Comment 21 for bug 606706

It definitely appears as though the "Spin down hard disks when possible" on the "On Battery Power" tab of the power management applet is not being respected. I have the option unchecked, and can observe the following:

daniel@thinkpad:~$ sudo hdparm -B /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 APM_level = 254

(remove AC)

daniel@thinkpad:~$ sudo hdparm -B /dev/sda

/dev/sda:
 APM_level = 1

If I manually "sudo hdparm -B 254 /dev/sda" after going to battery mode, then the hard disk obviously stops the incessant and overly ambitious spinning down.

I'm all for spinning down disks when on battery power, but if I specifically uncheck that option in the power management applet, it should be honoured. Also, when spinning down disks, something a bit more sensible like a 2 or 5 minute idle period would be better (can we have this adjustable maybe?)