Dependencies

TLP depends on (or conflicts with) the tools described below. They should be implemented as package dependencies.

Package tlp

acpi-call - obsolete

External kernel module to support battery recalibration of ThinkPads since model year 2011 - e.g. T420/X220 and newer. Obsolete since kernel 5.17 which provides the sysfs node charge_behaviour for this purpose.

Note

  • Required for the specified hardware only, do not implement as hard dependency but as suggestion

  • The implementation of the package depends considerably on the target distribution and therein on the kernel variant

awk, grep, sed - mandatory

TLP is tested with the GNU version of these essential utilities. Your mileage with other implementations may vary.

Note

Busybox is not supported.

ethtool - optional

Used to disable Wake-on-LAN.

hdparm - mandatory

Needed for hard disk advanced power management (APM) and to show information in tlp-stat -d.

iw - mandatory

Needed for Wi-Fi power save, replaces deprecated iwconfig (see wireless-tools below).

laptop-mode-tools - conflicts

Only one power management tool may be installed at a time.

lsb-release - optional [before 1.4]

Used to show distribution/release in tlp-stat -s.

pciutils - mandatory

Provides lspci used to show PCI(e) devices in tlp-stat -e.

power-profiles-daemon - conflicts [from 1.5]

power-profiles-daemon (version 0.10.1) manages the following settings, which TLP also manages:

  • CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_AC/BAT (activated in default.conf)

  • CPU_BOOST_ON_AC/BAT

  • PLATFORM_PROFILE_ON_AC/BAT

Much more serious is that power-profiles-daemon.service breaks the activation of TLP’s settings at boot time by preventing the start of tlp.service:

Conflicts= ... tlp.service ...

Masking or disabling power-profiles-daemon.service is not a viable alternative, as it breaks powerprofilesctl and desktop components using it.

Conclusion: this can only be reliably prevented by not installing power-profiles-daemon and tlp at the same time.

Important

Make sure that adding the conflict to a tlp distribution package does not unintentionally uninstall essential desktop packages. If necessary, their dependencies on power-profiles-daemon must be changed to optional.

rfkill - mandatory

Needed for switching radio devices on and off.

smartmontools - optional

Provides smartctl used to show hard disk drive SMART data in tlp-stat -d.

tp-smapi - optional

External kernel modules providing battery charge thresholds and recalibration for ThinkPads before model year 2011 as well as specific tlp-stat -b output until model year 2011. See Lenovo/IBM legacy ThinkPads.

Note

  • Required for the specified hardware only, do not implement as hard dependency but as suggestion

  • The implementation of the package depends considerably on the target distribution and therein on the kernel variant

udev - mandatory

Needed for event handling (see Architecture) and providing udevadm.

usbutils - mandatory

Provides lsusb used to show USB devices in tlp-stat -u.

util-linux - mandatory

Provides flock and dmesg (for tlp-stat -w).

Note

Busybox is not supported.

wireless-tools - deprecated [before 1.5]

Provides iwconfig for Wi-Fi power saving; only if iw and rfkill (see above) are not available.

x86_energy_perf_policy - optional

Linux kernel version specific tool contained in the kernel tree (tools/power/x86). Needed to set the energy-performance bias (EPB) for Intel CPU’s (kernel < 5.2 only).

Note

Ubuntu provides it via the metapackage linux-tools, Debian via linux-cpupower. Your mileage with other distributions may vary.

Package tlp-rdw

tlp - mandatory

Provides libraries tlp-func-base and func.d/*.

network-manager - mandatory

Used to hook ifup/ifdown events and to determine the corresponding interface type LAN/Wi-Fi/WWAN.