Chromium Browser Causing Significant Increase in Laptop Power Usage

I recently noticed a strange bug while using Chromium web browser in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal powered laptops and netbooks(Intel platform). There is an immediate spike in power usage whenever Chromium is running.

Chromium Browser Causing Increase in Laptop Power Usage

The way I found this out was even stranger. In our earlier Joli OS 1.2 review, I had mentioned about several performance related issues I faced with Ping-Eee OS, a netbook optimized version of Pinguy OS. One of the remedies recommended by the developers of Ping-Eee OS was to install and run Powertop, a tool to pin point applications that are consuming most power(only Intel platform is supported).

See above screenshot. Chromium browser is running and Powertop statistics show that power usage is around 7.9W. This was well above 8.0W on many instances.

Ending Chromium browser brings everything back to normal. Above screenshot is taken while Firefox 5.0 was running with same amount of tabs open. Power usage dropped to 5.6W and Wakeups-from-idle/second dropped to 380.0 from 1096.7.

A bug report has already been filed regarding same and it's title says it all. "Chromium Generates HUGE numbers of CPU wakeups and uses massive amounts of power". This bug affects Chromium 12.0. As you can see in that thread(towards the end), some users are reporting huge improvements with latest Chromium 14.0, but I haven't tried it yet. I will update this post once I finds any improvement in later releases of Chromium browser.

Top 6 Ubuntu 11.04 Themes

We have already featured a series of articles dealing with various aspects of the brand new Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal starting with the thorough review of Ubuntu 11.04. Now its time for some extensive customization of Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal's look and feel through a bunch of cool looking themes. Following is a collection of some of my favorite GTK themes for Ubuntu 11.04/GNOME 2.0 based desktops. Take a look.

image via ubuntu natty wallpapers

Install Nautilus-Elementary Before Installing Themes
This is not a surprise anymore. Most of the themes for Ubuntu we are going to feature below will require you to install Nautilus-Elementary for optimum results. So, here is how you install Nautilus Elementary in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

• Copy-paste the following commands into Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:am-monkeyd/nautilus-elementary-ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
nautilus -q

• Done. A more detailed take on Nautilus-Elementary can be found here and here.

• One other thing you might want to consider installing before getting started with GTK themes are these pretty icon themes for Ubuntu GNOME.

Nautilus Elementary Ambiance Theme

• Nautilus Elementary Ambiance theme is the perfect little modification of default Ubuntu 11.04's Ambiance GTK theme. Totally loved it. Here is what you need to do.

• Download Nautilus Elementary Ambiance theme first of all.

• Extract the downloaded ZIP file and copy "nautilus.rc" and the folder "nautilus" from the folder named "LAST VERSION".

• Open Terminal and copy-paste the following command.

gksudo nautilus /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps

• Insert your password when prompted.

• Paste the previously copied files ("nautilus.rc" and the folder "nautilus") into the Nautilus window you just opened(into the /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/apps directory ie).

• Reapply the theme(select a different theme and then select Ambiance once again).

Equinox Evolution Themes

• This is by far, my favorite collection of themes for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal.

• Latest Equinox theme pack update brought in 3 more themes namely Evolution Dawn, Evolution Dusk and Evolution Midnight taking the total number of Equinox themes to 5.

• To install them in Ubuntu 11.04, do the following in Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tiheum/equinox
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gtk2-engines-equinox equinox-theme

• Also see: How to enable breadcrumbs hack for Equinox themes in Ubuntu 11.04?

Orta Theme

• Orta Theme by SkiesOfAzel is again one of my favorites.

• To install it, copy-paste the following commands into Terminal.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nikount/orta-desktop
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install orta-theme

• Done. More details here.

Atolm Theme

• Atolm theme is also created by SkiesOfAzel, meant for dark theme fans.

• Though Atolm GTK theme looks pretty good with Awoken icon themes, I prefer Awoken Dark icon theme for it, think its slightly better. 

• Atolm theme is available in the same PPA as above, so if you have installed Orta theme from above, you need only the third command from below.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nikount/orta-desktop
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install atolm-theme

• Done. More on Atolm theme here.

Divergence IV - "A New Hope" Theme

• Divergence IV - "A New Hope" Theme created by jurialmunkey. The next 3 themes we are featuring will also be of the same author.

• Download and Installation Instructions

Attack of the Clones Theme

• Attack of the Clones Theme - Download and Installation Instructions

There goes our list of favorite themes for Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal. A total of 10 themes have been listed above(including the 5 Equinox Evolution themes) and hope you found out your favorite. Two other things you need to know about Ubuntu 11.04's new Unity interface is the configuration options available through Quicklists and Application Indicators. Hope it helps. UPDATE: Nautilus Elementary Ambiance Theme + Orange Themed Clarity Icons looks pretty nice in Unity. What do you think?