Installation
Does TLP conflict with other power management tools?
Important
Generally yes. It is not recommended to use two (or more) power management tools at the same time.
This is because all power management tools essentially control a similar set of kernel tunables. Therefore, TLP’s tuning will be overriden by the other tool (and vice versa), making the actual power savings unpredictable. The individual tools involved are discussed below.
auto-cpufreq: controls a subset of TLP’s kernel tunables, do not use together with TLP — Note: auto-cpufreq is not a pure power saving tool. On the contrary, when the CPU is under heavy load in battery mode, performance is improved at the cost of higher power consumption.
GNOME and KDE Desktop: usually include power-profiles-daemon, see below.
power-profiles-daemon: check power-profiles-daemon.
Powertop: please refer to Powertop.
Slimbook Battery: uses TLP as a backend to apply power saving measures. However, it continuously overwrites your TLP configuration. If you wish to configure TLP individually, you must first uninstall Slimbook Battery.
system76-power: works on the same set of kernel tunables as TLP. Do not use together with TLP.
thermald: limits power dissipation to prevent the laptop from overheating. It does not provide power saving functionality for other situations and therefore does not conflict with TLP.
throttled: only throttled’s dynamic HWP_Mode setting interferes with TLP’s actions. If you want to use it, disable the feature in TLP by configuring CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_AC=””.
Must I enable TLP’s systemd service unit?
Symptoms: tlp-stat -s shows
Error: tlp.service is not enabled, power saving will not apply on boot.
>>> Invoke 'systemctl enable tlp.service' to correct this!
Answer: yes, the service unit is indispensable for correct operation - tlp.service applies power saving settings and charge thresholds as well as switching radio devices on system boot and shutdown.
Note
Debian, Fedora and Ubuntu enable the service by default as part of the package Installation, others such as Arch Linux don’t. If unsure check the output of tlp-stat -s for corresponding notes.
Does TLP run on my laptop (not a ThinkPad)?
TLP runs on every laptop brand. A few features are available on IBM/Lenovo ThinkPads only.
Does TLP make sense on newer laptops / with newer Linux versions?
Yes, of course.
The Linux kernel has accumulated many power saving features over the years, but not all are enabled by default. It seems to be really hard for the kernel developers to fully debug power saving on all possible hardware, so power saving stays disabled for many drivers and it’s up to the user to enable it.
Conclusion: a userspace tool like TLP is still needed to enable power saving globally.
Should I install TLP inside a virtual machine?
No. It is not effective to run a power management tool inside a virtual machine guest. Install TLP in the host operating system instead.
Ubuntu/Debian: I do not use Network Manager, how do I install tlp without tlp-rdw?
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends tlp
Ubuntu: How do I prevent the installation of postfix as a dependency?
The package tlp recommends smartmontools which pulls postfix (via recommends too). Use:
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends tlp tlp-rdw ethtool smartmontools
My Linux distribution does not provide a TLP package, how do I install it?
How do I install TLP on a development release of my distribution?
TLP packages for new distribution versions appear in due time for the release. If you want to use TLP with alpha or beta releases, download the packages for the predecessor and install them manually with your favorite package manager.
What if I want a GUI?
Get TLPUI.