Operation

How do I stop or disable TLP completely?

The right way:

  • Change configuration: TLP_ENABLE=0

  • Optional: reboot to restore kernel defaults

Note

Uninstalling the packages will also disable TLP completely.

Wrong ways:

  • systemctl stop tlp.service – this will not prevent TLP from applying power saving settings when the power source AC/battery changes; depending on your configuration this may also immediately power off your Wi-Fi and/or bluetooth/WWAN, which might be undesirable

  • systemctl disable/mask tlp.service – this will only prevent TLP from applying charge thresholds and switching radios on system startup/shutdown; power saving settings are applied nevertheless (see above)

See also

Background: How it works (user perspective) and Architecture (technical) explain TLP’s event-driven actions.

How do I start/restart TLP – and apply power saving?

The right way:

tlp start

Note

Following the installation, TLP will start automatically on boot. To avoid having to restart the system, the first time you can start it manually as explained above.

Make sure, as a prerequisite, that:

  • TLP_ENABLE=1 is configured

  • systemd service units are enabled, see below; the output of tlp-stat -s will tell you when this is not the case

Wrong way:

  • systemctl start/restart tlp.service – depending on your configuration this may immediately power off your W-Fi and/or bluetooth/WWAN and drive bay, which might be undesirable; tlp start applies only power saving

How to temporarily use battery settings on AC (and vice versa)?

Invoke manual mode with the following commands:

tlp bat
tlp ac

Manual mode will remain until the next reboot or until terminated with the command

tlp start

See also

AC or BAT is not detected

This also concerns changes from AC to BAT and vice versa.

Possible causes: BIOS bug (DSDT may need fixing) or kernel ACPI bug.

Workaround: to ignore the problematic power source, try to configure

PS_IGNORE=AC

or

PS_IGNORE=BAT

AC is not detected when plugged in

Affected hardware: Dell XPS 15 9550/9560 (happens after booting on battery only)

Symptoms: tlp-stat -s shows

Power source = battery

tlp-stat --psup shows only the battery

/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/type:Battery
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/present:1
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/device/path:_SB_.BAT0

Charger is present when booted on AC only:

/sys/class/power_supply/AC/type:Mains
/sys/class/power_supply/AC/online:1
/sys/class/power_supply/AC/device/path:_SB_.AC__

Cause: BIOS bug, DSDT needs fixing (see last comment in kernel bug #156171).

References: Issues #223, #343, #362.

Solutions:

  • Update to version 1.2 or higher – recommended

  • Reboot with AC connected

  • Ask the laptop vendor for a corrected BIOS

  • Fix the DSDT yourself

System freezes on wakeup from suspend on battery

Symptom: on battery power, trying to wake up, the laptop freezes (either showing a black screen or a static lock screen) and becomes unresponsive to input.

Solution: change your configuration to disable disk runtime power management on battery power:

AHCI_RUNTIME_PM_ON_BAT=on

References: Issues #587, #593, #606.

Shutdown freezes before poweroff

Solution: add the mei_me module to RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_DENYLIST.

Shutdown reboots instead of poweroff

Affected hardware: HP laptops (based on user feedback)

Solution: deactivate Wake-on-LAN in the BIOS.

Spontaneous shutdown on battery

Symptom: laptop shuts down spontaneously when changing to battery power.

Affected hardware: an Acer Aspire V5-591G user with kernel 4.4 reported this issue.

Solution: disable Audio power saving.

Ethernet not working after resume

Affected hardware: a Dell XPS user with Kernel 4.4 reported this issue.

Solution: enable Wake-on-LAN

WOL_DISABLE=N

Exit Code 4

Symptom: journal shows the message

ERROR: systemd-udevd[1234]: Process '/usr/bin/tlp auto' failed with exit code 4

Solution: update to version 1.2 or higher.