Jupiter – Awesome Netbook Power/Config Applet

By , Published February 21, 2010

Jupiter is a hardware and power management applet for Linux and perfect for power-saving on netbooks and Laptops.

Born from the bones of the popular EeeTray applet, Jupiter sees a shift in focus towards better usability and easier configuration whilst retaining the powerful feature set users of EeePC Tray are accustomed to.

Use

Jupiter is launched from the Applications > System Tools menu. Once running it sits in your system tray/notification area displaying a ‘lightening bolt’ icon. The icon colour changes colour based on the current performance mode. Right clicking on this icon displays various different options.

Note that Jupiter only displays an option in your menu if your system has/supports it. This means that not every feature detailed below may be accessible to you.

Power Management

Jupiter has three different "performance modes" all determined by evaluating the CPUFreq capability within the kernel. These are:

  • Maximum Performance

Maximum Performance mode allows your computer to use the maximum capability available for your CPU. Ideal for when you need some extra kick performance wise but a total drain on battery life.

  • High Performance

A perfect "mid way" solution. High Performance mode is an "On Demand" mode which means reduces power consumption when your processor is idle but can provide extra power when needed.

  • Power Saver

The ideal setting if you need your battery to last, this mode reduces your CPU speed to its minimum allowing for better energy conservation.

Eeextras

EeePC netbooks that have the addition jupiter-support-eee package installed can also benefit from the following extra features: -

  • Super Hybrid Engine
  • GMA Overclock

Intelligence

Like most power-saving tools, Jupiter can tell when a power cord is connected or disconnected from a system and adjusts the power scheme accordingly.

By default when a power cable is attached the application will switch to Maximum Performance mode, knowing that it doesn’t need to ‘conserve’ power. Even more awesome, if a you change the setting to a different mode while the power cord is connected, Jupiter will "remember" this setting and apply it the next time you plug in – no need to manually ‘tell’ it to do so!

Hardware

Just like EeeTray and other Netbook config tools, Jupiter provides easy one-click access for enabling/disabling battery-draining hardware devices such as webcams and Wi-Fi.

Other features
Other features that Jupiter provides are: -

  • Screen Resolutions

The top 4 screen resolutions are displayed by Jupiter to allow easy switching.

  • Screen Orientation

Want to change your screen orientation? Jupiter makes it a one-click snap affair!

  • Video Displays

Easily switch between connected displays using the Video Displays menu.

  • Hover information

Hover over the lightening bolt icon to see real-time information displayed.

Download

An easy-to-install .deb file of Jupiter can be downloaded from the the project page on SourceForge @ sourceforge.net/projects/jupiter/files/

Related posts:

  1. What Is The Best Netbook Operating System
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  • Anonymous

    So apart from a couple of extra things, it doesn’t really do that much more than the default power management program in Ubuntu?

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      It’s trying really hard not to call itself a ‘netbook specific’ application on their website – but really, from my play about with it, that is really the only situation you would likely use (laptops, too.) because, as you point out, it doesn’t offer that much more than the current default power saver.

      That said the screen rotation and hardware toggles are win for netbooks.

  • http://linuxundich.de/ Christoph

    > The ideal setting if you need your battery to last, this mode reduces your CPU speed to its minimum allowing for better energy conservation.

    on the contrary… limiting the CPU speed to it’s minimal setting doesn’t save you watts for better battery life. The “Powersave” governor will increase the power consumption of the cpu. Please read…

    * http://www.advogato.org/person/mjg59/diary.html?start=170%20Matthew%20Garrett
    * http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/interview-arjan-van-de-ven-intel-and-lesswattsorg

    …for more details.

    • http://www.fewt.com/ Fewt

      Whomever wrote the article at Avogato completely missed the mark and is just another example of someones untested opinion being used as fact. Waiting for the CPU to clock up in on-demand mode is expensive. In most cases the user cannot tell, but there are instances where it is very obvious.

      The same argument was made about p4-clockmod which forced insertion of idles into the CPU to reduce power. This contrary to the opinions of those who removed it did actually save a few watts of power. Unfortunately those that chose to remove it didn’t actually test the theory before removing it (a common problem with community development). When measured with a simple power measurement device (kill-a-watt), I found that the average savings was 4 watts, or 1 hour of battery life on an older Celeron Eee. How did this work? Well, inserting idle clocks lowered the temperature of the CPU. This lowered the fan speed. Triggering the thermal idle control function in the CPU also lowered its power draw by design.

      As for Jupiter, in addition to altering the CPU governor, vendor specific functions are available such as SHE (I am adding other vendor integration over time) which clocks the bus up and down using Asus’s BIOS integrated technology.

      I also alter kernel parameters when on battery vs off of battery using sane defaults taken from powertop and kill-a-watt measurements. I can promise you that putting a CPU in power save mode reduces the draw, my blog is filled with screen shots and related data.

      ;)

  • Anonymous

    Link broken on SF :(

    EDIT: got it

  • Anonymous

    Screenshot is showing that this thing runs on Lucid? Nice. But where to get jupiter-support-eee package, it’s not on SF. And btw: fewt, the author of jupiter said there will not be a official support for Ubuntu. Reason: He dumped Ubuntu in flavor of Debian as Karmic went out, because he was “sick of fixing Ubuntu bugs” (or something like that)

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      I would assume that the jupiter-eee-support package is in whatever repos Eeebuntu uses.

      I’ve had a google around but, oddly, can’t seem to find anything.. I’ll keep digging and update when i find it.

      • http://www.fewt.com/ Fewt

        I added this package to the downloads page of the project.

  • charly

    Just installed it – very nice on my 900a!!

  • SomeRandomGuy

    Fantastic!

  • Nick Galfas

    my msi wind U100+ with karmic UNR, has lost Fn keys functionality, when i close the screen lid it doesn’t go to sleep and jupiter’s process seems to take a lot of cpu..
    too bad for me, i liked the idea having a tray icon with cpu temp and the easy controls for cpu and screen

    • Anonymous

      have you fixed your suspend? i can’t fix mine.

      • http://twitter.com/ngalfas Nick Galfas

        i haven’t tried to remove it… i am not sure how to do it.. for sure..

  • Anonymous

    thanks, just that i need for my asus eepc.

  • Dave

    Works well on my Mini 110c running NBR9.10
    i really like the rotate screen function so as to be able to read websites better.
    only gripe i have, is that i would be great to make the touchpad and the arrow keys revolve with the screen.
    iE that when the screen is rotated right then: right=up, down=right etc etc

  • Anonymous

    how do i uninstall this?

    • Anonymous

      how did you uninstall it? it permenetly changed system config, and i can’t suspend.

      • MatthewDS

        Ubuntu 9.10, Installed, didn’t like, uninstalled, but suspend on laptop lid close is broken.

  • Anonymous

    how do i uninstall this?

  • Anonymous

    nvr mind

  • http://twitter.com/Sheldno Sheldon

    Thanks, this seems like a very useful app, time will tell if it helps save battery life!

    The video display settings would also be very handy but unfortunately Jupiter doesn’t detect my external monitor…

  • http://twitter.com/Sheldno Sheldon

    Thanks, this seems like a very useful app, time will tell if it helps save battery life!

    The video display settings would also be very handy but unfortunately Jupiter doesn’t detect my external monitor…

  • http://twitter.com/andypiper Andy Piper

    First thing to say is that this is a really nice little tool.

    Having said that:
    - it’s a shame there’s no PPA and / or it’s not aiming to make its way into the Ubuntu Netbook Edition. That would seem like a natural place for some of this functionality.
    - as others have commented, it has some overlap with other tools like the GNOME power management stuff, so it might make sense to converge with them.
    - I’m now a bit confused as I use micromiser to manage the CPU performance so I’m not sure what is switching profiles.
    - it needs to follow GNOME HIG better… right now it seems to use ** to mark the active option rather than a tick or other UI marking.

    • Anonymous

      Fewt doesn’t officially support this for Ubuntu hence the reason for no PPA.

      Jupiter is part of the Aurora Distribution by default as Fewt is a developer :)

  • Anonymous

    yeah… his program broke suspend for me. not happy.

  • Anonymous

    Just a warning: I installed this on my netbook running Ubuntu Netbook Remix and could no longer hibernate or suspend, even after uninstalling. The solution was here:
    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=8877026

    Gav

  • http://izaac.myopenid.com/ Izaac

    There is a workaround if you are using cpu with more than 2 cores:

    You need to edit file: /usr/lib/jupiter/scripts/cpu-control and edit a part of the code to look like this:

    if [ -e "$JUPITER_VAR/cpu-control-busy" ]; then
    countdown=”4″
    while [ $countdown -gt 0 ]; do
    sleep 1
    if [ ! -e "$JUPITER_VAR/cpu-control-busy" ]; then
    break
    fi
    countdown=$[$countdown-1]
    done
    rm -f $JUPITER_VAR/cpu-control-busy
    else
    touch “$JUPITER_VAR/cpu-control-busy”
    fi

    if [ -e "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor" ]; then
    FSB_CPU0=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor)
    fi

    if [ -e "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor" ]; then
    FSB_CPU1=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor)
    fi

    if [ -e "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor" ]; then
    FSB_CPU2=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/cpufreq/scaling_governor)
    fi

    if [ -e "/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/cpufreq/scaling_governor" ]; then
    FSB_CPU3=$(cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/cpufreq/scaling_governor)
    fi

    This is for a 4 cores i5 cpu, for example.

    • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_RF5O7TNOMH72MXNDOBIEFMGXU4 Fabio

      “There is a workaround if you are using cpu with more than 2 cores:”

      Workaround for what?

  • Ecosavvyc19

    Ecosavvy, Fuel Saver, Laundry Ball, Power Saver, Bangalore & India.http://www.ecosavvy.in/

  • Pingback: Jupiter mono icons for Ambiance

  • http://www.facebook.com/ethana2 Ethan Anderson

    It doesn’t do anything I can’t do with either another piece of software or my wireless switch. I was hoping not to have to dig into my BIOS to turn off USB and sound devices and the like. Nope.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QZFG5TUW2PJ3AXO7G3LGYXFR4E NesterX

    OMGeveryone! ;)
    i have a problem with this applet, i cant see jupiter icon in the panel, any suggestion?
    i’m using ubuntu 10.10 32bit.
    thanks

  • Rick Cadger

    Works great. Hibernate and suspend are fine.

 
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