Unable to monitor battery

Annorax · 2012-08-05 15:33:07

I'm running Arch Linux with KDE on an older laptop (circa 2007) in which my battery life is literally about 10 minutes. I am trying to get KDE to monitor my battery life but have been unsuccessful. I am studying this documentation: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/La … _Utilities

1.) For some reason, running the acpid daemon causes hitting the Power button on the laptop to do an immediate shutdown despite in System Settings I have chosen it to prompt me what to do. If I stop acpid, the button works as I have configured.

2.) Even with acpid running, the System Tray -> Battery Monitor always says the battery is not present so I cannot monitor it. Even if I unplug and run on battery only, it doesn't find it.

Hspasta · 2012-08-05 17:41:12

You are not supposed to run acpid with desktop environments. DE's usually have their own power management and they conflict which is probably what's causing the unexpected behavior.

Annorax · 2012-08-05 18:30:18

Thanks for the tip; I did not know that. Is there anything special in KDE I need to do to get it to read my battery?

ewaller · 2012-08-05 19:05:38

Take a look in your /sys directory for the following:

ewaller@odin:/sys/class/power_supply 1014 %ls -l /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 12:00 alarm
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 charge_full
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 charge_full_design
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 charge_now
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 current_now
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 12:00 cycle_count
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Aug  5 12:01 device -> ../../../PNP0C0A:00
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:46 manufacturer
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 model_name
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Aug  5 12:00 power
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 present
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 serial_number
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 status
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Aug  5 10:46 subsystem -> ../../../../../../class/power_supply
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 technology
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:46 type
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:45 uevent
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 voltage_min_design
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 10:47 voltage_now
ewaller@odin:/sys/class/power_supply 1015 %

You must include the last / in that command because the directory is a link. Do those files exist? Do they contain anything interesting? Especially present ??

ewaller@odin:/sys/class/power_supply 1015 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/present 
1
ewaller@odin:/sys/class/power_supply 1016 %

Annorax · 2012-08-05 19:26:15

I do see an output similar to that, so my battery seems to be found by the KDE system tray.

[root@arch ~]# ls -l /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 alarm
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 charge_full
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 charge_full_design
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 charge_now
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 current_now
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 cycle_count
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Aug  5 15:23 device -> ../../../PNP0C0A:00
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 09:11 manufacturer
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 model_name
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root    0 Aug  5 15:23 power
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 present
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 serial_number
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 status
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root    0 Aug  5 09:11 subsystem -> ../../../../../../class/power_supply
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 technology
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 09:11 type
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 09:11 uevent
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 voltage_min_design
-r--r--r-- 1 root root 4096 Aug  5 15:23 voltage_now
[root@arch ~]# cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/present 
1
[root@arch ~]#

ewaller · 2012-08-05 19:38:09

I am not sure what is going on. Let me think on it...
I do note that you are logged in as root. Please verify that you are not running KDE as root, but rather as a normal user.

Annorax · 2012-08-05 20:27:52

I am logging into KDE as a non-root user, in my terminal I just su'd to root to install some packages. Here is what I see in the KDE System Tray.

Annorax · 2012-08-07 23:05:27

I did some more studying and playing around with things but nothing seems to work. This is especially a problem for me as the battery is old and literally lasts about 10 minutes, so if I unplug to move, I want to track the battery's life. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

ewaller · 2012-08-08 04:10:43

I am perplexed. Take a look at some of the files we discussed and see if there are any clues in there. Any mention of the battery in dmesg or the logs?

ewaller@odin:~[1] 1009 %cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/*    
0
4111000
4400000
4111000
0
0
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/device: Is a directory
Hewlett-Packard
Primary
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power: Is a directory
1

Full
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/subsystem: Is a directory
Li-ion
Battery
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Full
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=10800000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=12482000
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=4400000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=4111000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=4111000
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=Primary
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=Hewlett-Packard
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=
10800000
12482000
ewaller@odin:~[1] 1010 %ls /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/
alarm        charge_full_design  current_now  device        model_name  present        status     technology  uevent              voltage_now
charge_full  charge_now          cycle_count  manufacturer  power       serial_number  subsystem  type        voltage_min_design
ewaller@odin:~ 1011 %

Also (just checking) are you fully up to date? (Pacman -Syu) Are you running testing?

Edit:
In what groups are you ?

ewaller@odin:~ 1003 %groups
sys lp wheel log http mpd games dbus avahi network video audio scanner power users vboxusers
ewaller@odin:~ 1004 %

Last edited by ewaller (2012-08-08 04:13:16)

Annorax · 2012-08-10 21:19:39

Here's the output of that command. Things seem OK to me...

cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/device: Is a directory

PA3399U-2BAS/BRS
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power: Is a directory
1
60BA
Unknown
cat: /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/subsystem: Is a directory
Li-ion
Battery
POWER_SUPPLY_NAME=BAT0
POWER_SUPPLY_STATUS=Unknown
POWER_SUPPLY_PRESENT=1
POWER_SUPPLY_TECHNOLOGY=Li-ion
POWER_SUPPLY_CYCLE_COUNT=0
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_MIN_DESIGN=15000000
POWER_SUPPLY_VOLTAGE_NOW=15000000
POWER_SUPPLY_CURRENT_NOW=0
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL_DESIGN=256000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_FULL=256000
POWER_SUPPLY_CHARGE_NOW=266000
POWER_SUPPLY_MODEL_NAME=PA3399U-2BAS/BRS
POWER_SUPPLY_MANUFACTURER=
POWER_SUPPLY_SERIAL_NUMBER=60BA
15000000
15000000

I frequently run "pacman -Syu" to stay updated.

I'm in the following groups:

lp wheel games network video audio optical storage scanner power users

Arch Linux

#1 2012-08-05 15:33:07

Unable to monitor battery

#2 2012-08-05 17:41:12

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#3 2012-08-05 18:30:18

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#4 2012-08-05 19:05:38

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#5 2012-08-05 19:26:15

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#6 2012-08-05 19:38:09

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#7 2012-08-05 20:27:52

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#8 2012-08-07 23:05:27

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#9 2012-08-08 04:10:43

Re: Unable to monitor battery

#10 2012-08-10 21:19:39

Re: Unable to monitor battery

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