[ltp] T30: Turn off the WiFi Radio?

[Uwe Walter]

On Do, 2004-05-06 at 06:17, Atul Chitnis wrote:
> I just realise that despite my not telling my machine (T30, FC1) to bring
> up the WiFi interface (IBM High Rate Wireless LAN Mini-PCI Adapter) at

So, this is the atheros card with the madwifi driver?



> While that is no big deal from the security perspective (since no IP
> address is assigned to it), it is probably a killer in terms of battery
> life.

If it is the madwifi, yes, you are wasting power.

Unloading the ath_pci, ath_hal, wlan modules should power down the
radio.

(I haven't examined, if "ifconfig ath0 down" would also help. However,
it does not turn off the LED, so I rely on unloading the modules.)


> - Has anyone been able to quantify the effect on battery life of leaving 
>   the radio on v/s turning it off?

Mike (http://mike2k.de/t40.html) writes, it would use around 500mA. I
know, my fan does turn on quickly, if I activate the atheros. You can
probably do the math on the impact of battery lifetime yourself (or just
test it ;-)).


Greetings, UW(e)