Battery is Critical, Now Hibernating

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

Hi all,

When I pull the power lead out of my laptop, I get the above message with options of either "Ok" or "Cancel". It doesn't matter which I select or if I ignore it, it will go into hibernation anyway. I have enough time to check the battery level which says 98% charged, 4 hours remaining (which there actually is). I think LMDE has a different idea of critical to me. The real kicker for all this is my RAM is encrypted, so it's of no use to me anyway.

My questions are:
Why bother giving options for the box, if "all roads lead to Rome"?
More importantly: Is there anyway to stop this unwanted behaviour?

[HughT]

Not a solution, but what happens when you come out of hibernation? Do you have remaining battery time?

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

Not a solution, but what happens when you come out of hibernation? Do you have remaining battery time?

Aye, the four hours (give or take a few minutes, depending on usage) that it said that was left before it hibernated.

[HughT]

That's annoying. I have the same thing happen on an old laptop which runs Katya. I just assumed that the battery was so old that it didn't hold much charge, and that the 'remaining time' statement was in-accurate. So, I can't answer your query, but it's prompted me to do a little research. I'll see what I can find this evening.

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

Any further ideas on this? I created a separate partition for Ubuntu 11.10 to go on for a little while and it didn't have the same issue. I've obviously since removed that partition.

[HughT]

Not really, it is an old battery, probably six or seven years old. So I think that it really isn't holding charge.

[spandey]

You have installed LMDE or Mint Main Edition? Are you running 32 bit or 64 bit? What processor do you have?

[Inkit]

Just a shot in the dark here, but have you checked your power management settings?

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

Hi,

Power Management settings seems to change the behaviour in a limited manner. I can't turn the 'when low on battery' off enough, the least it'll do is suspend. Ok, it means I can resume it shortly afterwards, but I think this is a bug that needs resolving. The problem is for a few seconds the laptop thinks that it has minutes remaining, despite the fact it actually has hours.

I'm running 64 bit LMDE on a Acer Inspire One D255 netbook.

[spandey]

You can try this:

Open a Terminal and type

Code: Select all

 gconf-editor


Once it there cascade thru menus and change the following keys

1. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> general -> use_time_for_policy to false
2. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_low to 12%
3. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_critical to 8%
4. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_action to 5%
5. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> actions -> critical_battery to hybernate

Now, when the battery reaches 12% Gnome shows a "low battery warning", at 8% a "Critical battery warning" and at 5% the system hibernates.

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

I'll give this a go, thanks.

[nicknormal]

I'm having the same problem when I remove the mains power lead, the machine automatically hibernates, even with a full charge - and the battery is fine. And when I type the below command in Terminal I do not have any menus under apps for 'gnome-power-manager' - can I look elsewhere for these settings?

Thanks in advance!

You can try this:

Open a Terminal and type

Code: Select all

 gconf-editor


Once it there cascade thru menus and change the following keys

1. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> general -> use_time_for_policy to false
2. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_low to 12%
3. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_critical to 8%
4. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> thresholds -> percentage_action to 5%
5. apps -> gnome-power-manager -> actions -> critical_battery to hybernate

Now, when the battery reaches 12% Gnome shows a "low battery warning", at 8% a "Critical battery warning" and at 5% the system hibernates.

[spandey]

Are you using Gnome ? If yes..click on the folder symbol on left..

[jompa89]

I have this problem with Mint 12 on my Lenovo 3000 N200. In power settings I can only choose between hibernation and shutting down.

[BlueSky77]

I have this problem as well with my fairly new laptop. I was previously using Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 64 and this did not happen. Maybe it's something to do with the kernel? As soon as I unplug my laptop from the wall I get a critical low battery warning and within a short time the laptop hybernates (nothing I can do to stop it). A check of the battery indicator shows that I have a 98% full charge with only a few seconds remaining. After coming out of hybernation it shows a 98% full charge and 2 1/2 hours remaining.

I'm using the 64 bit version of Mint 12 (Main Edition), running Gnome 3. Since my post is not in the Main Edition area of the forum I probably should post this problem there.

Hopefully this will be fixed with an update because it's getting very frustrating!

By the way, there is no entry in my version of gconf-editor for apps -> gnome-power-manager.

[BlueSky77]

For anyone that is having this problem I found a fix that works for me in the Main Edition of Mint 12 64 bit Gnome 3:

Open dconf-editor... go to org > gnome > settings-daemon > plugins > power

Uncheck "use-time-for-policy"

I hope this helps someone else experiencing this problem.

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

Hi Bluesky,

Did you mean gconf-editior? In the new version of LMDE, I can find nothing similar to the path you say below. I'm a complete computer novice so apologies if I'm being wet behind the ears.

Thanks

[äxl]

No, he means dconf-editor. I think you have to install it.

I don't know if BlueSky77's tip is right but you could use the terminal without the need to install anything:

Code: Select all

dconf write /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/use-time-for-policy false

[WhatUsernameIsFree?]

No, he means dconf-editor. I think you have to install it.

I don't know if BlueSky77's tip is right but you could use the terminal without the need to install anything:

Code: Select all

dconf write /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/power/use-time-for-policy false

Thank you very much.