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    [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE

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      • Y Offline
        Yoni @c4pp4
        last edited by

        @c4pp4
        That is very strange, turning off cellular data should save battery by reducing the amount of outgoing radio transmitions, therefore what you are describing is contrary to all of the tests I had made on every OS, are you able to check that cellular data is actually turned off in 4G?

        ? c4pp4C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • ? Offline
          A Former User @Yoni
          last edited by

          This seems to be a fine thing . Could one also execute VoLte with this script, of which I have no idea? The creation should not be a problem I think. But I'd better be careful before UT crashes again.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • c4pp4C Offline
            c4pp4 @Yoni
            last edited by

            @yoni Yes, there is no connection in Morph.

            Y 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Y Offline
              Yoni @c4pp4
              last edited by

              @c4pp4
              It just doesn't make sense. Could there be a script that turns it back on when you lock the phone?

              c4pp4C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • c4pp4C Offline
                c4pp4 @Yoni
                last edited by

                @yoni I'm not expert but I can imagine ubuntu system don't turn off cellular data on android side, so there is no connection within ubuntu, but there is connection in android layer.

                D Y 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • D Offline
                  domubpkm @c4pp4
                  last edited by

                  @c4pp4 I'm not an expert too but maybe a total reflash (wipe option) of the smartphone and a reinstallation on a totally clean base would help so as to confirm or not your problem. In any case, in my case I had to do this several times and it solved some instabilities.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Y Offline
                    Yoni @c4pp4
                    last edited by

                    @c4pp4
                    It definitely turns the data connection off, and it is visible when I checked it with a RF meter.
                    Data on (4G):
                    UT 4G Data On.JPG
                    Data off (4G):
                    UT 4G Data Off.JPG
                    And it is the reduced transmitions that saves the battery, so your situation does not make sense.

                    AppLeeA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • AppLeeA Offline
                      AppLee @Yoni
                      last edited by

                      @yoni
                      Without the full picture it's hard to judge what makes sense or not.
                      The radio is not the only power consumer.
                      Depending on the device and the firmware used the behavior can differ.

                      Maybe a process is looping to find the modem and prevent the CPU to sleep.
                      Maybe also c4pp4's theory is right ; if on Ubuntu Touch's side we kill the data it doesn't kill the modem because you need calls and SMS.
                      So depending on vendor's firmware and specific port implementation experience may vary.
                      In a port I suppose that turning off the data can be implemented in several different ways with slightly different behaviors.

                      Y 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • Y Offline
                        Yoni @AppLee
                        last edited by

                        @applee
                        Those graphs represent RF activity with and without the data connection, so calls and texts are still available in both scenarios, and on the mi A2 the battery lasted 4 times longer when just the data is turned off, and this principle is the same on Androids and iPhones, but at different battery savings levels.
                        There might be something that is causing the cpu to constantly work, thus preventing battery savings, but UT definitely has control over the data connectivity, and it does turn it off.

                        AppLeeA 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • AppLeeA Offline
                          AppLee @Yoni
                          last edited by

                          @yoni
                          What I meant is unless you can produce the same graph with C4pp4's device you cannot draw any conclusion on what happens.
                          If it's the same model it would be really strange.
                          But with another device it's a whole different story.
                          No data received by the user (Morph or Teleports for example) does not mean the modem is not working way more than expected.

                          Y 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • Y Offline
                            Yoni @AppLee
                            last edited by Yoni

                            @applee
                            Both myself and @c4pp4 are using the same device, and @domubpkm also had battery savings using a Volla, there is something starnge happening with c4ppa's phone, and I'm really trying to understand why he is not getting any savings on 4G.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • D Offline
                              domubpkm
                              last edited by

                              Redownload mms mecanism works fine on Volla RC 43 : for this feature, thanks to @jezek and @lduboeuf as it is a very usefull nechanism to save battery too !

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • BollyB Offline
                                Bolly
                                last edited by

                                Hello @c4pp4,

                                Thank you for the scripts. ♥
                                I found out that if the device doesn't have 4G you have to put "umts" in "primary_preference". (My device is e4.5 - Krillin - )

                                primary_preference="umts"

                                I've taken the liberty of sharing your scripts on my blog to reach more people, I hope you don't mind.

                                https://elcondonrotodegnu.wordpress.com/2022/04/25/scripts-para-ahorrar-bateria-en-ubuntu-touch/

                                Thanks again. 🙂

                                2015-Now (Daily use) : BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu edition
                                2016-Now (Daily use) : BQ Aquaris M10 FHD Betatester

                                2020-Now : PinePhone Braveheart & CE UBports
                                2020-Now (Family/Daily use): Vollaphone Xenial
                                2022-Now (Family/Daily use): Vollaphone 22 Focal

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                • P Offline
                                  prog-amateur @Yoni
                                  last edited by

                                  Hello @c4pp4 thank you VE-RY much for your script. Please, could you edit your 1st post just to inform about the following ?

                                  -> Final step : Reboot the phone

                                  Reason : I have done the script II and I could not come back to 4G (2G was OK), so I have used the "lte" modification in the script without success. Then I have reboot my phone and the script was working perfectly.

                                  @yoni said in [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE:

                                  Here are the battery tests, starting with 4G with data on:
                                  badtest.JPG
                                  2G with data on:
                                  2gbatest.JPG

                                  When I see you plots without / with script, it is a day and night ! My Nexus 5 has a battery drain (or the battery is not enough powerful), I just installed the script so I lack of time to feedback but I hope results like yours, it would be wonderful.

                                  Again, thank you very much for your kind help, such a topic shall be pinned I think.

                                  c4pp4C 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • c4pp4C Offline
                                    c4pp4 @prog-amateur
                                    last edited by

                                    @prog-amateur said in [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE:

                                    I have used the "lte" modification in the script without success. Then I have reboot my phone and the script was working perfectly.

                                    Thank you for the report, you have to use "restart lte-battery-saver" to apply script changes. I will add a note about it. It looks like "lte" is more generic then "any" so I'll change the script.

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                                    • L Offline
                                      lkroll
                                      last edited by lkroll

                                      Battery drain on standby with 4G is still a problem on focal, so I updated the script and created a small systemd service to automatically run the script at startup. Maybe this will be useful for some.


                                      The greeter in focal is called "com.lomiri.LomiriGreeter" instead of "com.canonical.UnityGreeter". So i changed that in the script and tested that it indeed still works.

                                      I placed the updated script in:
                                      /home/phablet/.local/bin

                                      #!/bin/bash
                                      
                                      primary_preference="lte"
                                      saving_preference="gsm"
                                      sim_slot="/ril_0"
                                      
                                      interface=org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties
                                      member=PropertiesChanged
                                      
                                      dbus-monitor --session "type=signal,interface='${interface}',member='${member}'" |
                                      while read -r line; do
                                              if [[ ${line} == *"com.lomiri.LomiriGreeter"* ]]; then
                                                      read; read; read -r line
                                                      if [[ ${line} == *"IsActive"* ]]; then
                                                              read -r line
                                                              [[ ${line} == *"true"* ]] && /usr/share/ofono/scripts/set-tech-preference "${sim_slot}" "${saving_preference}" 1>/dev/null
                                                              [[ ${line} == *"false"* ]] && /usr/share/ofono/scripts/set-tech-preference "${sim_slot}" "${primary_preference}" 1>/dev/null
                                                      fi
                                              fi
                                      done
                                      

                                      Don't forget to make it executable:

                                      chmod u+x /home/phablet/.local/bin/lte-battery-saver.sh
                                      

                                      Ubuntu 20.04 uses systemd instead of upstart so I created a systemd user service in:
                                      /home/phablet/.config/systemd/user/lte-battery-saver.service

                                      [Unit]
                                      Description=LTE battery saver
                                      Requires=dbus.socket
                                      After=dbus.socket
                                      
                                      [Service]
                                      ExecStart=/home/phablet/.local/bin/lte-battery-saver.sh
                                      
                                      [Install]
                                      WantedBy=dbus.socket
                                      

                                      Now to enable the service:

                                      systemctl --user enable --now lte-battery-saver
                                      

                                      Verify that it is running and up:

                                      systemctl --user status lte-battery-saver
                                      

                                      It should return active and enabled:

                                      ● lte-battery-saver.service - LTE battery saver
                                           Loaded: loaded (/home/phablet/.config/systemd/user/lte-battery-saver.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
                                           Active: active (running) since Sat 2023-04-29 18:44:27 CEST; 1h 11min ago
                                      

                                      That's it, now everytime the phone is locked the connection will drop to 2G and back to 4G/LTE once unlocked.
                                      I tested and verified it on my Oneplus 5T, but it should work on other devices running focal.

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                                      • lduboeufL Offline
                                        lduboeuf
                                        last edited by lduboeuf

                                        [ Focal only ]
                                        If anyone want my dirty hack ( when cellular data off -> then use 2G , when data on -> switch to LTE)

                                        You must have a focal device on devel channel, then sudo ubports-qa install focal_-_PR_lomiri-system-settings-cellular_6

                                        This will auto toggle LTE when cellular data requested , and back to 2G when off,
                                        https://gitlab.com/ubports/development/core/lomiri-system-settings-cellular/-/merge_requests/6

                                        ( only work when toggled from the settings, not the indicator )

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                                        • A Offline
                                          AmauryDBZ @lduboeuf
                                          last edited by AmauryDBZ

                                          @lduboeuf thanks for your 'dirty hack' !
                                          after installing it says I have to upgrade, but sudo apt upgrade returns

                                          Lecture des listes de paquets... Fait            
                                          Construction de l'arbre des dépendances          
                                          Lecture des informations d'état... Fait          
                                          Calcul de la mise à jour... Fait                 
                                          Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:                             
                                            libswresample3 libmediainfo0v5 libavcodec58 libavutil56 libopenexr24                            
                                            libsdl2-2.0-0                                  
                                          Learn more about Ubuntu Pro at https://ubuntu.com/pro                                             
                                          W: Verrou non utilisé pour le fichier /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend en lecture seule                
                                          W: Verrou non utilisé pour le fichier /var/lib/dpkg/lock en lecture seule                         
                                          E: Le répertoire d'archive /var/cache/apt/archives/partial n'existe pas. - Acquire (30: Read-only file system)
                                          

                                          Any idea how to resolve ?
                                          Moreover, is it possible to add an exception when hotspot is on ?

                                          lduboeufL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • lduboeufL Offline
                                            lduboeuf @AmauryDBZ
                                            last edited by

                                            @AmauryDBZ said in [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE:

                                            @lduboeuf thanks for your 'dirty hack' !
                                            after installing it says I have to upgrade, but sudo apt upgrade returns

                                            Lecture des listes de paquets... Fait            
                                            Construction de l'arbre des dépendances          
                                            Lecture des informations d'état... Fait          
                                            Calcul de la mise à jour... Fait                 
                                            Get more security updates through Ubuntu Pro with 'esm-apps' enabled:                             
                                              libswresample3 libmediainfo0v5 libavcodec58 libavutil56 libopenexr24                            
                                              libsdl2-2.0-0                                  
                                            Learn more about Ubuntu Pro at https://ubuntu.com/pro                                             
                                            W: Verrou non utilisé pour le fichier /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend en lecture seule                
                                            W: Verrou non utilisé pour le fichier /var/lib/dpkg/lock en lecture seule                         
                                            E: Le répertoire d'archive /var/cache/apt/archives/partial n'existe pas. - Acquire (30: Read-only file system)
                                            

                                            Any idea how to resolve ?
                                            Moreover, is it possible to add an exception when hotspot is on ?

                                            Well, your device must be up to date before doing any ubports-qa things.
                                            You can either reinstall UT or go by mouting rw the partition and then upgrade.

                                            A 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                            • A Offline
                                              AmauryDBZ @lduboeuf
                                              last edited by

                                              @lduboeuf said in [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE:

                                              by mouting rw the partition and then upgrade.

                                              do you have a tutorial ?

                                              lduboeufL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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