configuration file is located at `/etc/default/tlp` and provides a "largely" optimized power saving by default. For a full explanation of options see: TLP configuration.

Listed here are notable examples.

### CPU frequency scaling governor

TLP can control the CPU frequency scaling governor:

    CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_AC=performance
    CPU_SCALING_GOVERNOR_ON_BAT=ondemand

### Hard disk

Most disks have power saving built-in whose settings can be adjusted, set to: 255 to disable, 128 for the maximum power save value, < 128 will enable disk spindown and possibly additional power savings. Before setting a spindown value, think carefully before using: spindowns require disk wakeups that negatively contribute to disk longevity.

    DISK_APM_LEVEL_ON_AC="254 254"
    DISK_APM_LEVEL_ON_BAT="128 128"

### Optical drive

Powering down the optical drive can save a little bit of power (power restored on disk-enter or tray close).

    BAY_POWEROFF_ON_BAT=1

### Radio device state

TLP can manage the power state of Bluetooth, WiFi and WWAN devices upon system start.

To restore radio device states on startup:

    RESTORE_DEVICE_STATE_ON_STARTUP=1

To enable or disable specific devices at boot, use the following options:

    DEVICES_TO_DISABLE_ON_STARTUP="wifi"
    DEVICES_TO_ENABLE_ON_STARTUP=""

### Radio Device Wizard

The Radio Device Wizard allows an even more sophisticated management of radio devices depending on network connect/disconnect events.

It requires NetworkManager to be installed as a dependency, tlp-rdw from the official repositories, and the `NetworkManager-dispatcher.service` be enabled and started.

Refer to TLP configuration for the relevant options.

## Command line tools

TLP provides several command line tools. See TLP commands for full details.

To generate a report of the loaded configuration and the current power state of the devices, run:

    tlp-stat

It can also be used to control battery charging and discharging on supported ThinkPad laptops, to discharge:

    tlp discharge

## Features intentionally excluded

- Fan control. See Fan speed control and Thinkpad Fan Control

- Backlight brightness. See Backlight

## See also

- TLP - Linux Advanced Power Management - Project homepage & documentation.
- aclidswitch-git - Supplementary tool that extends TLP's functionality to run commands depending on the laptop's AC state

Category:

- Power management