Introduction

This section explains how TLP’s settings are organized, the Config Files, the Parameter Syntax and Making Changes.

Quick Instructions

If you just want to make a quick change to the configuration, read this section and then read the rest later.

Open TLP’s main config file with a text editor:

sudo nano /etc/tlp.conf

Change the desired line(s). Before:

#CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_AC=balance_performance
#CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_BAT=balance_power
#CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_SAV=power

After – remember to remove the leading #:

CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_AC=balance_performance
CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_BAT=balance_performance
CPU_ENERGY_PERF_POLICY_ON_SAV=balance_power

Note

In contrast to below, the two preceding code blocks are not shell commands but excerpts from the configuration file.

Save and quit the editor. Then activate your changes using the shell command

sudo tlp start

Power Profiles

TLP settings are grouped into profiles:

Version 1.9 and newer has three profiles:

Parameters ending in _AC are used when the performance profile is active, i.e. when running on AC power.
Parameters ending in _BAT are used when the balanced profile is active, i.e. when running on battery power.
Parameters ending in _SAV are used when the power-saver profile is active. If there is no _SAV parameter available for a feature, the _BAT parameter will be used instead.

Version 1.8 and older has two:

Parameters ending in _AC are used when running on AC power
Parameters ending in _BAT are used when running on battery power

Parameters ending neither in _AC, nor in _BAT or _SAV apply to all profiles.

Important

Parameters without intrinsic defaults (see below) must always be specified for all profiles. Otherwise, parameters from the configured profiles may unintentionally spill over to the unconfigured ones.

Config Files

Settings are read from the following files in the specified order:

Intrinsic defaults
/etc/tlp.d/*.conf: Drop-in customization snippets, read in lexical (alphabetical) order
/etc/tlp.conf: User configuration

Hints:

In case of identical parameters in several but also within the same file, the last occurence has precedence
This also means, parameters in /etc/tlp.conf will override anything else because it is read last
All parameters in /etc/tlp.conf are disabled, remove the leading # to activate your change
Config files in the /etc/tlp.d/ directory are created by the user:
- Filenames must end in .conf, otherwise the file will be ignored
- 00-template.conf is provided as an example
If in doubt, put your configuration changes in /etc/tlp.d/01-mytlp.conf
Transfer settings when upgrading describes how to migrate your configuration from versions before 1.3

Note

TLP versions 1.2.2 and older stored all settings in a single config file named /etc/default/tlp.

Parameter Defaults

Two kinds of parameters exist:

Parameters with intrinsic default:
- Marked with “Default when unconfigured:” in this documentation
- Preceded by “Default:” in /etc/tlp.conf
Parameters without intrinsic default

Note

Parameter values given in this documentation and in the config files may be suggestions rather than intrinsic defaults.

Parameter Syntax

Config Files consist of parameter and comment lines.

Parameter lines

PARAMETER=value

Parameter values containing blanks must be enclosed in double quotes:

USB_DENYLIST="1111:2222 3333:4444"

Comment lines

The content of lines beginning with a # in the first column is ignored completely:

#What is written here does not matter.

Empty lines are ignored as well.

Until version 1.5 comments after parameters are not allowed, the whole line will be silently ignored:

EXAMPLE="do not use like this" # Parameter in front is ignored - until version 1.5!

As of version 1.6 the above line is valid and taken into account.

Disabling features

Parameters without intrinsic default may be disabled by commenting them out with a leading #:

#STOP_CHARGE_THRESH_BAT1=80

Parameters with intrinsic default may be disabled by entering an empty string:

RUNTIME_PM_DRIVER_DENYLIST=""

Concatenation with +=

A nifty feature to add something to an intrinsic default (Example 1):

Intrinsic default DISK_DEVICES=”nvme0n1 sda”

plus /etc/tlp.d/01-mytlp.conf:
DISK_DEVICES+="sdb"
Results in: DISK_DEVICES=”nvme0n1 sda sdb”

Or add values in a subsequent config file (Example 2):

/etc/tlp.d/01-mytlp.conf:
USB_DENYLIST="1111:2222 3333:4444"
plus /etc/tlp.d/02-hw-specific.conf:
USB_DENYLIST+="5555:6666"
Results in: USB_DENYLIST=”1111:2222 3333:4444 5555:6666”

Making Changes

A config file can be changed with any text editor (root privilege is needed). For example:

sudo nano /etc/tlp.conf
sudo nano /etc/tlp.d/01-mytlp.conf

All changes must be activated by removing the leading # and, after saving the file, will take effect only

after a reboot,
plugging or unplugging AC
or by the shell command
```
sudo tlp start
```

Note

When installing upgrades of TLP, the package manager asks for confirmation before overwriting a changed config file with an updated version. Please refer to Does upgrading TLP overwrite my settings?