Guide: Replacing Power Profiles with TLP to improve battery life

[pomartel]

This guide explains how to fully replace power-profiles-daemon with TLP + tlp-pd in Omarchy, while preserving compatibility with tools and scripts that expect powerprofilesctl.

What is TLP : https://linrunner.de/tlp/introduction.html

Why use TLP instead of power-profiles-daemon? https://linrunner.de/tlp/faq/ppd.html

One thing I really like is that you get automatic profile switching out of the box. So if you unplug your laptop, the profile switches to save battery life. There is also lot of possible customization but this guide only covers the initial installation.

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1. Stop and remove power-profiles-daemon

Power-profiles-deamon can conflict with TLP and needs to be stopped before proceeding.

Disable and remove the existing power profile service:

sudo systemctl stop power-profiles-daemon.service
sudo systemctl disable power-profiles-daemon.service
sudo pacman -Rns power-profiles-daemon

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2. Install TLP and the Power Profiles compatibility layer

Install TLP and its related components:

sudo pacman -S tlp tlp-pd

What each component does:

• tlp: core power management engine
• tlp-pd: implements the Power Profiles D-Bus API

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3. Enable required services

Enable TLP and start the Power Profiles compatibility daemon:

sudo systemctl enable tlp.service
sudo systemctl enable --now tlp-pd.service

Check status:

systemctl status tlp
systemctl status tlp-pd

Both should be active.

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4. Provide powerprofilesctl compatibility

Omarchy various scripts expect powerprofilesctl.
On Arch Linux, that binary is normally shipped with power-profiles-daemon, so we replace it with a symlink to tlpctl that mimics powerprofilesctl functionnalities.

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/tlpctl /usr/local/bin/powerprofilesctl

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5. Apply TLP settings immediately

Start TLP manually to apply all power settings without rebooting:

sudo tlp start

Verify active configuration:

tlp-stat -s
tlp-stat -p

Verify that the power profiles are still available when you click the battery icon in the waybar.

You should be all set!

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[levyvix]

Got this error when running sudo pacman -S tlp tlp-pd

error: target not found: tlp-pd

[pomartel]

tlp-pd is a fairly new lib. You might need to update pacman first: sudo pacman -Syy

[timohubois]

@pomartel it would be great to get this shipped out-of-the box. Are you motivated a PR?

[pomartel]

@dhh said in the past that he prefers power-profiles-deamon since that's what Framework recommends for AMD laptops.

[jemgali]

Sorry for the dumb question, I am new to linux. In step 3, when you say both should be active, do you mean running or enabled? I run systemctl status tlp, and the "Active:", says inactive(dead), but in its "Loaded:", it says enabled. The other is running fine.

[pomartel]

It should be both enabled and active. If not you can try the following command and check again :

systemctl start tlp

[jemgali]

I see, it required me to input the password. It works now, thanks.