One remaining glich with Mint XFCE

[oliverjames]

When I boot my Mint XFCE Elyssa installation the software does not detect the AC power supply (boot message) and in consequence skips disk checking everytime. Further consequence, if I forget to unplug-replug the AC supply the computer enters standby mode according to the battery power save settings.

Can anyone suggest a way of changing the configuration so that the AC power is detected during boot?

This glich occured with Felicia (so I stuck with Elyssa) and also with Zenwalk using XFCE 4.6 although initially the ZW installation was OK.

As I'm looking forward to trying Gloria it would be nice to find a solution in case it reappears there also.

I've previously posted this problem as related to Gnome power saving but no luck in solving it as yet.

Best regards,

Oliverjames.

[richyrich]

Please tell us your hardware configuration. As it is pretty hard to diagnose a problem without it.

Once we have an idea of what hardware you have, we might be able to help.

This glich occured with Felicia (so I stuck with Elyssa) and also with Zenwalk using XFCE 4.6 although initially the ZW installation was OK.

You have been trying to work this out before your post, so please tell us what you have tried, so we don't have to go over it again.

regards, Richard

[oliverjames]

The hardware:

laptop ACER travelmate 4052LMi, pentium M 725 processor (Centrino) 1.6Ghz, 400MHZ FSB, 2MB L2 cache, 2 Gbyte RAM.

I've tried reinstalling Gnome Power Manager but no change.

Oliverjames

[richyrich]

I'm sorry, I'm not gonna search for your hardware specs. Please post your 'lspci'

[oliverjames]

Here it is:

richard@ACERLPTP ~ $ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)
01:00.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): VIA Technologies, Inc. IEEE 1394 Host Controller (rev 80)
01:01.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
01:02.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 2200BG Network Connection (rev 05)
01:04.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)

Regards, Oliverjames

[richyrich]

Quick question . . are you dual booting to Wind***? And if so, when you check the battery status in Start/Programs/Acer/Acer Power (or 'control panel/power options/power meter'), what status does it give for the battery? (click on the battery icon)? Does it give a proper ID tag? I've come across certain Acer Notebooks that have batteries that hinder detection without the ID tag. Shows 100% charged, but, when the owner boots, they get prompted to connect to a power supply, then get a 'battery discharged.' error, and 'cannot boot until power supply is connected!'. Reboot again, then everything is fine, suspend works, even hibernation ?
I've ordered replacement batteries for a few of them, which work perfectly for about 4-6 weeks, then become as useless as the one they replaced, even though the Acer Notebook keeps chugging along just fine!!!

I don't want to rain, but there may be someone that has a better experience to share, so take heart . . . you'll save on power! . . . , just kiddding, good luck, Richard

Edit: Sorry, I've been running Mint Xfce on my old IBM A31p since 5, and still on 6. Have KDE, Xfce, and Gnome sessions available, compiz if I want to impress my colleagues, AND dual boot to xppro! All of my keys worked out-of-the-box since day one, and the old FireGL graphics works great, even on the 'Live' Mint 7. I like the quick boot of 7, but 'it ain't broke!', why mess with a good thing?

[oliverjames]

Hello Richard,

I am dual booting to WinXP. I'm going to reboot to XP now and check. The battery is new and part of the problem might be that the current Mint installation was made with a battery that held little charge?

From memory when I click the battery status icon in XP it shows 100% charged. I haven't seen the behaviour you mention.

This is what Mint says about the new battery

Screenshot-1.png

It works well and under XP gives me 5hours of working time when travelling by train. Not bad!

Regards, Oliverjames

[richyrich]

Yup, I do remember that my battery didn't show any capacity (unknown) until I stayed in an open session long into the batteries charge, then it seemed to detect the length of charge after that, and it has been tickety-boo ever since.

regards, Richard

[oliverjames]

Well in XP now and no ID tag on the battery but in all other respect it looks 100% healthy and charged.

I remember also that I don't have this problem when running Puppy, either from the HD or from a USB key, a remarkably impressive little OS if you haven't yet tried it.

I did play with Compiz briefly but while the bells and whistles are fun it seemed a bit unstable. And on the aforementioned ACER laptop with shared video memory, not good.

Anyway still hoping for a solution to this Mint problem. In all other respects it is first class, though still not up to XP for battery life.

Regards, Oliverjames

[tectron]

I am having an issue with my gateway 450sx4 that when I UNPLUG the ac power supply a message pops up that says I'm RUNNING on the ac power adapter, when I plug the adapter IN it says I am running on BATTERY power, Its completely backwards. the battery gauge seems to work fine though.




In Xp everything seems to work fine