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How to add a detailed battery indicator to UbuntuBy Joey Sneddon, Published February 25, 2011

For as long as I am able to remember the Battery indicator in Ubuntu has, for me,

been just shy of useless.

Whilst it pictorially displays my battery charge it hasn’t been able to provide me with

anything more: all I get for enquiring further is a never-changing ‘estimating…’ menu

entry.

Unsure if this was all the indicator was capable of doing I took to Twitter and asked

my followers. Turns out that whilst it should tell me a bit more information than it

currently many of you also see nothing but the same ‘estimating…’ menu entry.

Thankfully a solution came courtesy of follower jknvv13 – so thanks buddy!

Battery-Status

‘Battery Status’ is a GNOME Panel applet capable of displaying detailed information

about the battery.

When run in traditional GNOME-Applet mode options such as adding time remaining

or charger percentage into the icon are available.

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How to add a detailed battery indicator to Ubuntu http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/02/battery-applet-stat...

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Installing Battery-Status in UbuntuOpen a fresh Terminal session (applications > accessories > Terminal) and enter the

following two lines separately, entering your user password where prompted.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:iaz/battery-status && sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install battery-status

Once the applet is installed you can then add it to the Gnome panel. Achieve this by

right-clicking on the chosen panel, selecting ‘Add to Panel’ followed by ‘ Battery

Applet’. Finally press ‘Add’ to place it.

When prompted choose ‘Replace’ or you will have two battery applets running.

You can move it into desired position by right-clicking directly on the applet icon and

choosing ‘Move’.

Run Battery-Status as an Indicator Applet in UbuntuTo run ‘Battery Status’ as an Indicator-applet in Ubuntu – including in Unity 2D) –

you’ll need to deploy the following command in a terminal: -

/usr/lib/battery-status/battery-status --indicator

To launch the indicator mode on log-in add it to your ‘Start-up applications’ in ‘System

> Preferences > Startup Applications’, entering the command above in the command

field.

Related posts:

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Ubuntu One Indicator Applet gets a PPA2.

Indicator-Keylock: control and monitor caps, num & scroll lock from the panel3.

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use some improvement, and souse some improvement, and sodoes mine, but I think turning offdoes mine, but I think turning offthe CAPS LOCK will be a good startthe CAPS LOCK will be a good start;);)

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MarkyMarky Nice. I'll try this out.Nice. I'll try this out.Somehow .raw images fails when ISomehow .raw images fails when Itry to mount it with "-o loop".try to mount it with "-o loop".

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Jesús IniestaJesús Iniesta And what if we areAnd what if we areusing Precise? Can we get access tousing Precise? Can we get access tothis lenses? The second PPA is notthis lenses? The second PPA is notready por precise, and the firstready por precise, and the firstone... I haven't tried it, I'm not inone... I haven't tried it, I'm not inthe mood for breaking my systemthe mood for breaking my systemand installing it again (which isand installing it again (which israre), but as it's a Unity PPA, may itrare), but as it's a Unity PPA, may ithave conflicts with the "new"...have conflicts with the "new"...

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Great! Now I just need a working battery.

david4dev

same here! =P

Guilherme Sionek

xD

Joey-Elijah Sneddon

Just so folks know, there are a few long-standing bug reports on this issue:

The system that is failing to estimate your battery life:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubu...

The UI that becomes useless when that happens: https://bugs.launchpad.net

/ubu...

The other half of that problem with the UI (there's some overlap):

https://bugs.launchpad.net/hun...

I have always had the feeling it affects a lot more users than is reasonable…

The reports don't really need more comments, but it never hurts to hit the

“Affects me too” button at the top, and maybe to subscribe if you're

interested.

(And if you're very interested, the battery indicator still needs a patch and

the fix in upower still needs some testing).

dylan-m

Battery Indicator and Battery-Status should merge!

Oxwivi

or that poor excuse for a battery indicator dropped and

replaced by battery-status.

In fact this also has most of cpu-freq applet built in. If an

option is added to show/hide current cpu freq and/or

battery-icon (for non battery using computers like desktops),

then this could replace those 2 applets.

Even Mark himself has stated in more than 1 occasion that

madjr

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indicators should start merging to save space, else we'll have

100 of them in the panel, so this is an opportunity

Battery-status and the power indicator are quite

different. In its full glory, the power indicator is really

a wonderful thing. It isn't just about the battery in

your laptop: it aims to report about every battery

that has anything to do with your computer. Devices

that are charging over USB (this works with some

iPods right now), cordless mouses, UPSs.

Unfortunately, right now there are probably about

ten systems in the world that have the power

indicator in its full glory :b To get there with

everything else, there needs to be a lot of work going

on with the low level infrastructure so upower

reports power levels for lots of different devices. I

really hope that happens at some point, because it

would be amazing.

As for changing CPU frequency, I remember that

being discussed pretty heavily quite recently. The

general agreement seemed to be that it's something

best kept to the system. A really important thing for

saving battery life is time to idle, so if users keep

throttling the CPU when it's about to do work they

aren't going to help it. Consider most smartphones.

Android doesn't expose this stuff and it will keep a

smartphone alive for a day just fine. It knows when

stuff is happening just fine on its own.

dylan-m

Indeed. I only suggested merger since I was feeling

sympathetic as a bug has been reported and all

(someone out there still cares about it). :P

Oxwivi

Since I started using Ubuntu my laptop's battery life increased by about 17

hours! Wow!

Tom Slominski …

I think my battery lasts longer than yours... 200 days longer :P

[IMG=http://img202.imageshack.us/im...][/IMG]

(it's the Docky battery applet)

digitalcircuit

25 hours ago

22 hours ago


4 of 8 01/30/2012 02:23 PM

Wow. Are you stealing power from a nearby nuclear plant? :D

Tom Slominski …

Wow. Are you stealing power from a nearby nuclear plant? :D

Tom Slominski …

Did it really increase the battery life? I will need to test this. :D

Obake

Not, it didn't really.

Tom Slominski …

Um.. seriously?

Thameera

No :D But the original battery indicator says so!

Tom Slominski …

;)

Don't thank me,

Thank for you, for making OMG! Ubuntu! better!

Joaquin Vacas

The name mentioned in the article and yours are different! But

thanks for the tip, I'm sure it helped thousands of OMG! Ubuntu!

readers.

Oxwivi

#FAIL

I'm Joaquin Vacas, but my twitter is jknvv13 ¬¬

http://twitter.com/#!/jknvv13 xD

Joaquin Vacas


5 of 8 01/30/2012 02:23 PM

I figured as much - just wanted to tease you. And

there're a few Disqus users with some sort of

username displayed instead of their real names (like

me).

Oxwivi

Well, I can tweet something to you, and see

my timeline from @jknvv13

Joaquin Vacas

Battery applet is unpredictable. Sometimes it would indicate 'Fully charged'

even when the power cable is removed.

Thameera

Could also be that you battery's capacity has decreased. That

happened to me, its capacity is a 48% of what it initially was.

Wolter Hellmund

Yes, the capacity is 66.7% of the original capacity. But still,

that's not an excuse for the problem, is it?

Thameera

Does what is says, I would continue to use it if only the indicator applet could

display the remaining time/charge like the normal applet does (might be

even better if it would be displayed on the battery icon and not next to it).

Keep up the good work.

Romain Richard

I hoped that it would do that, too.

Joey-Elijah Sneddon

tried it on lucid. working well. shamefully i have the battery indicator not

working properly on acer laptop also before the installation of the new

applet.

gets from 99% to 5% with one hit, and stays on 5% like 20 minutes...

as for the applet itself....lot better than before.

suli8


6 of 8 01/30/2012 02:23 PM

I think I must be one of the few out there that doesn't care for indicator

applets...I realize there are some things to be gained by integrating more UI

options and setting a standard for how a user interacts with panel icons, but I

just don't care for them. To me 'left-click' for default action and 'right-click'

for menu with options was an obvious convention to follow for notification

icons, although apparently not for some developers. Also I'm beginning to

find it irritating how Ubuntu (or perhaps Canonical) seems to insist upon

itself, not by introducing options, but by avoiding 'papercuts' with new

interfaces and APIs that are neither progressing upstream paradigms in

Gnome, KDE, et al nor usable across those different desktop environments.

In fact, it's starting to feel that just as 'all Debian developers are Ubuntu

developers' but all Ubuntu developers are not Debian developers, all Gnome

developers are Ubuntu developers, but not all Ubuntu developers are Gnome

developers. To put it simply, Canonical seems to be spring-boarding off

Linux, Debian and Gnome.

Leaird Wedd

Now my battery icon is gone even after removing this applet. HELP.

Gaurav Butola

go to preferences --> power management. It should give list of

options. select always display icon.

Jérémy Nguyen thanh

ah... there it is :D

Thanks bro!

Gaurav Butola

I tried this battery applet ,its working fine for some extent. The Battery

status was not determined especially in case when i power-on laptop with

out connecting AC power. It is displaying power icon with text "missing".

When i connect power and disconnect it, from that state it is displaying

battery status.

Please help me what can i do..i cannot know when my battery goes down if

status is not displayed...

Nagi Reddy

I just installed the indicator but how come I don't have the "Show" menu?

Potato Queen

just logout and login-> then from add panel add new battery panel

then u can see menus..

Nagi Reddy


7 of 8 01/30/2012 02:23 PM

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Trackback URL http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2011/02/battery-appl

what is 'add panel'? i still don't have the show menu and it

doesnt start when i startup the pc even though i addedit to

startup applications

arjan strub

I use ubuntu 11.04 in classic ubuntu, but when i put this applet as my startup

aplications, It didn't start. What can I do?

diego_abad21

The 'show...' item isn't in the context menu from the app in indeicator mode.

But if I run it in window mode, it's there. any ideas why? running Natty.

Ben Avery

how to add to Gnome panel? I can't found gnome panel. I use Natty Narwhal..

Arief Mochammad Rachman

Is this supposed to work now? I only get the Estimating... info with the

default application. For battery-status applet, I couldn't find a repository for

natty.

yahoo-N6E3ZOMJQP6PSBCUSBZAXXGPI4

"When prompted choose ‘Replace’ or you will have two battery applets

running."

i forget to replace that, and now I have 2 battery indicators and don't even

know how to replace default one. Any suggestions?

Teguh Wibowo


8 of 8 01/30/2012 02:23 PM

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