Laptop will run on battery in Linux but not Windows

[librumroger]

I have a Librem 15 v3. I am trying to dual boot Linux Mint and Windows 10. The laptop runs on battery power in Linux (the battery is still healthy), but when running Windows as soon as i unplug the power cord the laptop goes dead. Any idea how i can fix this issue?

[Dlonk]

I am not affiliated with Purism in any way, but just a forum user like you. The following is my [uninformed] opinion:

If you want to dual boot to Windows, and you also bought a Purism laptop, then you have trolled yourself with a lack of laptop research. Were I you, and my goal was this kind of dual boot, I would most likely have purchased a System76 laptop for that purpose [or another vendor with a similar thought process going into their manufacturing].

When I look at what System76 [and similar vendors] offer on their site, these are Linux-oriented and Linux-supporting machines, that are just as well set up to do Windows. That’s hardware for the pragmatists. When I look at the difference between a Purism laptop and a System76 laptop right now, without even spending much time to review, the Purism laptop is using a 10th generation intel chip and the System76 laptop is using a 14th generation intel chip. So, Intel has manufactured 4 generations of chips in the time since Purism updated what they’re selling? And why is that?

My understanding is that when new hardware gets made, the manufacturers make it so that it serves the manufacturer – gives them backdoors like the Intel ME, or that similar thing for AMD that they came up with. And Purism is trying to sell to the people who want peace of mind, that the device will most likely only do what the user asks and not more, even if it is less pragmatic in doing any task in the latest, greatest, and fastest way. So they invest a lot of time in working back how the hardware is set up to turn off the evil things, kill the Intel ME, and all these other peace-of-mind oriented features.

Then, there’s Windows. Windows isn’t about peace of mind. Windows is about the cutting edge evolution and Satya Nadella explaining that now, the next version is going to screen record every operation you ever do on the screen, all the time, at every second, in case you might need to remember what you did last week. By feeding the recording to ChatGPT, you can say, “Hey buddy, what did I do last week?” and he will respond, “Oh yeah guy, last week you typed your password, and it was Password123,” and then you type back to ChatGPT, “Oh thanks buddy!”

The copilot PC is the future of Windows. And that’s not peace of mind. That’s comical levels of surveillance.

I personally ran Windows 10 on my Librem 14 a few months ago, and when I did, an angel lost its wings. Running Windows on Purism hardware is like going to a vegan buffet run by the most health-conscious and successful vegans that you could find, and then showing up with some McDonald’s cheeseberger to eat along with the meal, and whispering to the guy sitting next to you at your vegan banquet, “Hey man, I really wanted another cheeseberger like this one to go with all this vegan salad stuff, do you know the closest place I can get one?”

That guy sitting next to you… you’re just going to make him sad. Why are you doing that? What process of decision making brought you to thinking this was a good idea?

Edit:
At least you can be glad that you are not me, and you did not do this.

[librumroger]

I did not buy this laptop myself. It’s an old 2017 model given to me by my brother who uses Linux exclusively. I would not mind running Linux myself but this laptop does not have built in Wifi & Bluetooth so i need to use my TP-Link T2UB USB adapter which is Windows only.

[j_s]

@librumroger

I would not mind running Linux myself but this laptop does not have built in Wifi & Bluetooth so i need to use my TP-Link T2UB USB adapter which is Windows only.

All Librem laptops have had the option to buy new with a wifi bluetooth card installed. So yours must have an empty slot.

I do not know the details, but there have been threads detailing which cards work well and how to install them. Purism might have documentation online detailing how to install.

[librumroger]

I would still prefer to run Windows if possible. I posted this question to find out if there is a specific reason Windows will not run on battery power with this laptop. No one seems to be aware of any reason.

[Dlonk]

@librumroger

No one seems to be aware of any reason.

True. My Librem 14 was fine on battery with Windows.

Is my firmware newer? What is your firmware version?

[librumroger]

This laptop has the original firmware it shipped with. A month ago my brother tried updating the BIOS to the latest version but that did not solve the issue so he changed it back.

Summary
Operating System
Windows 10 Home 64-bit
CPU
Intel Core i7 6500U @ 2.50GHz 38 °C
Skylake-U/Y 14nm Technology
RAM
16.0GB Single-Channel DDR4 @ 664MHz (10-10-10-28)
Motherboard
Purism Librem 15 v3 (CPU0) 41 °C
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel HD Graphics 520 (Intel)
Storage
223GB KINGSTON SA400S37240G (SATA-2 (SSD)) 28 °C

Motherboard
Manufacturer Purism
Model Librem 15 v3 (CPU0)
Version 1.0
Chipset Vendor Intel
Chipset Model Skylake-U
Chipset Revision 08
Southbridge Vendor Intel
Southbridge Model Skylake-Y PCH
Southbridge Revision 21
System Temperature 41 °C
BIOS
Brand coreboot
Version 24.02.01-Purism-1
Date 2024-05-14

[FranklyFlawless]

@librumroger

Any idea how i can fix this issue?

@jonathon.hall

@librumroger

this laptop does not have built in Wifi & Bluetooth

You can acquire the Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 (QCNFA222) Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modem very cheaply from eBay or other online marketplaces, usually costing around $15 USD or so. If you want a guide for removing URL parameters on eBay for guest checkout, among other websites, I have written one for the Purism community forums:

@FranklyFlawless

I have fully confirmed that these uBlock Origin static filter rules work with eBay’s guest checkout. For reference, here are all of the static filter rules from this thread I currently use:

*$removeparam=/^mtm_/
*$removeparam=/^utm_/
||ebay.*^$removeparam=~/(_dmd|_nkw|_pgn|_sop|_ssn|action|blrs|cartid|guestCheckoutEligible|ipg|item|itemId|itemid|LH_|sessionid|srt|token|transId|transid)/
||ebay.*^$removeparam=hash

@librumroger

A month ago my brother tried updating the BIOS to the latest version but that did not solve the issue so he changed it back.

The boot firmware is the latest version and was not downgraded:

@librumroger

Brand coreboot
Version 24.02.01-Purism-1

You should be seeing a boot splash screen displaying “Librem 15” in very big white font as the board name.

[librumroger]

You must be correct about the BIOS being the latest version of coreboot. I believe my brother tried changing the BIOS to the latest version of PureBoot, but because that did not help he changed it back to coreboot.

[irvinewade]

@FranklyFlawless

You can acquire the Qualcomm Atheros AR9462 (QCNFA222) Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modem very cheaply from eBay or other online marketplaces

If the OP actually wants to run Windows then there’s no particular reason to get the Atheros. In that situation I would just get an Intel WiFi card, which can still work with PureOS if you are prepared to sacrifice purity - and let’s face it, if you are also running Windows (dual booting) then that ship has sailed.

[FranklyFlawless]

The Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200(NGW) does not work with PureOS on Librem devices unless the boot firmware is a recent version of PureBoot with the firmware jail included. Since the boot firmware on the Librem 15 v3 is currently Coreboot + SeaBIOS, the Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200(NGW) will not work out-of-the-box with PureOS if an installation attempt is made.

[irvinewade]

Yes, with an Intel WiFi card, the experience of getting PureOS set up would be more hassle but the ongoing experience with Microsoft Windows would be superior. The OP would also have the option of running a less pure distro of Linux e.g. Ubuntu, which should work out-of-the-box. Again, it’s difficult to complain about the loss of purity when the computer runs Microsoft Windows anyway.

[librumroger]

I am hesitant to buy a WiFi card because this laptop just has 2 bare antenna wires with no clips on the ends to plug into the M.2 card.

[FranklyFlawless]

Okay, you have a few options to deal with this specific issue:

1. Acquire two Hirose U.FL female connectors, then install them onto each end of the cables.
2. Send in your Librem 15 v3 via RMA, likely as an out-of-warranty repair, to Purism support so they can perform the above procedure.

[jonathon.hall]

We don’t support Windows, so I haven’t tested any of this and can only offer (unsupported) suggestions.

My guess is that Windows has a problem with the way the battery or AC adapter state is reported from ACPI. Battery ACPI for the Librem 13/15 is here: src/ec/purism/librem/acpi/battery.asl · purism_next · firmware / coreboot · GitLab You’d need to be experienced with ACPI to try hacking that though, and I don’t have any idea how to get diagnostics of what Windows is seeing in ACPI. (Linux has lots of diagnostics for this, and I often compile custom kernels with extra tracing to troubleshoot these issues.)

MrChromebox (formerly the firmware engineer for Purism) maintains unofficial UEFI firmware builds for Librem devices. I have great respect for MrChromebox, but remember that this is a community service and neither he nor us can guarantee any functionality. If it doesn’t work, you might have to hardware flash to recover (tools for this are not expensive). This doesn’t change the ACPI anyway, so it might not impact the battery behavior. Firmware Utility Script | MrChromebox.tech