# Running Ubuntu in your laptop ? Have a look at these posts



## din (Nov 15, 2007)

This topic is discussed in Ubuntu bug report section, Linux Hero and in Orkut.

Anyway nothing to worry as the solution/details/updates are given by the author himself.

*So here it goes*

A recent bug report for Ubuntu Linux has confirmed that both the Feisty and Gutsy versions of Ubuntu cause some unnecessary wear and tear on a hard drive.

*From same guy
*
EDIT:  This problem seems to be limited to laptop mode.  Read This if you want to see how to tell if you're affected. 

So let me put this out there in capital letters, because I NEVER wanted any semblance of bad publicity for Ubuntu. UBUNTU DOES NOT OVERWORK YOUR HARD DRIVE UNLESS IT IS IN LAPTOP MODE.

*So which articles gives more info and solution ?*

1. *Bug report details*

2. *Explanation of Ubuntu Hard Drive Wear and Tear*

3.*Ubuntu Hard Drive Explosions*

And in my case, the grep ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE /etc/default/acpi-support command returned false  So I guess nothing to worry.

*Solution*

Just a single line edit is the solution ! Isn't it pretty easy and simple ?

So let me put this out there in capital letters, because I NEVER wanted any semblance of bad publicity for Ubuntu. UBUNTU DOES NOT OVERWORK YOUR HARD DRIVE UNLESS IT IS IN LAPTOP MODE.

How can you tell if your machine is in laptop mode? Easy.

Type in terminal

sudo grep ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE /etc/default/acpi-support

If the returned value is false (just like in my case), nothing to worry, no need to change even a single line !

If the returned value is true, your machine is in laptop mode and you may wish to alter your power management settings accordingly. I have not tested this, however I imagine you can choose a less aggressive number in the aforementioned script /etc/acpi/power.sh at the line that reads:
<code>$HDPARM -B 1 /dev/$drive 2>/dev/null</code>

When doing so, keep in mind that 255 completely disables power management, and 1 is the most aggressive setting. Find a happy medium that works for your laptop if you’re interested in striking a balance between battery life and hard drive longevity.


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## praka123 (Nov 15, 2007)

yeah.its posted here already and the problem was(?) for laptop users.


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## din (Nov 15, 2007)

Opps sorry, I saw the discussion in Orkut, but thought no one here knew. Yes, it is for laptops only.


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## gary4gar (Nov 15, 2007)

sigh...
firstly i thought is was for desktops also.
i thought was my unichrome card is giving me a lot of problems and now comes other bug too


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## praka123 (Nov 15, 2007)

@gary:get a nvidia card and give al-vida to these via onboard cr@p


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## RCuber (Nov 15, 2007)

din said:
			
		

> Opps sorry, I saw the discussion in Orkut, but thought no one here knew. Yes, it is for laptops only.



What this is been discussed in Orkut!!! :O .. I thought Orkut was only for flirting ( not me  )

EDIT: ok here is some thing from me .. I use a HP laptop but havent installed any Linux on that it has vista preinstalled. I use Sabayon linux DVD and run it live. everything works just fine.. the problem comes when I try to shutdown... err.. it doesnot shutdown at all .. I have to use the restart option and then manually press powerbutton for 5 seconds for turning off the lappy. Each time I do this .. during next vista boot I get a BSOD .. I still cannot say if the problem is from sabayon. This happens every time when I try to shutdown.


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## din (Nov 15, 2007)

LOL

OK, Orkut has a group, I think Kerala Linux Club. Prakash, myself etc are members. The topic was posted by one of my friends there.


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## kumarmohit (Nov 15, 2007)

Damn, I wanted to install 7.10 on my laptop, guess it would be sabayon then


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## RCuber (Nov 15, 2007)

^^^ mohit .. read the links yar... always understand what the problem is and later decide.. posts here are just guidelines/alerts about the problems.. Even the answer is provided on how to avoid this..


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## din (Nov 15, 2007)

@kumarmohit



			
				din said:
			
		

> Anyway nothing to worry as the solution/details/updates are given by the author himself.
> 
> And in my case, the grep ENABLE_LAPTOP_MODE /etc/default/acpi-support command returned false  So I guess nothing to worry.



The fix (if the above command gives "true" as output) is very very simple and explained in the links. So please go ahead, nothing to worry. I love running Ubuntu in my lappy.


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## praka123 (Nov 15, 2007)

i remember the article somewhere which states this problem will be there for windows series including vista or a mac also! also other Linux distros too.  but will not be noticed or researched by any unlike Linux community which finds such problems.Community rocks!
BTW,thanks for the last link.


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## infra_red_dude (Nov 15, 2007)

Yes, its true all OSs haf this problem. However, the damage depends on the extent to the frequency of read-writes by the OS. Not a problem to worry about. Go ahead and install Ubuntu


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## praka123 (Nov 15, 2007)

^actually it is like {bcoz of hdd manufacturers(?) } do u want better battery life with hdd life reduced or good hdd life with low battery time.  solution is to fiddle with hdparm values.i hope Linux community will come up with some solution as no bios update or nothing of that sort will be supported by h/w people.


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## infra_red_dude (Nov 15, 2007)

Hey using hdparm the APM settings can be set to any value and this solves all the problems, if any


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## din (Nov 16, 2007)

Exactly

hdparm -B 255 /dev/sda

Done !

OK, To avoid further confusion, I am adding the solution (rip off from source -lol) in the first post.


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## kumarmohit (Nov 16, 2007)

din said:
			
		

> @kumarmohit
> 
> 
> 
> The fix (if the above command gives "true" as output) is very very simple and explained in the links. So please go ahead, nothing to worry. I love running Ubuntu in my lappy.



Teh only thing is that I do not want to make the effort, you see

if I can get a ready made solution in Sabayon, why bother!


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## din (Nov 16, 2007)

LOL, ok

I thought you want Ubuntu but worried on this issue.


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## Cyclone (Nov 16, 2007)

Does the same apply for Kubuntu 5.something? I've got a disk of that lying somewhere, i can always install that instead.


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## praka123 (Nov 16, 2007)

^what applies  the problem occurs only if u enable aggressive power management and that is in laptop mode.default install will not have any problems.


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## din (Nov 17, 2007)

@Cyclone

I regret for posting this thread now !!! LOL

I think people get scared and confused. Nothing so serious about it, and evenif the laptop mode is enabled or power management settings is changed, *just a single line command will make it ok* 

So do not worry at all, go ahead and install Ubuntu.


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## gary4gar (Nov 17, 2007)

@Din
I accuse you of misleading people & force them believe that Ubuntu cause wear and tear  HDD's.
Hence you are stopping them to install Linux.
so you you guilty of cheating,lying, 3rd degree fraud,havoc to the online community,knowingly committing crime hereby you are punished under Ubuntu penal code(UPC) of section  6.06,7.04,7.10 which gives you a death sentance but the as you are regret your crime. your punishment is reduced to life sentence.

Whole of your life you will remain in custody of Ubuntu linux.


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## kumarmohit (Nov 17, 2007)

^^ Hey Guyz, If you are fighting coz decided to switch from Ubuntu to Sabayon, please note that Sabayon is a Linux distro based on Gentoo, which is more Linuxy than Debian, on which Ubuntu is based.

OK- Not That I think you guys do not know it, but sorry, couldn't resist!


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## infra_red_dude (Nov 17, 2007)

Hehe.. Gaurish is the new judge at OSS Supreme Court! 

Nothing to worry guys. Its not a problem


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## praka123 (Nov 17, 2007)

Debian base is better any time.but thats my personal opin  
hence Ubuntu too!bcoz of ubuntu,ubuntuforum gaves ur most linux problems an answer.the community everything rocks!Ubuntu made a change in linux world.admit that.


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## kumarmohit (Nov 17, 2007)

Hey I said Gentoo is more linuxy, not better. I think both are at par when it comes to all the concepts of being a better OS


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## rohandhruva (Nov 18, 2007)

@Din,

Thank you for spreading absolutely snip. Why don't you do some REASEARCH before copy pasting your senseless crap here in the forums, hence discouraging the few users who are migrating to linux ? 

This problem is *NOT* CAUSED BY, AND *NOT* LIMITED TO *UBUNTU* ! This problem affects all other distros, and *windows*, this is a hard drive and laptop MANUFACTURER problem ! 

Please read *mjg59.livejournal.com/77672.html for proper information, and Din, use *GOOGLE* to verify "facts" before posting !


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## mehulved (Nov 18, 2007)

rohandhruva please mind your language, this isn't the first time you're doing it.


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## rohandhruva (Nov 18, 2007)

mehulved said:
			
		

> rohandruhava please mind your language, this isn't the first time you're doing it.



Hard to do .. It irritates me when people spread FUD without researching .. It takes a few minutes to verify a story, before posting. And you can see for yourself what negative effect it had !

Anyway, I'm sorry. 
Also, please copy paste the nick name, if you can't spell it right. Thank you.


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## kumarmohit (Nov 18, 2007)

Hmm if this is with all ditros guess it wud be BSD variant then!

LOL no guyz, I think that I shud research in this matter myself before I do anything else


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## gary4gar (Nov 18, 2007)

Damm..if thing if going else where
i was joking, sorry din if it hurt you


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## din (Nov 19, 2007)

rohandhruva said:
			
		

> @Din,
> Thank you for spreading absolutely snip. Why don't you do some REASEARCH before copy pasting your senseless crap here in the forums, hence discouraging the few users who are migrating to linux ?


Sir, I am new to Ubuntu linux but neither I am  new to Linux nor I am new to forum etiquettes. I made it very clear in the first post itself, my other posts also (self explanatory) shows what I meant. And above all, other members in this forum know me for some time, and if that is not enough, any admin / mod can delete my threads and I will never question it or fight over it (if what I am posting is crap)! 

I have the source link, details, solution, the author's explanation - everything in the post. That is called spreading FUD ? Sorry sir, I do not understand your logic. Anyway, I am not going to divert this thread, so please come back to the topic.

And I installed Ubuntu in my laptop before posting this and I mentioned it in my first post itself. Still you think I am against Lin or Ubuntu sir ?

And sir, please have a look at *this post* (from same thread)


			
				gary4gar said:
			
		

> @Din
> I accuse you of misleading people & force them believe that Ubuntu cause wear and tear  HDD's.
> 
> Whole of your life you will remain in custody of Ubuntu linux.
> ...



LOL, c'mon man. We know each other ! I never took / take it seriously. But I accept your order  Coz I started loving Ubuntu ! Man, i am getting addict !!!!

So updates ?

1. I could configure tata indicom USB modem in Ubuntu very easily.

2. I could configure Airtel MO+ SE phone in Ubuntu very easily.

3. I could run Dreamweaver in Ubuntu very easily.

4. Ubuntu detects my Canon S3 and transfers photos instantly !! Man, this is amazing.

5. Wireless works great in Ubuntu, I am using Dataone (using wireless router) in Ubuntu.

6. Pidgin (now don't call me pig-Din !!!) works great and it will do my messenger needs.

7. Going to try LAMP, and I am sure it will work great.

Ubuntu addicts, count me in, I can't resist ! May be I will write a book - De-Addicton from Ubuntu - LOL, but less chance as I do not think I will get de-addicted from Ubuntu in the near future


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## FilledVoid (Nov 19, 2007)

> Ubuntu addicts, count me in, I can't resist ! May be I will write a book - De-Addicton from Ubuntu - LOL, but less chance as I do not think I will get de-addicted from Ubuntu in the near future



Yay ! Another person joining the revolution  . Im enjoying Ubuntu as well. If you manage to get a Nokia Cell Phone to work with it please let me know how.


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## praka123 (Nov 19, 2007)

^tried gnokii?


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## FilledVoid (Nov 19, 2007)

Yes, gnokii , obexfs, wammu, syncMl so far. Nokia 6681 is becoming a pain lol.


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## rohandhruva (Nov 19, 2007)

@Din,

Please don't tell me sir, it makes me feel old  
BTW, let me tell you I'm not a mad flamer or anything .. It's just that you specifically mentioned ubuntu .. You could've just mentioned that the problem affects linux and windows or so .. Anyway, sorry for being too harsh and rude, I hope there are no hard feelings !


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## din (Nov 19, 2007)

@rohandhruva

LOL, no hard feelings at all 

And to be frank, sorry ! I called you sir just coz of making fun ! Ane yes, I also fall in the 'uncles' category in this forum 

I mentioned Ubuntu coz the news I saw was about it. But from the first post (and in every post), I made it very clear that it is not a serious issue, there is solution etc. 

And finally - I am an ILUG (Cochin, Kerala) member for the last 6 yrs. I always support Linux and Open Source. Only thing is I do not get much time to experiment on Lin 

Ok, back to topic


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## infra_red_dude (Nov 21, 2007)

din said:
			
		

> 6. Pidgin (now don't call me *pig-Din* !!!) works great and it will do my messenger needs.


This is not fair. This is absolutely not fair!!!! You keep chocolates in front of us and ask us not to touch it??!!!   pig-Din!!! haha.... 

Coming back to the topic: This issue was there in Fiesty kernel too. If anyone follows the ubuntuforums.org they'll recall the long threads there regarding this thing. However, its not a major issue. Just makes you more paranoid about nothing!


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## vish786 (Nov 21, 2007)

@the end, does this problem really exist, do we need to do "the solution" wat din has giving for lappies.


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## infra_red_dude (Nov 21, 2007)

Only if the load cycle count rate increases astronomically.


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## bikdel (Nov 21, 2007)

OFFTOPIC

@ din... your avatar fantasizes me.. rather humours me  .. mind giding a clarification? lolz...

Ontopic : So this is the case will all laptop hardware isnt it? I mean i have a really old lappy... Celeron 1 Gig, 256 MB RAM, SiS 630 GFX, 40 GB ... so should i take some small precautions.. like not running it in 'laptop' power option ??


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## din (Nov 22, 2007)

@bikdel

lol, man, do not fantasise over the avtar, theres a secret  My avtar is in love with another avtar in this forum !! Not me (I am already married lol), just my avtar. But my avtar is lil shy and do not want to reveal it rt now, so I will keep it in suspense.

*Back to topic*

No, not all laptops shows that. And evenif it shows, you can very easily change it. Refer the first post, the source, infra's post etc and you will see how simple and easy it is. So never worry, no precautions at all, go ahead and install it.


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