<?xml version="1.0"?> <!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [ <!ENTITY legal SYSTEM "legal.xml"> <!ENTITY appletversion "1.10.2"> <!ENTITY applet "Battery Charge Monitor"> ]> <!-- (Do not remove this comment block.) Maintained by the MATE Documentation Project http://wiki.mate-desktop.org/dev-doc:doc-team-guide Template version: 2.0 beta Template last modified Feb 12, 2002 --> <!-- =============Document Header ============================= --> <article id="index" lang="en"> <!-- please do not change the id; for translations, change lang to --> <!-- appropriate code --> <articleinfo> <title>&applet; Manual</title> <abstract role="description"> <para>&applet; shows the current charge of the battery and provides notifications if charge drops below a certain threshold.</para> </abstract> <copyright> <year>2015</year> <holder>MATE Documentation Project</holder> </copyright> <copyright> <year>2005</year> <holder>Davyd Madeley</holder> </copyright> <copyright> <year>2004</year> <holder>Angela Boyle</holder> </copyright> <copyright> <year>2004</year> <holder>Sun Microsystems</holder> </copyright> <copyright> <year>2002</year> <holder>Trevor Curtis</holder> </copyright> <copyright> <year>1999</year> <year>2000</year> <holder>Jorgen Pehrson</holder> </copyright> <!-- translators: uncomment this: <copyright> <year>2002</year> <holder>ME-THE-TRANSLATOR (Latin translation)</holder> </copyright> --> <publisher role="maintainer"> <publishername> MATE Documentation Project </publishername> </publisher> <publisher> <publishername> GNOME Documentation Project </publishername> </publisher> &legal; <!-- This file contains link to license for the documentation (GNU FDL), and other legal stuff such as "NO WARRANTY" statement. Please do not change any of this. --> <authorgroup> <author> <firstname>MATE Documentation Team</firstname> <surname></surname> </author> <author> <firstname>Sun</firstname> <surname>GNOME Documentation Team</surname> <affiliation><orgname>Sun Microsystems</orgname></affiliation> </author> <author> <firstname>Trevor</firstname> <surname>Curtis</surname> <affiliation> <orgname>GNOME Documentation Project</orgname> <address> <email>tcurtis@somaradio.ca</email> </address> </affiliation> </author> <author> <firstname>Jorgen </firstname> <surname> Pehrson</surname> <affiliation> <orgname>GNOME Documentation Project</orgname> <address> <email>jp@spektr.eu.org</email> </address> </affiliation> </author> <author> <firstname>Angela</firstname> <surname>Boyle</surname> <affiliation> <orgname>GNOME Documentation Project</orgname> </affiliation> </author> <author> <firstname>Davyd</firstname> <surname>Madeley</surname> <affiliation> <orgname>GNOME Project</orgname> </affiliation> </author> <!-- This is appropriate place for other contributors: translators, maintainers, etc. Commented out by default. <othercredit role="translator"> <firstname>Latin</firstname> <surname>Translator 1</surname> <affiliation> <orgname>Latin Translation Team</orgname> <address> <email>translator@gnome.org</email> </address> </affiliation> <contrib>Latin translation</contrib> </othercredit> --> </authorgroup> <releaseinfo revision="1.10.2" role="review"/> <revhistory> <revision> <revnumber>Version 2.13</revnumber> <date>July 2015</date> <revdescription> <para role="author">MATE Documentation Team</para> <para role="publisher">MATE Documentation Project</para> </revdescription> </revision> <revision> <revnumber>Version 2.12</revnumber> <date>September 2005</date> <revdescription> <para role="author">Davyd Madeley</para> </revdescription> </revision> <revision> <revnumber>Version 2.10</revnumber> <date>March 2005</date> <revdescription> <para role="author">Davyd Madeley</para> </revdescription> </revision> <revision> <revnumber>Version 2.8</revnumber> <date>September 2004</date> <revdescription> <para role="author">Angela Boyle</para> <para role="publisher">GNOME Documentation Project</para> </revdescription> </revision> <revision> <revnumber>Battery Charge Monitor Applet Manual V2.2</revnumber> <date>August 2004</date> <revdescription> <para role="author">Sun GNOME Documentation Team</para> <para role="publisher">GNOME Documentation Project</para> </revdescription> </revision> <revision> <revnumber>Battery Charge Monitor Applet Manual V2.0</revnumber> <date>May 2002</date> <revdescription> <para role="author">Trevor Curtis <email>tcurtis@somaradio.ca</email> </para> <para role="author">Jorgen Pehrson <email>jp@spektr.eu.org</email> </para> <para role="publisher">GNOME Documentation Project</para> </revdescription> </revision> </revhistory> <releaseinfo>This manual describes version &appletversion; of &applet;. </releaseinfo> <legalnotice> <title>Feedback</title> <para> To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &applet; applet or this manual, follow the directions in the <ulink url="help:mate-user-guide/feedback" type="help">MATE Feedback Page</ulink>. </para> </legalnotice> </articleinfo> <indexterm zone="index"> <primary>Battery Charge Monitor Applet</primary> </indexterm> <indexterm zone="index"> <primary>Battstat Applet</primary> </indexterm> <!-- ============= Document Body ============================= --> <!-- ============= Introduction ============================== --> <sect1 id="battstat-introduction"> <title>Introduction</title> <figure id="battstat-applet-fig"> <title>&applet; Applet</title> <screenshot> <mediaobject> <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-applet.png" format="PNG"/> </imageobject> <textobject> <phrase>The &applet; applet.</phrase> </textobject> </mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> <para> The <application>&applet;</application> shows the status of any batteries in your laptop computer. The monitor can tell you the capacity remaining both visually and as a percentage, as well as offer you an estimate of the time remaining based off the current usage rate. </para> <sect2 id="battstat-introduction-add"> <title>To Add &applet; to a Panel</title> <para>To add <application>&applet;</application> to a panel, right-click on the panel, then choose <guimenuitem>Add to Panel</guimenuitem>. Select <application>&applet;</application> in the <application>Add to the panel</application> dialog, then click <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.</para> <para> The layout of the <application>&applet;</application> applet varies depending on the size and type of panel in which the applet resides. </para> </sect2> <sect2 id="battstat-power-backends"> <title>Power Management Backends</title> <para> The battery monitor supports a number of power management backends. If it is available, the monitor will attempt to use the freedesktop.org <ulink url="http://upower.freedesktop.org/">upower</ulink> interface. If it is unavailable or unsupported on your platform, it will fall back to the freedesktop.org <ulink url="http://freedesktop.org/Software/hal">HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer)</ulink>. If that is also not availble, the battery monitor will attempt direct access to the power management system </para> <para> Not all power management backends are available from all vendors, and some vendors add their own additional backends for specific platforms and hardware. If the battery monitor is misreporting information from your battery see <xref linkend="battstat-troubleshooting" />. </para> </sect2> <sect2 id="battstat-getting-help"> <title>Getting Help</title> <para> If the battery monitor doesn't work for you, see these additional resources: </para> <itemizedlist> <listitem><para> <xref linkend="battstat-troubleshooting"/>; </para></listitem> <listitem><para> <ulink url="http://ml.mate-desktop.org/listinfo/">MATE mailing lists</ulink> </para></listitem> </itemizedlist> </sect2> </sect1> <!-- ================ Customizing the Appearance ========================= --> <sect1 id="battstat-appearance"> <title>Preferences</title> <para>To bring up the preferences for the monitor, right-click on the monitor in the panel and then choose <guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem></para> <figure id="battstat-applet-prefs-menu"> <title>&applet; context (right-click) menu</title> <screenshot> <mediaobject> <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/context-menu.png" format="PNG"/> </imageobject> <textobject> <phrase>&applet; context menu</phrase> </textobject> </mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> <figure id="battstat-applet-prefs"> <title>Preferences Dialog</title> <screenshot> <mediaobject> <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-preferences.png" format="PNG"/> </imageobject> <textobject> <phrase>Preferences Dialog</phrase> </textobject> </mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> <variablelist> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Appearance</guilabel></term> <listitem> <variablelist> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Compact view</guilabel></term> <listitem><para> This view shows only a single graphic in the panel, either an upright battery to indicate remaining capacity or a plug to indicate your laptop is connected to an external power source. <figure id="battstat-applet-compact"> <title>Compact view</title> <screenshot> <mediaobject> <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-applet.png" format="PNG"/> </imageobject> <textobject> <phrase>Compact View</phrase> </textobject> </mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> </para> <para> The compact view is the default view for the monitor as of MATE 2.12. </para></listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Expanded view</guilabel></term> <listitem><para> The expanded view is old look from previous versions of MATE. It has the larger graphic for the battery as well as a separate graphic to indicate what state the battery is in. <figure id="battstat-applet-expanded"> <title>Expanded view</title> <screenshot> <mediaobject> <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-applet-expanded.png" format="PNG"/> </imageobject> <textobject> <phrase>Expanded View</phrase> </textobject> </mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> </para></listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Show time/percentage</guilabel></term> <listitem><para>Selecting this option will display one of two pieces of information. <guilabel>Show time remaining</guilabel> will tell you how many hours and minutes until the battery is fully discharged or recharged. <guilabel>Show percentage remaining</guilabel> will tell you the percentage charge remaining in the battery.</para></listitem> </varlistentry> </variablelist> </listitem> </varlistentry> <varlistentry> <term><guilabel>Notifications</guilabel></term> <listitem> <itemizedlist> <listitem><para><guilabel> Warn when battery charge drops to </guilabel></para> <para> Selecting this option will cause a warning dialog to be displayed whenever your laptop battery reaches specified value, either as a percentage remaining or a number of minutes remaining. This indicates that the amount of charge remaining in your battery is critically low. charge. You can dismiss this warning dialog yourself, otherwise it will vanish automatically when you plug your laptop into mains power. </para> </listitem> <listitem> <para><guilabel> Notify when the battery is fully recharged </guilabel></para> <para> Selecting this option notifies when your battery is fully recharged. If you have compiled the &applet; with libnotify support a non-intrusive notification will popup from the monitor on the panel. </para> </listitem> </itemizedlist> </listitem> </varlistentry> </variablelist> </sect1> <sect1 id="battstat-troubleshooting"> <title>Troubleshooting</title> <para> Due to the complexities of power management and the vast differences between each of the different power management systems available, debugging errors in the battery monitor can be difficult. You will need to determine if the error exists in the battery monitor or is a bug in the information provided by your machine. </para> <para> The following information may be useful for troubleshooting what is wrong with your battery monitor. It is by no means exhaustive. If you find a bug with the &applet; (that is not caused by bad information being reported by ACPI), please <ulink url="http://bugzilla.mate.org/">report it</ulink>. </para> <sect2 id="battstat-troubleshooting-backends"> <title>Determining the backend</title> <para> If you are using the upower interface, or the Hardware Abstraction Layer (see <xref linkend="battstat-power-backends"/>) then that will be indicated in the about dialog by placing a star next to the author of the HAL backend. <figure id="battstat-credits-hal"> <title>Check you're using the HAL backend</title> <screenshot> <mediaobject> <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-credits-hal.png" format="PNG"/> </imageobject> <textobject> <phrase>Expanded View</phrase> </textobject> </mediaobject> </screenshot> </figure> </para> <para> Other backends do not currently give indication they are being used, so you will have to guess based on your hardware. Most modern PC laptops are using ACPI as the backend. This is also the backend with the largest number of inconsistencies. </para> </sect2> <sect2 id="battstat-troubleshooting-acpi"> <title>Checking the ACPI information</title> <para> If you are using the ACPI backend for the &applet;, it is important to check that ACPI is giving you the right information. If it isn't, then you will need to look into upgrading your DSDT or something else related to ACPI. </para> <example><title>Example ACPI output</title> <screen> [rupert@laptop ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info present: yes design capacity: 41040 mWh last full capacity: 37044 mWh battery technology: rechargeable design voltage: 10800 mV design capacity warning: 745 mWh design capacity low: 0 mWh capacity granularity 1: 10 mWh capacity granularity 2: 10 mWh model number: G71C00056110 serial number: 0000000008 battery type: Li-ION OEM info: [rupert@laptop ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state present: yes capacity state: ok charging state: discharging present rate: 11232 mW remaining capacity: 27140 mWh present voltage: 11400 mV [rupert@laptop ~]$</screen> </example> <para> You can quickly calculate the percentage remaining using <guilabel>remaining capacity</guilabel> divided by <guilabel>last full capacity</guilabel>, you can calculate the time remaining by taking <guilabel>remaining capacity</guilabel> divided by <guilabel>present rate</guilabel>. </para> </sect2> <sect2 id="battstat-troubleshooting-nohal"> <title>Hardware Abstraction Layer</title> <para> You can check that your battery is detected by HAL using the command <command>hal-device-manager</command>. If your battery is not detected by HAL or the wrong information is being reported, you can attempt to disable the HAL backend by setting a GSettings key. </para> <para> Select <guimenuitem>Configuration Editor</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Applications</guimenu> menu, under <guisubmenu>System Tools</guisubmenu>. Search for the key value <prompt>OAFIID:MATE_BattstatApplet</prompt> which should be located in the path <filename>/apps/panel/applets</filename>. </para> <para> Assuming the path is <filename>/apps/panel/applets/applet_1</filename>. In <filename>/apps/panel/applets/applet_1/prefs</filename> add a <guimenuitem>New Key...</guimenuitem> called <guilabel>no_hal</guilabel> and set it to the boolean value of true. This will disable the usage of HAL (see <xref linkend="battstat-troubleshooting-backends"/> to learn how to check this). </para> </sect2> </sect1> </article>