gnome-shell-extension-ideapad

Lenovo IdeaPad goodies for GNOME Shell

At the moment the extension only provides an easy and user-friendly way to toggle the battery conservation mode available on Levono Ideapad laptops and visually get its current state.

Installation

Simply install the extension from the official GNOME extensions website (recommended). Alternatively, manually download or clone the repository under ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ideapad@laurento.frittella

In both cases, few additional steps are required. Please check the dedicate following section.

In case you would like to have a look at the code, please consider that master branch targets the latest stable version of GNOME Shell. Previous versions are still supported in dedicated branches (e.g. pre-43).

Usage

The extension adds a new entry Toggle Conservation Mode to the panel and shows an icon on the status menu to indicate when the battery conservation mode is enabled.

If your particular laptop model supports it, the conservation mode limits battery charging to 55-60% of its capacity to improve battery life. It is particularly useful when the laptop runs on external power most of the time.

GNOME Shell < 43	GNOME Shell >= 43

Additional Required Settings

Your desktop user needs read-and-write access to a specific sysfs file that is normally owned by the root user. The easiest way to achieve that is using sudo. The following steps have been tested on Debian, but they should work on any modern GNU/Linux system. In case of doubts, please refer to your specific distribution documentation.

• Depending on your distro, you need to use the group sudo (e.g. Debian and Ubuntu) or wheel (e.g. Arch and Fedora) here. In case of doubt, run the command groups in a terminal and see which of the two is listed in the output.

  Add the following entry to your system sudoers configuration (e.g. /etc/sudoers.d/ideapad). Make sure to replace %sudo with %wheel if needed.

  %sudo ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/tee /sys/bus/platform/drivers/ideapad_acpi/VPC????\:??/conservation_mode

• To make sure the ideapad_laptop kernel module gets loaded automatically at boot, simply add it to the file /etc/modules

To summarize and for easy reference...

# Don't forget to replace %sudo with %wheel if needed!
#
$ echo "%sudo ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/tee /sys/bus/platform/drivers/ideapad_acpi/VPC????\:??/conservation_mode" | sudo tee /etc/sudoers.d/ideapad
$ echo "ideapad_laptop" | sudo tee -a /etc/modules

Wrong battery estimation displayed

Depending on the kernel version you are running, a minor cosmetic issue might still exist. However, if the permanent "Estimating..." battery status displayed in GNOME bugs you, there is also a solution.

Actually, this issue should be fixed in kernels 5.19+. If you are running an older kernel, you can try applying the patch here. Thanks to Martino Fontana for pointing this out.

Alternatively, you could use the patch I initially suggested in this uPower merge request. However, I would personally advice to go for the kernel patch. It is a much cleaner solution.