Battery Monitor

Booting, installing, newbie
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zaivala
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Joined: Mon 21 Mar 2011, 07:14

Battery Monitor

#1 Post by zaivala »

I'm absolutely positive someone has addressed this, but after 5 Searches and getting told I need to wait longer between searches...

Why is there not a battery monitor or indicator in the taskbar? What can I do to install/view/use one?

This is particularly an issue, as when my battery runs out in Puppy it shuts the computer off. Totally. And then I have to tell Puppy (upon reboot) to ignore the fact that X was shut down improperly.

I am using Puppy 571 on an ASUS X550CA.

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trapster
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Location: Maine, USA
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#2 Post by trapster »

Vattery

Is rather dated. Your mileage may vary.
trapster
Maine, USA

Asus eeepc 1005HA PU1X-BK
Frugal install: Slacko
Currently using full install: DebianDog

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rcrsn51
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#3 Post by rcrsn51 »

Look in /root/Startup for powerapplet_tray. This is the battery monitor, but it apparently is not working for you.

Look in /var/log/messages.

rokytnji
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#4 Post by rokytnji »

This runs in JWM for me in AntiX. Maybe it works in Puppy?

http://antix.freeforums.org/batti-gtk-solved-t4662.html

Just make a bash startup file with batti & in Startup in rox maybe?

Code: Select all

# start the battery monitor
batti &
Just posting the info is all.

zaivala
Posts: 125
Joined: Mon 21 Mar 2011, 07:14

#5 Post by zaivala »

rcrsn51 wrote:Look in /root/Startup for powerapplet_tray. This is the battery monitor, but it apparently is not working for you.

Look in /var/log/messages.
powerapplet_tray is there. How do I get it to show?
Right now my taskbar includes Sound, Network, Disk Space, and what I assume is Processor Use (red graph).

zaivala
Posts: 125
Joined: Mon 21 Mar 2011, 07:14

#6 Post by zaivala »

I grabbed a couple from the Ubuntu repositories...

They are each missing the following dependencies:
combobox
ftp
img
tablelist
tktable
uri

and the good news is, the Ubuntu repositories claim to not include combobox... I didn't check the others, stopped at first roadblock.

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rcrsn51
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#7 Post by rcrsn51 »

zaivala wrote:How do I get it to show?
rcrsn51 wrote:Look in /var/log/messages.

Code: Select all

cat /var/log/messages | grep battery

zaivala
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#8 Post by zaivala »

Code: Select all

cat /var/log/messages | grep battery
[/quote]

Dec 22 21:21:55 puppypc27171 user.warn kernel: [ 13.670787] ACPI: Deprecated procfs I/F for battery is loaded, please retry with CONFIG_ACPI_PROCFS_POWER cleared
Dec 22 21:21:55 puppypc27171 user.info kernel: [ 13.670795] ACPI: Battery Slot [BAT0] (battery present)

OK, now what?

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rcrsn51
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#9 Post by rcrsn51 »

From the command line, run

Code: Select all

ps
Is the powerapplet_tray running? Then run

Code: Select all

/root/Startup/powerapplet_tray
Did that start it?

zaivala
Posts: 125
Joined: Mon 21 Mar 2011, 07:14

#10 Post by zaivala »

# ps
PID USER TIME COMMAND
1 root 0:00 /bin/busybox init
2 root 0:00 [kthreadd]
3 root 0:00 [ksoftirqd/0]
5 root 0:00 [kworker/0:0H]
6 root 0:01 [kworker/u:0]
7 root 0:00 [kworker/u:0H]
8 root 0:00 [migration/0]
9 root 0:00 [rcu_bh]
10 root 0:00 [rcu_sched]
11 root 0:00 [migration/1]
12 root 0:00 [ksoftirqd/1]
13 root 0:00 [kworker/1:0]
14 root 0:00 [kworker/1:0H]
15 root 0:00 [khelper]
16 root 0:00 [bdi-default]
17 root 0:00 [kblockd]
18 root 0:00 [ata_sff]
19 root 0:00 [khubd]
20 root 0:00 [md]
21 root 0:00 [kworker/0:1]
22 root 0:00 [kswapd0]
23 root 0:00 [fsnotify_mark]
24 root 0:00 [crypto]
30 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_0]
31 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_1]
32 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_2]
33 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_3]
34 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_4]
35 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_5]
40 root 0:00 [kworker/u:5]
42 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_6]
45 root 0:00 [scsi_eh_7]
47 root 0:00 [kpsmoused]
48 root 0:00 [deferwq]
49 root 0:00 [kworker/1:2]
189 root 0:00 [kworker/0:1H]
230 root 0:00 [kworker/0:2]
304 root 0:00 [flush-8:0]
350 root 0:00 [kworker/1:1H]
503 root 0:00 [jbd2/sda4-8]
504 root 0:00 [ext4-dio-unwrit]
509 root 0:00 [loop1]
572 root 0:00 [flush-7:1]
575 root 0:00 [loop0]
618 root 0:00 [loop4]
623 root 0:00 [loop5]
628 root 0:00 [loop6]
822 root 0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon --resolve-names=early
2419 root 0:00 [led_workqueue]
3350 root 0:00 [cfg80211]
3686 root 0:00 [kmemstick]
3926 root 0:00 [hd-audio0]
4503 root 0:00 -sh
4504 root 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty2
4505 root 0:00 /sbin/getty 38400 tty3
4585 root 0:00 {xwin} /bin/sh /usr/bin/xwin
4637 root 0:00 /usr/bin/xinit /root/.xinitrc -- -br -nolisten tcp
4638 root 0:02 X :0 -br -nolisten tcp
4708 root 0:00 wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -iwlan0 -c/etc/simple_network_se
4712 root 0:01 jwm
4803 root 0:00 syslogd -m 0
4805 root 0:00 klogd
4813 root 0:00 /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/ROX-Filer -p /root/Choices/ROX-
4814 root 0:00 /usr/local/pup_event/pup_event_frontend_d
4837 root 0:00 /usr/sbin/cupsd -C /etc/cups/cupsd.conf
4845 nobody 0:00 /usr/bin/gdomap -I /var/run/gdomap.pid -p
4854 messageb 0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --system
4980 root 0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon --resolve-names=early
4982 root 0:00 /sbin/udevd --daemon --resolve-names=early
5163 root 0:00 xload -nolabel -bg #888888 -fg red -hl white
5276 root 0:00 {delayedrun} /bin/sh /usr/sbin/delayedrun
5278 root 0:00 /root/Startup/freememapplet_tray
5356 root 0:00 {delayedrun} /bin/sh /usr/sbin/delayedrun
5359 root 0:00 /root/Startup/network_tray
5471 root 0:00 {delayedrun} /bin/sh /usr/sbin/delayedrun
5473 root 0:00 retrovol -hide
5540 root 0:00 dhcpcd wlan0
6634 root 0:18 mozilla
6654 root 0:00 dbus-launch --autolaunch 9114cc65a7ee4c61af0292b600000077
6655 root 0:00 /usr/bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address
6657 root 0:00 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/gconf/gconfd-2
8935 root 0:00 [kworker/0:0]
10104 root 0:00 /usr/bin/urxvt
10105 root 0:00 bash
10228 root 0:00 busybox ps


# /root/startup/powerapplet_tray
bash: /root/startup/powerapplet_tray: No such file or directory

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rcrsn51
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#11 Post by rcrsn51 »

zaivala wrote:# /root/startup/powerapplet_tray
bash: /root/startup/powerapplet_tray: No such file or directory
Startup is capitalized.

zaivala
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Joined: Mon 21 Mar 2011, 07:14

#12 Post by zaivala »

Thank you, rcrsn51. Now I get:

# /root/Startup/powerapplet_tray
Floating point exception

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rcrsn51
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#13 Post by rcrsn51 »

zaivala wrote:Floating point exception
That explains why it doesn't appear in the system tray.

I got out an old netbook and ran Precise 571 on the battery. I got the same error. I tried some other Puppies and got the same.

I have no idea how common a problem this is. Some laptop regulars will need to comment.

I tried jemimah's vattery and it also failed. But the command-line ibam worked.

zaivala
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#14 Post by zaivala »

Already tried ibam...it is missing many dependencies, the first (at least) of which is not available in the repository... combobox, ftp, img, tablelist, tktable and uri

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cimarron
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#15 Post by cimarron »

I use Pbatt, which is pretty old, but I like it because it is simple and it's easy to change the icons used in the tray to whatever you want. Here's the original thread (with picture):

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=36492

The sources for some newer versions of Pbatt are available through this post on BK's blog:

http://bkhome.org/blog/?viewDetailed=01409

I have 0.3.2, and edited the bevent code to give an audible puppy bark when the battery gets very low. Also added a check so pbatt will only launch if a battery is present. I could provide these, if you're interested. Mine looks like this (with tooltip visible):
Attachments
pbatt.png
(6.27 KiB) Downloaded 513 times
Last edited by cimarron on Tue 24 Dec 2013, 13:12, edited 1 time in total.

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rcrsn51
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#16 Post by rcrsn51 »

The battery on my netbook had completely discharged. But once I let it recharge a bit, powerapplet_tray started to work!

zaivala
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#17 Post by zaivala »

Looks good but.. again, I'm pretty much a noob. Don't know where to unzip the files to, or do I put them in /temp and move them to the directories which are sorta "backwards" noted (i.e., pbatt-0.3.2/usr ... pbatt-0.3.2/usr/local ...) (I would assume they would be /usr/pbatt-0.3.2 and /usr/local/pbatt-0.3.2, etc.) This is why I love .pet files...

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cimarron
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#18 Post by cimarron »

You could try the .pet from the original thread (version 0.0.1). That may be all you need. The icons are installed in /usr/local/lib/X11/mini-icons if you want to substitute different ones (using the same size and filename).

I think I upgraded to 0.3.2 simply by taking bevent from the source (extract it anywhere and look in the extracted folder) and replacing the installed bevent from 0.0.1 (in /usr/local/bin). The newer version uses more icons with different filenames, so you would have to provide the extra icons, either from the /usr/local/lib/X11/mini-icons folder in the extracted source folder, or your own substitutions.

Let me know if you still have questions...

zaivala
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#19 Post by zaivala »

You confused me with that response. Was I wrong in saying that I could just change the directories? (move the files to the directories as listed, but with the progname being the final, not first, directory name?) You just told me to get the original and replace a bunch of files... but I already have the latest version, just want to know where to extract it to.

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rcrsn51
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#20 Post by rcrsn51 »

@zaivala: Here is another battery monitor. This one shows the time left on the battery instead of the usual percent charge. When the battery gets low, it pops up a warning message.

Hopefully, this one will work for you. Please test and report.

Note that the tray icon does NOT change with the status of the battery.
Attachments
yabatt-1.3.pet
Updated 2013-12-26
Improved battery checking
(4.62 KiB) Downloaded 221 times
Last edited by rcrsn51 on Thu 26 Dec 2013, 13:49, edited 6 times in total.

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