Buying a laptop - used

[Ian Smith]

On Sun, 1 Feb 2015 21:14:58 -1000, parv wrote:
 > in message <20150201154129.J14378 at sola.nimnet.asn.au>,
 > wrote Ian Smith thusly...
 > >
 > 
 > Hi Ian,

Aloha parv!

 > > On Sat, 31 Jan 2015 04:51:30 -1000, Parv wrote:
 > ...
 > >  > I am currently using a used Lenovo Thinkpad X200 with FreeBSD
 > >  > 8. I have not tried using or setting at all any suspend-resume
 > >  > setting. A 9-celll battery ([0], "47++", apparently bought new
 > >  > about 2-3 years ago along with the 'puter) lasts for 4.5 hours.
 > >
 > > I bought a used X200 a year ago without AC adaptor or battery, so
 > > bought it a new 6-cell battery (47+) and 65W P/S (about AU$150).
 > > Using powerd - but not p4tcc or acpi_throttle - it runs almost 6
 > > hours on battery just idling and over 4 hours with moderate use,
 > 
 > Sweet, Ian! Which version of FreeBSD are you running? 8-STABLE is on
 > my X200 for now; have been thinking (for a while) to update to
 > 10-STABLE.

Presently 9.3-R sources, GENERIC plus a couple of patches and 9.2-R xorg 
and ports; too busy with other projects to update it and it's not broke.

 > > so your 9-cell battery may be getting a bit old, and/or you
 > > haven't optimised power usage?
 > 
 > No, I have not used any power related things in FreeBSD itself. I do
 > have BIOS setup to maximum performance when connected to AC power;
 > optimize battery otherwise. One thing I am not sure is what happens
 > when booted up on battery & some time later connect to AC, and vice
 > versa.

Below I'll include a small script that shows what's going on in that 
respect.  I don't think the BIOS AC/battery performance settings have 
any effect at all in FreeBSD, but this script will tell you for sure.

 > In any case I will try powered, and possibly other things.

https://wiki.freebsd.org/TuningPowerConsumption is a good place to 
start.  Alexander goes to extremes - and doubles battery life - but the 
big ones are running powerd to only rev up the CPU/s when needed, and 
allowing use of C2 and C3 power states, which work reliably on these.

In /boot/loader.conf:

acpi_ibm_load="YES"
hint.p4tcc.0.disabled=1
hint.acpi_throttle.0.disabled=1

This allows EST to run the CPUs at 800, 1600, 2400 & '2401' (turbo) MHz, 
where CPU power consumption is fairly proportional to frequency.  Using 
p4tcc or acpi_throttle provides many more rates down to 100MHz, but they 
don't reduce power consumption, make powerd work slower and harder while 
shuffling frequency, and are removed as defaults from -CURRENT we hear.

In /etc/rc.conf:

performance_cx_lowest=C3	# you can use "Cmax" here, same on X200
economy_cx_lowest=C3
powerd_enable="YES"
powerd_flags="-a adp -b adp -i 70 -r 90"

Those powerd settings are you might say 'non-aggressive', only boosting 
speed on fairly high demand.  Lots of fun tuning these to your workload.

 > > After a problem that affected many/most modern T and X series
 > > Lenovos regarding losing external USB ports on resume was resolved
 > > last year, suspend and resume work flawlesly; they're really nice
 > > little machines.
 > 
 > Good to hear. Would that be suspend-to-RAM?

Yes, FreeBSD doesn't do suspend to disk (ACPI state S4) unless BIOS 
supports it and none do these days, to my knowledge.  I haven't done any 
real tests, but suspect the X200 would run for a week in S3 suspend (if 
you don't charge your mobile from its USB ports while suspended :)

 > > Arnab may not wish to buy anything as old as an X200 (C.2008),
 > 
 > Oh, I remembered later somebody was running FreeBSD 11 on Macbook
 > Pro 2011 ...
 > 
 >   http://blog.foxkit.us/2015/01/freebsd-on-apple-macbook-pro-82-now.html?spref=tw

That and its previous episode are really good posts for Mac people 
considering FreeBSD.  If my daughter would only let me play with hers :)
 
These also needed an ACPI fix mostly affecting HP laptops that's just 
been committed to 9 & 10 regarding reporting of AC/battery states etc.

 > > but could likely pick up an X210/220/230, or the larger
 > > T410/420/430 models at a good price.
 > 
 > Sure. (I am also looking for another one, this time much lighter
 > than X200. Is Thinkpad X1 Carbon II any lighter, I wonder.)

I expect so.  And I expect they may work with 9.x and 10.x by now, 
there's been some good ACPI and video stuff MFC'd lately I gather.
 
  https://wiki.freebsd.org/Laptops/Thinkpad_X1_Carbon

Also - though out of date re Lenovo problems having dead USB on resume:

  https://wiki.freebsd.org/SuspendResume
 
 > > Very latest models may still have some issues with video?
 > 
 > Well, somebody had reported success|progress with Intel i915 on
 > 11-CURRENT (and somebody else had working suspend-resume with
 > "recent HEAD" on X230) ...
 > 
 >   https://twitter.com/etnapierala/status/561500382850215936

I can't keep track of it at all nowadays .. but I don't think you need 
to run -CURRENT except perhaps newest laptops with latest chipsets, and 
except perhaps for the latest wireless work, lacking helpers to MFC it.

cheers, Ian

Oh yes, scripts; I use this one often:
% cat /root/bin/x200stat
#!/bin/sh
t="	"
echo -n "`date` "
sysctl dev.cpu.0.freq
echo "`sysctl -n dev.cpu.0.cx_usage` $t `sysctl -n vm.loadavg`"
echo "`sysctl -n dev.cpu.1.cx_usage` $t { `sysctl -n kern.eventtimer.timer` }"
sysctl dev.acpi_ibm | egrep 'fan_|thermal'
sysctl hw.acpi.thermal.tz0.temperature
sysctl hw.acpi.thermal.tz1.temperature
acpiconf -i0 | egrep 'State|Remain|Present|Volt'

And also added to /etc/devd.conf

notify 10 {
        match "system"          "ACPI";
        match "subsystem"       "CMBAT";
        action                  "/root/bin/acpi_cmbat $notify";
};

% cat /root/bin/acpi_cmbat
#!/bin/sh
#% acpi_cmbat 27/6/14 for CMBAT notifies.  from /etc/rc.d/power_profile
LOGGER="logger -t acpi_cmbat -p daemon.notice"
notify=$1
${LOGGER} "CMBAT notify = $1"
#% 27/10/14 logs at 3%, 20%, 80% and discharging, high & charging states
/root/bin/x200stat >> /root/acpi_cmbat_events.log
echo "CMBAT status: notify = $1" >> /root/acpi_cmbat_events.log
exit 0