What package should I use for laptop-mode on Ubuntu?

Question

I've been puzzled, Ubuntu repository has two conflicted packages, laptop-mode-tools and ubuntu-laptop-mode. I can't find any information about differences in those packages, which one is better and even which one is recommended. Which one should I install?

Answer 1

Read this clarification from the author of laptop-mode-tools:

What is the relationship between the Ubuntu package "laptop-mode" and the Debian package "laptop-mode-tools"?

There is a big thread about this on ubuntuforums, http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=36976. Ubuntu used to have a rather outdated package for controlling laptop mode, based on the aforementioned kernel documentation script. Laptop mode tools basically is a much more recent version of the same code. Ubuntu has switched to laptop-mode-tools somewhere in 2006.

I'm running Ubuntu 9.04, and laptop-mode-tools is installed by default on my system, not ubuntu-laptop-mode.

Answer 2

aptitude show ubuntu-laptop-mode

... Support for reducing hard drive power consumption Laptop mode is a Linux kernel feature that allows the system to reduce power consumption by allowing the hard drive to spin down for longer periods of time. This package contains a script to control these kernel parameters.

aptitude show laptop-mode-tools

Scripts to spin down hard drive and save power Laptop mode is a Linux kernel feature that allows your laptop to save considerable power, by allowing the hard drive to spin down for longer periods of time. This package contains the userland scripts that are needed to enable laptop mode. It includes support for automatically enabling laptop mode when the computer is working on batteries. It also supports various other power management features, such as starting and stopping daemons depending on power mode, automatically hibernating if battery levels are too low, and adjusting terminal blanking and X11 screen blanking.

So it definitely looks like laptop-mode-tools has more features and might do your laptop more good.

Answer 3

Laptop-mode-tools. If I remember correctly it has support for APM and hdparm. ubuntu-laptop-mode only has support for hdparm.