# *inux nerds/admins here please

## punter

folks,

so if u have a linux box and u want it to be up 24/7,

how would you configure it to minimize power consumption when idle (ie to reduce cpu clock cycles, turn hard-disk off, etc)

My hardware in case of relevency is

CPU: AMP 1.4GHz Thunderbird

Motherboard: ASUS

I presume ppl who are gonna be replying to this are the ones who have pc or servers running 24/7 themselves (ie nerds) so please phrase it in simple terms, approachable by a normal linux user.

thanks

Shane

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## zleepy

You might want to have a look at the -S option for hdparm

This sets hda in standby after 60sec

```

hdparm -S 12 /dev/hda

```

man hdparm for more details

About CPU and other stuff i dunno.

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## sa

HA HA, nice title.

You might want to look into running apmd or acpid, depending on which your motherboard supports.

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## Zippy

I just used the motherboard bios to power down the HDDs after 5 mins...

Works a treat  :Smile: 

As for slowing down the cpu, is it really going to reduce your electricity bill THAT much? hehe!   :Razz: 

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## drakonite

How do you get the hard drive suspend to work? Mine never shuts off. I can manually put it to sleep, but it will wake right back up after a couple seconds. I don't think I have constant hard drive usage...

*edit* I mean standby, not sleep... hehe... sleep completly shuts off the hard drive and that causes some problems  :Wink: 

*edit #2* hmm... nevermind, I just tried it again and for some reason it's doing the same thing for sleep as it does for suspend now...

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## sisyphus

Drakonite.

You'll probably find that you've got more disk activity than you think. If your machine is on a net and running anything that listens on the net, you can bet that they're gonna write a log once in a while.

If it's not logging, it's a cron job waking up or an interactive process that needs to dick with the disk.

journaling FS' seem to interfere quite frequently as well.

Linux just seems too chatty for power management.

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## drakonite

 *sisyphus wrote:*   

> Drakonite.
> 
> You'll probably find that you've got more disk activity than you think. If your machine is on a net and running anything that listens on the net, you can bet that they're gonna write a log once in a while.
> 
> If it's not logging, it's a cron job waking up or an interactive process that needs to dick with the disk.
> ...

 

Thanks. Linux doesn't seem to chatter as much as Windows does... Or atleast it spreads it out so you can't even notice it...  I know it's not cron jobs and nothing I have on the web would be writing log files that often (when I force it to suspend it wakes back up within 5 secs)

You are probably right about the journaling.  That's probably what is causing it, especially since that is the only thing that would be bypassing the disk cache out of those things.

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## Matje

You could, when not using your computer for some time,   :Shocked:   :Shocked:  shutdown -h now   :Shocked:   :Shocked:  ...

* runs away chased by angry mob  :Laughing:   :Laughing: 

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## drakonite

 *Matje wrote:*   

> You could, when not using your computer for some time,    shutdown -h now    ...
> 
> * runs away chased by angry mob  

 

 :Surprised:    YOU CAN DO THAT!?!?!???

....

Actually I've just found it soo much more convenient to leave my computer on 24/7...  It's also much easier for my gf to send me a message and wake me up when my computers on... When it's off it doesn't make much noise  :Wink: 

I just wish I could make the hard drive be quiet...

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## Matje

Mine is on 24/5 too (in the weekends I'm @ home, not at the place where I study  :Smile:  ) I would shut it down at night, but I just can't fall asleep without some music on, and since the only thing I have here that actually produces sound is my computer, I have no choice  :Smile: 

You can always silence your hard drive the hard way  :Smile:  Just google a bit on silencing computers, you'll be surprised what you'll find  :Smile: 

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## Craigo

I got 2 machines running in this room and they are fairly quiet..... at least I turn off my hearing aids at night before going to bed ;P

-/Craigo/-

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## Mitchybums

I got my server running in the bedroom, and since it's always downloading, the hd would only use more power going on and off, it depends on your use.

I did bought a SBC isa board with a celeron 433 on it last week ( should be here tomor, and if it works, I can put it in my server as an extra (low power computer) and use little more for 2 machines.

it already has 2 harddrives, so it would only take more for the board itself.

the noise is something to get used to, but the fridge that I use as a nightstand next to my bed makes more noise, lol

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## Craigo

Basically just put the server somewhere else in the house like in a cupboard or something. Get a really long network cable as well. The only real time, you going to attend to it is for hardware upgrades/problems.

-/Craigo/-

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## digitalnick

I have my server in a kitchen cabinet.  i wired in another phone line and electrical outlet straight into the cabinet so my server, dsl modem, wifi ap, switch, can all fit in nicly together. Faced the server with the back tward the door so its easy to plug in a monitor and keyboard if something rally gets fubar and i need physical access. Mostly i just forget its there until i open the cabinet door and a huge wave of hot air rushes out  :Razz: 

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## Craigo

Consider drilling some holes in there or some mini air condition  :Wink: 

-/Craigo/-

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## digitalnick

yeh actually im working on a venting system to vent the heat into the main intake vent so that should help.

might help cut down on heating costs in the winter too i know my dual 2100 mp relly heats my room about 5-8 degrees as since its down ow my room feels like an ice cube  :Razz: 

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## zhenlin

I hope that's not a wooden cupboard, I've seen nasty stories about how wood/water absords 2.4GHz signals. Speaking of which, is 802.11g 2.4Ghz or 5GHz, or both? I would think it's the former considering it is compatible with 802.11a, but there is quite a bit of wood in the house so I need to know where to put an AP if I ever get around to buying one...

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## drakonite

 *zhenlin wrote:*   

> I hope that's not a wooden cupboard, I've seen nasty stories about how wood/water absords 2.4GHz signals. Speaking of which, is 802.11g 2.4Ghz or 5GHz, or both? I would think it's the former considering it is compatible with 802.11a, but there is quite a bit of wood in the house so I need to know where to put an AP if I ever get around to buying one...

 

Don't quote me on this... But is 802.11g the one that is capable of both wavelengths?  I could just be going insane on this one, but I remember hearing about how a new one coming out is supposed to handle both...

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## fleed

I think that 802.11g runs on 2.4Ghz but has the same bandwidth as 802.11a, 54Mbps. Since it's on the same frequency as 802.11b, most if not all 802.11g devices should be able to talk to 802.11b ones albeit not at the high speed. I've seen a few devices which can talk in both 802.11a and 802.11g (or b) but I think they're not that widespread.

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## digitalnick

yeah the access point covers everywhere i need to go in myhouse and ill probabbly build an antenna to boost the signal aroundthe bockso i can sell it off  :Razz: )

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## Craigo

I'm still a little bit of a newbie on the wireless networking.. could someone point me to some really good websites so I can quickly gain some useful knowledge?

I would have thought that using wireless networking means can be accessed _anywhere_ within the signal range?

-/Craigo/-

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## drakonite

 *fleed wrote:*   

> I think that 802.11g runs on 2.4Ghz but has the same bandwidth as 802.11a, 54Mbps. Since it's on the same frequency as 802.11b, most if not all 802.11g devices should be able to talk to 802.11b ones albeit not at the high speed. I've seen a few devices which can talk in both 802.11a and 802.11g (or b) but I think they're not that widespread.

 

Hmm.. I must have been thinking of product.

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## squanto

back to 24/7 uptimes, try running SETI, as then your cpu won't be lonely.  :Mr. Green: 

As far as power savings goes, just not running anything hard core while it sits is probably the safest way to conserve power.

Go with a lower core voltage and underclock your chip to save on power and don't put anything in the box that it doesn't need, such as extra cd roms (if a server don't put any cd roms in it) or extra hard drives, limit fans to one or two and purchase a high quality power supply.  Just cause a power supply says it pushes 400watts doesn't mean it consumes more power than one that pushes 200watts, as that is just their max load.

Take out all pci / agp cards that aren't necessary and you should be on your way to a lower powered box.  If you have the money, spring for a transmetta based or via C3 product, although they are slower, they consume much less power.

btw, why is power consumption so valuable? solar and battery powered house?

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## Craigo

If you really want a better solution, then get a mini itx. They are really neat to have. I got the EPIA VIA C3 800 along with a 80 gig Maxtor 8mb cache hdd. Real speedy and it is quick enough for a server! Something worth considering.

And if that is not enough, it is running Gentoo Linux which gave it that extra speed boost thanks to mjc-sources patch  :Wink: 

-/Craigo/-

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