OLED Laptop "support"

[Seeker-N]

Hello everyone, hope you are having a good day?

OLED Laptops need a set of features to the settings app to prolong the longevity of their batteries and screens :

• The ability to set a persistant charge limit that you can easily change from the system settings.
• A functionnality to prohibit charging during set hours so as to maintain the battery in a half charged state.
  ( You lose system integration if you use TLP. The second functionnality doesn't exist but can be smartly added using the first )
• A moving modifiable screensaver
• The ability to just turn off the screen using the power button or when the lid is closed or using a dedicated button or combination of buttons on the keyboard.
• Modifiable fan profiles
• Better support for keyboard lighting ( no-lighting shows 0%, low-lighting shows 33%, medium-lighting shows 66% and full-lighting shows again 66% )

Although I can technically add these myself since i am learning how to code c, I don't see how other people, that don't want to have to sacrifice their study / work / family time, can ( Time is of the essence !!! ). The swap to linux was already hard enough as a choice and the use of linux mint, the truly friendliest distro among them all, is indicative that the newcomer doesn't want to dig deeper that the gui. Please developers, since you want to spend your time making such a great distro, do pour some of it to implement these last features as I think they ought to go a long way. Thank you very much for your efforts.

[billyswong]

These sort of hardware support issues are more often than not, problems / responsibilities of the hardware manufacturers.

For battery plan and fan profile, right now the best bet is go into the "BIOS" motherboard firmware setup screen at boot time, then set things up there.

Cinnamon DE provides only a moving digital clock as screensaver. For fancier alternatives, you will need to install xscreensaver

[Seeker-N]

Hello again!! I am happy I got this response from you as it shows how the linux community goes about handling real issues like the ones I've mentioned in my post. Thank you for your response, it does remedy some of the problems I've brought up. But, to be frank with you, it isn't real to say that things like the battery plan and the fan profile can be tinkered away in the bios because apps like "MyAsus" can do this sort of stuff from userspace. Hardware manifacturers do need to resolve these issues on linux but waiting for them until they do slows down or discourages the swap for linux ( To me, a very brave initiative is needed here ). I will put a full stop to this part of the conversation. You did give me a solution to the screensaver issue but it needs to be accessible from the system's settings without a hassle ( Yes it's that basic to a computer's function nowadays that it needs to be present by default somewhere in the system's settings ). I didn't receive a solution to the "just turn off screen" necessity and the keyboard lighting issue. Sadly, I don't know how to elevate theis conversation to a bug ticket. I thank you very much for your help!! ( Don't mention KDE Plasma please, I like mint )

[billyswong]

As you mentioned, in Windows it is apps like "MyAsus" that do the job, not anything built-in in Windows. If even a billionaire company can't get some stuff built-in, you can imagine a volunteer-based project aka Linux is going to get a hard time to do what even Windows fails. Hardware support to stuff without proper manufacturer documentation nor cross-brand standardization is extremely hard. A lot of hardware products don't have the BIOS setup alternative route. Brilliant people are already busying working on those.

For the laptop screen + lid closing stuff, you may get better help by asking in https://forums.linuxmint.com/ I think the screen shall auto-off when one close a laptop lid. Anything deviate from that could be hardware specific. If you are just going for a shortcut for turning off screens, in Cinnamon there is an applet called "Turn Off Monitor". Right click on the panel (what one call taskbar in Windows) > Applets > Download. Then search for it and install it. One can configure it to not just screen off but also session lock too.

[billyswong]

Similarly, each brand of laptop keyboard may do backlight differently. You may go to https://forums.linuxmint.com/ to ask for help, with your specific hardware configuration posted there.