First thanks to everyone who answered this post, your answers were really helpfull.
a) As for the filesystem, I think I'll go with reiserfs as : 1) Some of you rightfully pointed out that journalling is usefull even on a laptop 2) It does not alter battery life too much. b) As for ACPI or APM : I wanted to keep the debate brand free but I need to go into some details about dell laptop configuration. My laptop is an inspiron 8200. I enabled dell laptop support into the kernel, then I gave a try to both ACPI and APM. Weird things happened. When I use apm I am able to use the i8k tools that give access to the "special keys" of the dell inspiron keyboard. This is important because it's the only way (except by resorting to software) to control the volume of the soundcard (It's pretty awkward when you forget about it and your laptop starts to scream into the plane where everyone else is sleeping and you simply cannot turn it of ;-) ). With APM, no problem, the tools work fine and I can adjust volume control both under the console and X, but the sound keys are not detected by acme. When I enable ACPI, acme can detect the sound keys, so I can control the volume of the soundcard uner gnome, but under gnome only ! the i8k tools are ineffective. I do not understand. Should I initiate a new thread to deal with this problem ? c) Kernel internals : There is something I still do not understand : what is the difference between the ACPI drivers and the CPU frequency scaling options of the kernel ? Again, thanks to everyone for the answers. One last question : do you think it would be usefull if I summed-up (NOT simply concatenate) everything everyone said and posted it on the gentoo forum under the title "Gentoo & laptops" ? Jonathan On Fri, 11 Jul 2003, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > Please excuse the top posting but this email client is awkward. > > I saw a laptop file system shoot-out, unfortunately I've no idea what the > link is but it was high up in google. The guy compared JFS, XFS, Reisier > and the exts. Resiser came out on top for battery life when he ran various > tests, and he didn't use notail or noatime options. So I would go for this > one because I would definitely like the journalling on a laptop, like > Jonathan says. > > Enlightment is my favourite wm but the pager polls the desktops by default > to keep the fancy pager display up to date. This would need to be turned > off for maximum power saving, or could be set so it doesn't update unless > the window is in focus. > > I must try using framebuffer instead of X, didn't know you could do that it > sounds interesting! I love X for networking but I hear that work underway > to create a faster display solution? Is this the way to go? Last I heard > development seemed very fragmented on the alternative to X issue. > > > Barry MacMahon > Develops Web applications at Wellington house, Slough, UK > Tel: +44 1753 216674 > Ext: 274 > > > > > Timo Boettcher > > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Jonathan C." <[EMAIL > PROTECTED]> > cc: > > 11-07-2003 12:27 Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] [DEBATE] > Gentoo on laptops > Please respond to > > gentoo-user > > > > > > > > > > Hi Jonathan, > > Nachricht vom Freitag, 11. Juli 2003, 02:49:14: > > > Hi all, > > > I just wanted to collect some general ideas about how to set up a > > laptop for optimal performance and power savings. Here are a few > > thoughts and questions, if anyone has any comments or answers please > > answer ! > > > 1) Which Filesystem to use ? > > > I think the best filesystem for a laptop is ext2. It does not have a > > journal, which should mean fewer disk accesses hence less power > > consumption. However, it's kind of slow, so I am wondering if reiserfs > > with the notail and noatime options would not be better. > I disagree here. I would use ext3, because of the journal. A laptop is > very rarely used in such stable environment as a desktop, and I would > choose a the additional fs-security over few minutes more runtime > anytime. > But of course I understand your point. > > > 2) Which Window manager to use ? > > > I usually use gnome/metacity as desktop environments, however, I find > > them both power and resource consuming, any suggestions ? > I use Openbox (on my Pentium 75 Notebook with 14MB ram), but any *Box > or Windowmaker, even enlightenment should do. > Here http://www.windowmaker.org/features-performance.html is a nice > comparison between some Windowmanagers. > > > 3) APM or ACPI ? > > > I have tried both and can't make a choice, does anyone have any > > experience to share ? > My Notebook is to old for ACPI *g*. > > > 4) Which kernel to use ? > > > I am a bit lost here, I use the gs-sources because of the cpu speed > > scaling options, but I do not know if this is the best choice. > I use gentoo-sources, but don't ask me why. I couldn't give a solid > reason. > > > 5) Framebuffer or not ? > > > Is framebuffer power consuming ? > I would choose framebuffer over X anytime, because its a lot less > CPU/Memory consuming. I was told that Links and Mplayer run in FB > without problems. > > > > That's all I can think of, > > > Thanks in advance, > > > Jonathan > > > > > > Timo > > > -- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > > > > > > > -- > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > > -- The Shuttle is now going five times the sound of speed. -- Dan Rather, first landing of Columbia
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