Battery watch

Forum: Laptops
Topic: Battery watch
started by: freeze

Posted by freeze on Jan. 23 2006,23:17

Hello all,
does anyone know how to install a battery watch. I've got a hd-install on my Laptop and it works brilliant.
I was thinking maybe a gkrellm plugin would do the job. But I haven't tried it yet. And I think I have to uninstall the one that comes with dsl first, cause you can't configure it with the F1 button and i can't find other options.
So if anyone has experience that would be really great.

THX a lot

edited SOLUTION:

altered /home/dsl/.xinitrc

Code Sample

# put X windows programs that you want started here.
# Be sure to add at the end of each command the &

KEYTABLE="$(getknoppixparam.lua KEYTABLE)"
DESKTOP=`cat $HOME/.desktop`

# For German Keyboards
if [ $KEYTABLE == "de" ]; then
xmodmap -e "clear Mod4" -e "add Mod5 = Mode_switch" &
fi

if egrep -qv noicons /proc/cmdline 2>/dev/null; then
iconsnap.lua &>/dev/null &
xtdesk &>/dev/null &
fi
#dillo /usr/share/doc/dsl/getting_started.html &>/dev/null &
case $DESKTOP in
fluxbox )
fluxter -w &>/dev/null &
mount.app &>/dev/null &
asmem -withdrawn -bg black -fg white -memory red &>/dev/null &
wmcpuload &>/dev/null &
wmnet -w &>/dev/null &
wmix &>/dev/null &
wmapm & #<============================ thats the one
exec fluxbox 2>/dev/null
;;
jwm )
./.background
sleep 1
exec jwm
;;
* )
exec fluxbox 2>/dev/null
;;
esac

one mor thing I had to do was:

Code Sample

ln -s /usr/bin/wmapm /opt/wmapm/wmapm

cause it didn't have that link in my box as default.

Thanks to cbagger01

Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 24 2006,17:28

Visit the Window Manager section of the MyDSL Repository.

There are 2 battery monitoring programs, depending on the type of power management that is used by your laptop.

One is wmacpi the other is wmapm

Posted by freeze on Jan. 25 2006,09:40

Thank you very much.

Just one more thing how can I make sure wich one is my PowerMangement?
I've got a Bios where I can only configure a little and I can't choose to shut off ACPI for example.
And is it important to know which one or can I just install both and see wich one reacts?

Thanks for your help...

Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 25 2006,18:23

Try both.

See which one works

Posted by freeze on Jan. 27 2006,07:28

APM works totally great.
Thank you very much cbagger01.
To make this Post complete allow me to ask one more thing:
How do I make the "Plugin", if thats what I can call it, stay in the gkrellm app? So it comes up at boot in a "dsl-hdinstall".

Could be that this should be another Post or even has been answered somewhere else allready, but it seems a lot of people are looking at this Post so, bla bla bla...
Thank you for your help

Posted by cbagger01 on Jan. 29 2006,04:36

Edit your

/home/dsl/.xinitrc

file and add the command to the list

usually it is something like:

wmapm &

The "&" is needed at the end to launch the program as a background process so the next lines in the script will continue to be executed.

Don't put the command at the end of the file.

It must be located above the last command that is already included in the file.

Posted by freeze on Jan. 29 2006,11:23

YES! That did it. Thank you cbagger01.

altered /home/dsl/.xinitrc

Code Sample

one mor thing I had to do was:

Code Sample

ln -s /usr/bin/wmapm /opt/wmapm/wmapm

cause it didn't have that link in my box as default.
Okay, thanks again...

Posted by pj-nevada on Feb. 13 2006,16:27

My luck with the battery watch wasn't so good. Device is thinkpad X24. Tried both wmacpi and wmapm. Using dsl 2.2 . For wmacpi the message was 'No batteries or ACPI not supported.' Got nothing from wmapm so tried modprobe for apm and message was 'No such device'. When I shutdown I get message 'apm: overridden by ACPI'. Any ideas?

Posted by freeze on Feb. 15 2006,08:56

I would try to "disable" or "enable" the power magement in the bios.
Further check apm and acpi in your dmesg. Mine says i can force acpi. So you can do that at boot or even alter your lilo or grub conf.
Try "dmesg >> dmesg.dump" and read that with nano or so. There should be an entry at the beginning of the text.

Good luck

Oh, and please reply when you get it running... thx

Posted by pj-nevada on Feb. 18 2006,00:50

Freeze, much gratitude. Did the dmesg dump as you suggested. Found suggestion near top of file to boot with acpi=off. Did that. Now apm works like a charm! Thanks!

Posted by freeze on Feb. 18 2006,06:39

Glad i could help!

Posted by twoika on Feb. 25 2006,19:50

Do the power managment have something with closing the laptop together and after some time open it again, it wakes up?
I miss this wakup on my notebook... dsl2.1 iso bootable cdrom only.