Notices

Thanks!
So, if I understand (I have problems with english sometimes ), when I press proposed, apply and store, the settings you propose are store and are apply to my phone, even on a reboot, and they're not shown when I press "current", that's ok?

Hi,
Thanks for your great efforts.
My N900 seems to be much more responsive since using Swappolube.
Even I don't understand most of the settings, I just push the proposed button and then Store button to keep the proposed setting.
Are the proposed settings the best possible?
Is there any way to prevent battery draining so fast when using wireless, GPRS, or listening to music with a bluetooth headset?
Sorry if my questions sound so stupid to you.
I am using the 0.3-4 version.

The first duty of the app is to performance. If you want savings, there are many threads about battery life. Lower CPU clock, disable 3g, bluetooth, lower encryption on wifi, enable power savings, etc.

Agreed. But isn't it better to expand swappolube's ability to powersave, too, while improving performance? If you have to disable those daily useful functions for power saving, I would replace my N900 with a brick

Off-topic: The other option, ofcause, is to wait for Nokia to release the best ever firmware that pleases every N900 user, the PR10.3 or something. When this were out, we would not need swappolube anymore. You would be able to call for days in 3G mode with a single charge. The N900 would have turbo boost technology which would multiple its cortex CPU to be equal with Intel Core i7 when you play SuperTux2 or lower its frequency to zero when you locked the screen and keyboard Who cares about swapolube or kernel power then

@matts76, James_Littler:

thanks to you! so its not a one-hit-KO! solution, i already quit on a first fsck.vfat and reboot and ended up reformatting.

TBH, I didn't want to hijack the thread. Your wifi+BT combo is drainy like heck, and there is little you can do. I'd check the battery threads, there is too little saving to be had by optimizing flushes if you use wifi with WPA. In perspective, swappolube could push 300 hours standby to 301, while heavy wifi would drain you in 4. Hence the issue. The list of drainers in your case far, far outweigh any gains from delayed flushes.

Frankly, you need to rethink your strategy or get a second battery to extend BT headset play from network.

Thanks for the suggestion. I already have a 1500 mA USB Solar charger. Still, a full charge on both does not give me 5 hours of net surfing while listening via bluetooth. Maybe I have to bring along a car's battery in my backpack for the N900 anytime I am on the move

Isn't WiFi and BT being a big battery drain a myth, originated because in the past it used to be true?

You're kidding right?

You do realize those are Radios that transmit and receive?

Get one of the battery utilities and watch what your battery does over 24 hours with these Radios on and off.

Wifi drain is a myth in the sense that people think the radio drains it. At 10 mW, it drains about the size of an LED. It is not a myth in the sense that using it requires the CPU to be up, the math to keep up WPA/2 is quite intense (the major drain in WiFi is the computation). Using wifi to transfer requires several things to be up, network layer, TCP/IP included, driver, daemons that watch on/off, periodic searcing for handover on wifi arrays, etc.

As for BT, same deal, mostly. Lower requirements, but still.

As for our car battery friend, I'd recommens wired headsets, that could cut your usage in half in a best case scenario, and get you a noticeable 20-25 percent in worst case (these are guesses).

Wifi is cooler if the AP supports sleep, but if you trickle data through it (streaming) versus bursts (HTTP), it useless. Also, power save shoukd be maximumin N900 for this to work. Also, open auth and a mac filter is better power but poor security versus WEP/WPA.

Playing from internal memory via wired is gonna save. Pick a minimalist player, like mplayer versus Instinctiv (I have no idea how much each eats, I just picked minimal versus cool).

And remember, the biggest drains in N900 are screen on full, CPU, GPU, WiFi, GPS, BT, roughly in that order. Depends on usage.

For me, I have more that 50 percent increrase in life by browsing at 2/5 light that 4/5 pips in the light setting. More ambient light helps.

So, watch CPU usage in player, get wired headsets, play from eMMC, you should see an increase. As for streaming via WiFi, not much I can recommend. It just plain drains.

And, if all you do is play audio, lower CPU clock, it saves when in low usage. For me, it doesn't work, when I fire it up the CPU shoots as I do intensive stuff. The quicker I'm done, the better. I had better battery at high CPU clock.

Have fun.