KPowersave Walkthrough

For : Mepis Linux 6 Final  |  Mepis 6.5 Betas

by : je.saist


This guide walks through the KPowersave application included in Mepis Linux. KPowersave helps manage the power states of laptop computers offering controls to throttle the speed of the processor, the memory, as well as capabilities to dim the laptop screen.  KPowersave also incorporates pop-up notifications to display the state of the power cord and remaining battery life. The idea is that by setting specific power settings the average battery life can be extended.  The capabilities of KPowersave, however, are not available on all laptops.

This Guide was tested on

Clevo D900T  |  Gateway Solo 3540  |  Sager Model 2TC

Part 1 : KPowersave walkthrough  |  Part 2 : CPU Frequency Policy

1: Our relatively stock desktop is below.

In the Lower Right Hand corner we should see an icon that looks like an Electrical Plug.





2: Moving the Mouse over the Plug Icon brings up a notification that this laptop is

Plugged in -- fully charged





3: Right Clicking on the Plug Icon brings up the Context Menu





4: Left Click on Configure KPowersave





5: KPowersave has different settings : Acoustic  |  Performance  |  Powersave  |  Presentation

Currently, we are on Performance, under the Screen Saver and DPMS options.

On the page we can change our standby, suspend, and Power Off Display options for our LCD Panel.  We can also set options for our Screensaver.





6: Left Click on Brightness

This is where the screen display brightness can be controlled in software without setting a specific power state.  

This Feature May or May Not be Supported on your Laptop.
As shown below, this Intel based system does not support this feature.





7: Left Click on Autosuspend

Setting this option to active will suspend the computer after a certain amount of time, as well as allowing users to choose which type of Suspend to use.

This Feature May or May Not be Supported on your Laptop.
As shown below, this Intel based system does support this feature.





8: Finally, under Miscellaneous we have our option to turn Notifications Off.





9: Going back to Screen Saver and DPMS





KPowersave supports 4 different Power states : Acoustic  |  Performance  |  Powersave |  Presentation
These power states change the default actions and times on KPowersaves actions

10: Left Click on Powersave

We can see that our Standby, Suspend, and Power Off times have dropped dramatically.





11: Left Clicking on Acoustic gives another set of times, as will Presentation.





12: Okay, Left Click on General Settings

Here we have options to lock the screen, change our suspend blacklist, and configure pop-up notifications.





13: Lock screen before suspend or standby has a few options available.

If you are not sure what to use, leave Select Automatically checked.
That Completes the walkthrough of the basic screens inside KPowersave.
From here on we'll be looking at how KPowersave operates.

14: Unplug the power cord from the laptop

There should be a notification in the Lower Right Hand Corner.





15: If we go into our Context Menu again, and back to Configure KPowersave





16: We should find that KPowersave is running in Powersave

In the lower right hand corner, we should also see a battery icon





17: Plug the power cord back in

Another notification should show in the lower right hand corner.





18: Now the Plug Icon should show with a Colored bar to indicate Battery Level





19: Check Configure Kpowersave again





20: And the system is back in Performance





21: Okay, we are done with the Settings, so go ahead and Close Out.





Turn to Part 2 for the CPU Frequency Policy