No low battery notifications and no updated battery status (ACPI Errors

[Bluebrave]

1. I do not get warnings when the battery is low (laptop promptly shuts down).

2. Battery power level is not updated. using acpi the battery power shows the same level present when the laptop booted - it never updates (if booted at 98% it will show 98% until rebooted).

3. Battery status (on power vs on battery) functions sporadically. Often after an update the status will work for several boots but then stops working (icon only shows status when booted - ie, if cord plugged in, the status will not change to "on battery" if unplugged; it still shows that the laptop is plugged in.

4. In power settings, "Show battery status in the menu bar" is blank. I can select options from the dropdown menu but they are not retained (when I close and reopen the settings it is blank again).

5. Went to gconf-editor apps > gnome-power-manager and noticed that there is no "notify" folder/keys.

6. Noticed that there is no gnome-power-manager.desktop in /etc/xdg/autostart/ (wanted to add it to autostart to see if that would help). I have tried using synaptic to reinstall gnome-power-manager but it didn't help.

Currently, my status (icon changes to battery/plugged in) and acpi output is:
Battery 0: Unknown, 98% (plugged in)
Battery 0: Discharging, 72%, 00:59:42 remaining (on battery)

I have also added my dmesg outputs for on battery and on power (attached). The laptop is an MSI-171F. I have tried blacklisting msi-wmi in modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (didn't help). Also noticed that etc/acpi has sevearl asus*.sh files (touchpad, keyboard backlight) in the folder (could that be the problem)

Note: I currently have Jupiter enabled but have disabled/uninstalled it

before and it didn't seem to affect the behavior.
---
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.25.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.3
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: goonies 2074 F.... pulseaudio
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'NVidia'/'HDA NVidia at 0xfae78000 irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Nvidia MCP79/7A HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0888,146271f0,00100101 HDA:10573055,00305557,00100900 HDA:10de0007,10de0101,00100100'
   Controls : 49
   Simple ctrls : 25
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
HibernationDevice: RESUME=UUID=09bc9ef7-ee94-4118-9e7a-62781fcbe7a5
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Lsusb:
 Bus 002 Device 002: ID 046d:c018 Logitech, Inc. Optical Wheel Mouse
 Bus 001 Device 003: ID 0bda:0158 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 2.0 multicard reader
 Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
 Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
MachineType: Micro-Star International MS-171F
MarkForUpload: True
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: linux (not installed)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcFB: 0 VESA VGA
ProcKernelCmdLine: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-3.5.0-34-generic root=UUID=61f0eab4-62c9-43d9-a603-4f283d1717de ro quiet splash acpi_enforce_resources=lax vt.handoff=7
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-34.55~precise1-generic 3.5.7.13
RelatedPackageVersions:
 linux-restricted-modules-3.5.0-34-generic N/A
 linux-backports-modules-3.5.0-34-generic N/A
 linux-firmware 1.79.4
RfKill:
 0: phy0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
Tags: precise
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-34-generic i686
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout lpadmin netdev plugdev sambashare
dmi.bios.date: 12/05/2008
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: A171FIZT V1.05
dmi.board.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: MS-171F
dmi.board.vendor: Micro-Star International
dmi.board.version: Ver 1.000
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrA171FIZTV1.05:bd12/05/2008:svnMicro-StarInternational:pnMS-171F:pvrVer1.000:rvnMicro-StarInternational:rnMS-171F:rvrVer1.000:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct10:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: MS-171F
dmi.product.version: Ver 1.000
dmi.sys.vendor: Micro-Star International

[Brad Figg (brad-figg)]

This bug is missing log files that will aid in diagnosing the problem. From a terminal window please run:

apport-collect 1194563

and then change the status of the bug to 'Confirmed'.

If, due to the nature of the issue you have encountered, you are unable to run this command, please add a comment stating that fact and change the bug status to 'Confirmed'.

This change has been made by an automated script, maintained by the Ubuntu Kernel Team.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Attaching dmesg on power.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

apport information

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

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[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

apport information

[Joseph Salisbury (jsalisbury)]

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Please test the latest v3.10 kernel[0].

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.
Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug as "Confirmed".

Thanks in advance.

[0] http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.10-rc7-saucy/

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

OK. Sorry for the dely. I installed the Kernel but it did encounter erros (related to unmet dependencies and nvidia). I've attached the install output for reference. It did allow me to boot but came up with some errors related to the display (probably the nvidia thing). Due to the errors, I guess I will tag this with "kernel-unable-to-test-upstream" as I'm not sure how valid the test is.

I ran acpi and noticed that nothing had changed an noted errors in the dmesg output (I'll add a comment and attach it).

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Here is the dmesg after latest v3.10 kernel[0] was installed and booted (note: installation included unmet dependency and nvidia error messages). ACPI errors are still present.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Haven't heard any feed-back or ideas recently. Anyone have any suggestions on what I can do?

The laptop is borderline useless when on battery as it will unexpectedly shut-down (no low battery warnings - I just have to guess at how much time the battery will last).

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Christopher,

No changes after BIOS flash (bummer). Here is the output from the command:

A171FIMS V1.11
09/25/2009

Notes:
- In power settings, "Show battery status in the menu bar" remains blank
- I ran the acpi command and still get "Battery 0: Unknown, 99%" (on battery or on power)
- The indicator icon is working (for now) - switches to the battery vs ac power icon when I unplug or plug power. However it does temporarily work on occasion (usually after Ubuntu updates and stops working later) so I'm doubtful this is related to the BIOS. As noted above, actual battery status monitoring is still not functional.

* I also booted to Win7 and tried MSI's Live Update. It had updates (which I downloaded) for some Mother Board drivers as follow: NVidia MCP 15.56, Realtek HD Audio Drivers 6.0.1.6473, and Realtek PCIE Network Drivers 7.48.823.2011. I have *NOT* installed them yet as I prefer not to mess with the MB unless instructed to do so (ie if it can fix the current problem).

**This is embarassing, but I noticed I failed to mention in my initial "Bug Description" that this is a dual boot machine: Win7/Ubuntu. Don't know if that would affect any troubleshooting.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, thank you for updating your BIOS. Did this problem not occur in a release prior to Precise?

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Christopher,

I've had 9.10 and 10.04 on the laptop with no problems (battery status worked). The problem began after the upgrade to 12.04 so it appears to be something with Precise.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, thank you for providing the requested information.

Regarding attaching crash reports, until this bug report is solved, let us not introduce further, potentially collateral problems.

Despite this, for regression testing purposes, could you please test for this in Oneiric via http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/oneiric/ ?

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Sorry on the crash report - I was only posting it in case it could be related to the current problem (my intent was not to introduce a new issue). Evidently, the crashes are not influencing the battery status problem.

I ran the CD with 11.10 (Oneiric) and it also had the same issue (I could plug/unplug the power source and the battery icon would not change status). I also left the computer on battery for a while and time/percentage did not change when I clicked on the battery or "power settings". I wasn't able to try acpi as it was not included in the live CD boot.

Note: On the 11.10 CD boot, I had to enable the nomodeset boot option, otherwise it would only boot to the blank purple screen with no drum beat start sound or icons/menus.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, thank you for testing Oneiric. Could you please test Natty and report the results via http://old-releases.ubuntu.com/releases/natty/ ?

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Gave Natty a try (also had to use the "nomodeset" option to boot). Still no battery status - actually worse, there was no indicator at all. I went to Power Management Preferences and noticed that there was not "On Battery" tab and enabling "Always Display Icon" only showed the AC Power icon. Basically, it appears Natty didn't recognize the battery at all. I rebooted Natty and still had the same result.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Ugh. I downloaded and tested the ISOs for Maverick and Lucid (10.04.4 version) and was met with the same results I had with Natty (also had to use nomodeset to boot). Neither recognized the battery (including a boot to Lucid on battery only). I know for certain when I had Lucid, the battery was recognized and charge status was reported. Note: battery was recognized on the Oneiric ISO but failed to update status (like Precise).

There is no acpi on any of the ISOs (maybe affected battery recognition?) and I know I've always had to make sure the nvidia drivers are current on any distro (otherwise get xorg errors on boot) and probably why I have to use the nomodeset option on the ISO boot. However, I doubt the nvidia card/driver would affect the battery recognition on the boots.

Maybe it is some hardware issue with the battery but when I use the boot to Win7 (32 bit), Windows does report and update the battery's charge status. While trying to search for some more answers, I came across this:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/35102/battery-not-recognized-on-my-laptop-and-it-recognizes-my-laptop-as-a-desktop

The last comment notes: "If you run windows ever, Windows can change your battery settings (somehow) and make it unreadable by some linux distros."

As the machine is a dual Ubuntu/Win7 boot option, I wondered if Win7 screwed something up, so I booted to Win7 and put the power settings to defaults. It still didn't fix the problem. I wonder if there is a hardware issue that coincided with the update to Precise or if a Win7 update related to power management messed something up (also coinciding with the upgrade to Precies).

Let me know what else I can troubleshoot to isolate the problem. (Thanks so much for the help so far!)

[penalvch (penalvch)]

bluebrave, thank you for regression testing releases. Could you please test for this in Saucy and report the results via http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ ?

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Christopher,

Saucy had the same issues as Precise with one exception:

Saucy, like Precise did recognize the battery on boot but would not update status (icon etc wouldn't change when I plugged in AC power) and, when on battery, charge amount/time was not updated. I would, thus, assume that I would still not get any warnings about low battery etc.

The one difference was that in, Saucy, the "Show status in menu bar" setting was retained and not blank - I was able to change to other settings (such as never) and the setting stuck.

Note: I did have to use the nomodeset option to boot.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

For what it's worth: I tried Linux Mint 15 MATE (on CD boot using "compatibility mode") and it recognized the battery and also recognized if the battery was charging or discharging (Precise does not change this status in "Power Statistics"). BUT it also did not update the battery charge status (stayed at the same percentage level).

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Christopher/anyone interested:

I keep trying different things but still no solution. Here's the latest attempt:

I ran a live CD of 9.04 (Jaunty) and noticed an error during boot stating ACPI input buffer is not empty aborting transaction. The live CD didn't recognize a battery but I googled the error message and was lead to this thread:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/578506 (ACPI: EC: input buffer is not empty, aborting transaction)

The thread suggested Kernel 3.9 may have fixed the issue. I then tried both 3.9.11 generic and 3.4.0-030400rc6-generic-pae. Both recognized the battery (did get some kind of monitor/screen resolution error and missing dependencies on boot, however) but they also would not update the battery status (on power/battery) or power level.

Right now I'm using 3.5.0.37-generic.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Christopher/anyone:

I continue to try to troubleshoot this. As an update, I was able to install and boot Kernel v3.10.9-saucy without the Nvidia error messages. The battery issue persisted in the kernel version, however. I will add the "kernel-bug-exists-upstream" tag.

Note: I did also test v3.11-rc6-saucy but got the nVidia error.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, the next step is to bisect between Lucid and Maverick, in order to identify the commit that caused this regression. Could you please do this following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

I looked at the link and am not sure which to do (there are several bisections discussed - such as Ubuntu Releases, Kernel, etc. I think you want me to do a Ubuntu Releases bisection but I've never done that before and not sure exactly how to proceed...

I think the bisection you have me download Lucid and Maverick and test them. Do I put those on the Live CD and run them (if so - I did do that earlier on post #31 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1194563/comments/31)?

I noticed one difference is that the link for the releases: http://releases.ubuntu.com/ all relates to "server" ISOs -is that correct?

Let me know what to do (some step-by-step instruction will probably be need). Also I am traveling this weekend but will respond early in the week when I return.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, regarding your comments https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1194563/comments/38 :
>"I think you want me to do a Ubuntu Releases bisection"

You have already done that part of it because we know the bug occurred going from Lucid to Maverick. The next step is to bisect the kernel versions between these two releases. Step-by-step instructions are already provided in the bisection article previously linked.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Ok. I tried doing some bisections. Here are the following kernels I attempted (all were Lucid/10.04 kernels since that's the last time I had any accurate batter info).

2.6.38-10.44 (pae)- failed, unmet repositories - no battery, no networking)
2.6.32-53.115 (pae) - no battery detected, issued acpi command and got nothing (just returned the command prompt), no networking
2.6.32-38.83 (pae) - no battery detected, issued acpi command and got nothing (just returned the command prompt), no networking
2.6.32-34.74 (pae) - no battery detected, issued acpi command and got nothing (just returned the command prompt), no networking

Tried mainline builds:
2.6.32-02063242 - no battery detected, issued acpi command and got nothing (just returned the command prompt), no networking
2.6.33-02063305 - no battery detected, issued acpi command and got nothing (just returned the command prompt), no networking

All these were attempted with 12.04 so it could be the older kernel conflicting w/ 12.04 (especially with networking). I would've thought one would have at least detected the battery and assume when I had 10.04, one of these Kernel's would've been on the machine and working (ie when battery status worked). Hopefully, I did a decent job of the bisect.

If it helps, when I booted with the Mainline Builds, both (during the splash screen or just as it was going off) flashed an acpi error message with something about an error in region.SM00. I didn't catch the rest as it went off too fast.

If that doesn't help give any other clues, it look like I'll just have to get used to being careful when I'm on battery. But thanks for all the help and sorry for how long it took me to find time to do the bisection!

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, given the extenuating circumstances the bisection process has revealed, let us skip this for now.

Hence, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available (not the daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom) following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.12

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

Once testing of the upstream kernel is complete, please mark this bug's Status as Confirmed. Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

[Bluebrave (bluebrave)]

Here are the results:

Tested Mainline 3.12 (trusty): 3.12.031200-generic for i386

No change in the battery status issue - I did recognize a battery but status (plugged/unplug and % charge) didn't change when I issued the acpi command.

Further info: When I installed the kenel via terminal, part of the output gave errors (note the "version string" error has been around a long time, so it is not specific to that kernel):

Running depmod.
update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 3.12.0-031200-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.12.0-031200-generic
dpkg-query: warning: parsing file '/var/lib/dpkg/status' near line 48712 package 'mobile-broadband-provider-info':
 error in Version string 'git.20100622t053426.75f8fc9-0ubuntu1~mtrudel1~lucid': version number does not start with digit
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/dkms 3.12.0-031200-generic /boot/vmlinuz-3.12.0-031200-generic
ERROR (dkms apport): kernel package linux-headers-3.12.0-031200-generic is not supported
Error! Bad return status for module build on kernel: 3.12.0-031200-generic (i686)
Consult /var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.88/build/make.log for more information.

Also when the computer booted, I got the "Could not apply stored configuation for monitors" error (ended up with some bigger icons but everything else seemed to work fine).

As noted before, my Ubuntu splash screen blinks some quick error in red (too quick to be able to read it) before the login screen appears. The Ubuntu splash is also just a text of Ubuntu 12.04 with small dots below it instead of the larger "Ubuntu" with the icon and large dots (has been like this for a while with the newer 3.5.x kernels - the older, non-mainline kernels I tested in #41 booted with the large text and icon). Doubt it's related but may be some more info.

Let me know if there is anything else you want to test. My impression is that this issue may be some quirk with my 4yr old laptop and likely affects very few, if any other, people. If this becomes something that is not worth your time to continue to work on, I do understand.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Bluebrave, the next step is to fully commit bisect from Lucid to Precise, in order to identify the offending commit. Could you please do this following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/KernelBisection ?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for linux (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]