summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/battstat/docs/C/index.docbook
blob: d2bfd2f5b7d0ee4196c8b18291a88df3efc5a66c (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457
458
459
460
461
462
463
464
465
466
467
468
469
470
471
472
473
474
475
476
477
478
479
480
481
482
483
484
485
486
487
488
489
490
491
492
493
494
495
496
497
498
499
500
501
502
503
504
505
506
507
508
509
510
511
512
513
514
515
516
517
518
519
520
521
522
523
524
525
526
527
528
529
530
531
532
533
534
535
536
537
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
<?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 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>
  
    <xi:include href="legal.xml" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>

    <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, perform the
        following steps:
      </para>
      <orderedlist>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Right-click on the panel.
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Choose <guimenuitem>Add to Panel</guimenuitem>.
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Scroll down the list of items in the <guilabel>Add to Panel</guilabel>
            dialog, then select <guilabel>&applet;</guilabel>.
          </para>
        </listitem>
        <listitem>
          <para>
            Click <guibutton>Add</guibutton>.
          </para>
        </listitem>
      </orderedlist>
      <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 available, 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>