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

c4pp4

@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.

domubpkm

@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.

Yoni

@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.

AppLee

@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.

Yoni

@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.

AppLee

@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.

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.

domubpkm

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 !

Bolly

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.

prog-amateur

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:

2G with data on:

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.

c4pp4

@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.