g-p-m does not indicate battery state correctly + changing brightness to random values.

[Darina]

Hello,

The issue is as follows:

Running Ubuntu Gutsy 7.10 on MSI PR200 notebook (Specifications: http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?func=prodtmpspec&prod_no=1208&maincat_no=135&cat2_no=&cat3_no=#menu).

The problem is that when the battery is plugged (no matter if it is on AC power or not) the LCD brightness control changes itself. After i adjust it from the keyboard Fn+F5 it "resets" itself to some new value (not set by me, not set in Power Management settings as well). The LCD brightness control on the panel is inactive after that. The settings in Power Management are:

Dim display when idle - disabled
Set display brightness to - this value changes itself without my interaction

The other thing that is probably connected is that the battery is indicated incorrectly. It changes it state from 100% loaded to 0% loaded (even with power cable plugged in). Once it displayed an error that it cannot read the battery state and it may be damaged. It also shut the computer once. The battery is new. On Windows OS it doesn't indicate any failures. I tested it with software and it didn't show any problems.

When the battery is not plugged and the notebook is working on AC only, there is no problem.

It seems to me that the Power Manager acts totally chaotic when battery is plugged.

Here is what's written about the battery in /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1

==State==

present: yes
capacity state: ok
charging state: charged
present rate: unknown
remaining capacity: unknown
present voltage: 10000 mV

==Info==

present: yes
design capacity: 53266 mAh
last full capacity: 49170 mAh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 46649 mV
design capacity warning: 0 mAh
design capacity low: 0 mAh
capacity granularity 1: 1 mAh
capacity granularity 2: 1 mAh
model number: MS-1221

serial number:

battery type: LION

OEM info: MSI Corp.

==Alarm==

alarm: unsupported

Please advice! I was looking for bugs and solutions but didn't find anything like this and my knowledge is not enough to fix this myself. If you need any other info, i'll provide as soon as possible.

Thanks in advance.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thanks for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please run the following command: gnome-power-bugreport.sh &> gpm.log and attach that file to the bug report? Thanks in advance.

[Darina (darina-gr)]

Hi,

Thank you for your help.

The requested file is attached. Please let me know if you need any other information.

This problem is quite annoying, i really hope it can be fixed soon!

Thanks.

[kstewart (kienan-stewart)]

I have the same issue with my MSI GX-700 laptop.

Attached is a copy of the logfile generated from gnome-power-bugreport.sh

From previous attempts to fix it: laptop mode changes nothing, and increasing on battery screen brightness to 100% only affects the brightness after flickers.

I sometimes experience interruptions in my wireless connection when flickers happen.

[kstewart (kienan-stewart)]

This bug appears to be a copy of Bug #147560

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/147560

workaround for the most part appears to be killing gnome-power-manager

[reh4c (gene-hoffler)]

On my MSI PR200/MSI-1221/Darter Ultra 2, the brightens changing (on its own) bug appears to be fixed on Ubuntu Hardy Beta. However, the battery applet G-P-M still gives some sporadic, whacky readings (i.e. plugged in when actually running on battery, etc.) One step closer to a complete fix, but not quite there. More info located here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=609722

[Darina (darina-gr)]

It is completely fixed in Hardy Heron :)

[reh4c (gene-hoffler)]

Really? My battery readings were fine for about an hour, and then it went berserk. I'm using 64-bit 8.04 final. Please confirm.

[Darina (darina-gr)]

Well it works fine on my machine now. I use the i386 version. Installed it as soon as the stable version of Hardy was released and so far there are no problems at all. It just detects the battery state with a little delay, but that's not a big deal.

Do you have the same laptop model?

[Darina (darina-gr)]

Ok, so i lied. The brightness part is fixed, the battery state is still not recognized correctly.

[bkloppenborg (bkloppenborg)]

By reading the above thread, these issues appear to be caused by a problem in the Linux Kernel itself as described here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.22/+bug/147560/

A bug fix was released and worked fine until 2.6.27-7 was released.

I would suggest moving discussion over to that thread.