Powersave mode extrem

[ikoz]

Just to clarify what the scaling governor is because there is some confusion that it magically improves battery life: The scaling governor (as I had already said in a post some years ago) essentially doesn't allow the CPU to increase its frequency and thus saves power. Note that performance doesn't scale linearly with frequency so the processor is most power efficient during low frequencies. However, while the device is idle, an optimized OS does many other things including changing the governor to save power like disabling the performance cores. So, any benefits should be observed only while using the phone, unless of course the port is not optimized at all.

[Linus67]

Two days ago, I charged a Pixel 3a (24.04-1.3 rc) to 90%. It is now still at 37%. The scaling governor is active. This reduces power consumption to 22mA. When the scaling governor is not active, power consumption drops to only ~240mA

The device can receive calls and text messages. The alarm clock works too. (Nokia 3210 mode

The same behavior on my daily-use Pixel 3a. Without using Wi-Fi, the battery lasts at least 2 days.

I’ve tried to build a script that turns off Wi-Fi when the screen is turned off and keeps the scaling governor always on for all cores. Unfortunately, without success so far. It should be a solution that still works even after an update. I currently don’t see any loss of functionality.

[Linus67]

I found the reason for my increased battery drain when using Wi-Fi.
On January 26, 2026, I installed an app called "UB Connect" from the OpenStore. ubconnect
I uninstalled it shortly after. The app wasn't uninstalled cleanly, and a ubconnect.daemon.service remained in the system.
Whenever Wi-Fi was turned on, this daemon would automatically start, but it failed because the app was missing. This prevented Ubuntu Touch from going into power-saving mode after the screen was turned off.

After uninstalling and deleting all leftover files from the ubconnect app, Ubuntu Touch goes back into power-saving mode with Wi-Fi on, and the battery consumption is minimal like with mobile data.

[Moem]

@Linus67 said:

leftover files from the ubconnect app,

Where did you find these files please? I may have a similar situation.

[uxes]

@Moem you might wanna know that more applications does this daemon copy thing and after uninstall the service is there https://codeberg.org/tautologia/ubconnect/src/branch/master/ubconnect/daemon/install.sh
for example that smartwatch app

[Moem]

@uxes Thank you for the hint... I took a leap of faith and ran systemctl --user stop ubconnect-daemon.service and got a command prompt... no errors. I took this as encouragement and ran systemctl --user disable ubconnect-daemon.service and it told me something with UBconnect in it was removed. I think that was probably useful!

As for smartwatch apps, I'm still using those, so they can stay.

[Linus67]

@Moem

I was monitoring the journal with “sudo journalctl -f” while I turned the Wi-Fi on and off. I noticed that when turning on the Wi-Fi, a connection attempt by the daemon fails.

sudo journalctl -f
Mai 20 19:14:25 ubuntu-phablet systemd[2850]: ubconnect-daemon.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILUREMai 20 19:14:25 ubuntu-phablet systemd[2850]: ubconnect-daemon.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.Mai 20 19:14:30 ubuntu-phablet systemd[2850]: ubconnect-daemon.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 89.Mai 20 19:14:30 ubuntu-phablet systemd[2850]: Started ubconnect-daemon.service - UB Connect Daemon.Mai 20 19:14:30 ubuntu-phablet aa-exec[5041]: [5041] aa-exec: ERROR: Failed to execute "/opt/click.ubuntu.com/ubconnect/current/usr/bin/ubconnect-daemon": No such file or directoryMai 20 19:14:30 ubuntu-phablet systemd[2850]: ubconnect-daemon.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILUREMai 20

[gpatel-fr]

@uxes

dekko does it too.
IIRC every app that is installing a systemd service I have looked at don't remove it when uninstalled.

[Moem]

@Linus67 said:

I was monitoring the journal with “sudo journalctl -f” while I turned the Wi-Fi on and off.

Thank you! That's a bit above my paygrade.

[Linus67]

@Moem
As @uxes wrote

Run the following commands in the Terminal.

systemctl --user stop ubconnect-daemon.service
systemctl --user disable ubconnect-daemon.service
rm -f ~/.config/systemd/user/ubconnect-daemon.service
systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user status ubconnect-daemon.service

result:

Unit ubconnect-daemon.service could not be found.

[Moem]

@Linus67 As I said, the first two were what I did, after figuring out they might be helpful.
Can I be a little proud of myself for figuring that out? I'm not a terminal user at all.

[Moem]

@Linus67 said:

rm -f ~/.config/systemd/user/ubconnect-daemon.service

Thanks to this hint, I knew where to find it and removed it using the file manager.
All clear now!

The advantage of using the GUI in this case was that it showed me what else lived there. There was another daemon that was no longer needed. So that was helpful.

[uxes]

@gpatel-fr yes that is just missing thing of click packages since they don’t have some kind of postinstall and postuninstall hooks to insert and remove those systemd services

[gpatel-fr]

@uxes

It's a feature, taken from the click documentation:

4.3.2 Specification
• Only system packages (i.e. .debs) may declare hooks. Click packages must be declarativeinclude code executed outside AppArmor confinement, which precludes declaring hooks.

[Linus67]

@Moem If you're still experiencing increased battery drain when using Wi-Fi,
go to Wi-Fi -> Network Settings -> Saved Networks and tap “Forget” to remove all saved networks. Then reconnect to your home Wi-Fi network.

I also had a few stale connections here—sometimes even two Wi-Fi icons in the status bar.

[Moem]

@Linus67 said:

If you're still experiencing increased battery drain when using Wi-Fi,
go to Wi-Fi -> Network Settings -> Saved Networks and tap “Forget” to remove all saved networks.

Thanks... the truth of the matter is that I've just migrated to a different device. So there are no saved networks. But also I don't know the state of my current battery.

[Linus67]

@Moem
After clearing the saved Wi-Fi connections, power consumption is minimal.

[moodroid]

@Linus67 so what was the conclusion here for light users? Powersave or scaling? Suspension setting on or off? Thanks

[Linus67]

@moodroid The “Prevent background suspension” setting should be set to OFF. As described in the Ubuntu Touch Wiki.

By “Power Save,” I mean the following:

1. Set CPU cores to half load
2. Turn off Wi-Fi
3. Turn off mobile data
4. Turn off Bluetooth
5. Turn off location services
6. Enable 2G (optional)

With these settings, the device enters deep sleep mode and consumes less than 22 mA. (1-2% battery consumption at night) If this is not the case, you will need to check for faulty services or configurations that are preventing deep sleep mode. In my case, I created a script with a log file that records the power consumption of the idle device in a text file. It was always over 200 mA. Only after cleaning up faulty services linked to installations did the consumption drop to ~22 mA.

The battery on my 9-year-old Pixel 3a now lasts about 4 days with moderate use. I call it “NOKIA 3210 mode.” You can be reached via text and phone for days on a single battery charge. If needed, you can also take pictures, check emails and calendar events, send texts, or make calls, and all other features of a modern smartphone are available. (Navigation, internet, NextCloud, cloud music...)

[moodroid]

@Linus67 thanks - that’s great. So when you say set cpu cores to half load, how do I do that? Is that the powersave governor?