Linux distro with power saving features? Solved

[fs5]

I have a personal file server running red hat (yeah I know...), it doesn't seem to have any power saving features. Is there a power saving linux distro?

All of my hds are on ext3 which I hear is a bad choice because it writes to the system every couple mins? 😕

 

[DasFox]

fs5, there is no such thing. All hardware compatibility in Linux comes from the kernel and all Linux distros all have the same features when it comes to power savings, well almost as long as they are all using the same versions of Kernels or close to it, which most newer versions are using 2.6x something.

Since you are running RedHat and asking this question, it doesn't sound like you've ever compiled your kernel.
Most likely since you're running RH, you have all the options compiled in the kernel, but this is what you need to check first.

You need to open up a kernel and look under:

Power management options (ACPI, APM) --->

You'll want [*] Power Management support compiled in:

"Power Management" means that parts of your computer are shut
off or put into a power conserving "sleep" mode if they are not
being used. There are two competing standards for doing this: APM
and ACPI. If you want to use either one, say Y here and then also
to the requisite support below.

What you have asked for is typical, with new users to Linux that are not aware, that ALL hardware support and features come from Kernel support and what you may of seen of in the past, with some sort of GUI working with hardware support is that, this software was just a frontend of sorts to the kernel is all, allowing a simpler way of working those feartures, but you stil need to have the kernel support compiled into the kernel.

Then you need power daemons running in the background such as APMD:

http://www.worldvisions.ca/~apenwarr/apmd/

I suggest, like I tell other people in here that need Linux support, going about it in a forum is the wrong way, you will always end up with one thing fixed then another problem later that needs solving.

I've run Linux for 7 years and I know what I'm saying and that is, if you need help SEEK it on IRC.

Use IRC and chat on ---> irc.freenode.net and join the #redhat channel, but at least now you have some direction as to what you need and that is the kernel support.

ALOHA 😉

 

[cleverhandle]

Unless your file server is a laptop running on battery power, I wouldn't waste your time. An idling machine is barely taking up any power, especially if it's headless or has the monitor turned off.

 

[fs5]

Originally posted by: cleverhandle
Unless your file server is a laptop running on battery power, I wouldn't waste your time. An idling machine is barely taking up any power, especially if it's headless or has the monitor turned off.

well it's not really the power, it's the noise =/ and thanks for the advice DasFox

 

[cleverhandle]

Ah... in that case, check out the man page for hdparm. I don't think you even need apmd or acpid just to set spindown timeouts, that's only to talk to the drives when you're suspending the whole machine. If you just want to drives to spin down after 5 minutes or whatever, hdparm should be all you need.

 

[Nothinman]

I don't know if RH/FC packages them, but look for the laptop-mode packages.

If you just want to drives to spin down after 5 minutes or whatever, hdparm should be all you need.

It'll never spindown because ext3 flushes metadata every ~5s by default.

 

[fs5]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I don't know if RH/FC packages them, but look for the laptop-mode packages.

If you just want to drives to spin down after 5 minutes or whatever, hdparm should be all you need.

It'll never spindown because ext3 flushes metadata every ~5s by default.

How about ext2? What are the disadvantages of ext2 over 3? And also can I inplace downgrade to ext2?

 

[Nothinman]

Downgrading to ext2 requires a little work, you might be able to just use 'tune2fs -O ^has_journal' to remove the journal support. I would then suggest running e2fsck across the volume before mounting it, just in case.

But it's not worth it, the journaling in ext3 is more than worth it and you should be able to get the drive to spindown if you use the laptop-mode package.

 

[fs5]

Solution found!
installed Ubuntu (kubuntu actually), downloaded http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsamwel/smart_spindown/ ; worked like a charm. Now my file server is very quiet.

Spindown @ 2 hours for all 6 drives, no spindown on hda 🙂