Power icon doesn't show charging or draining

[Laura Czajkowski]

As of yesterdays update, when the laptop is plugged it it does not show it is charging.

When the battery is not plugged in it does not show its draining, but does show up a warning when close to end of life. When you plug the battery to charge, the battery symbol does not change and no change in resolution happens. If you reboot the computer, the symbol changes to show it is in charge and also the resolution changes.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: indicator-power 1.90-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-16.25-generic 3.2.6
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.91-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Thu Feb 16 13:49:34 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release amd64 (20111012)
SourcePackage: indicator-power
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-01-05 (41 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

This bug can cause data lose as I have been a victim already ;) marked critical.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

also confirmed that downgrading to previous version fixes the issue so its indicator-power bug I believe.

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

I'll take back my last comment, it seemed to work on login but turns out it updates the status just on login.. and I reproduced it with old indicator-power so could be false alarm/

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

What is the output of "upower -d" when charging and discharging?

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

charging"

om26er@N4050:~$ upower -d
Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_AC
  native-path: /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
  power supply: yes
  updated: Fri Feb 17 00:00:12 2012 (2512 seconds ago)
  has history: no
  has statistics: no
  line-power
    online: yes

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path: /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
  vendor: LGC-LGC2.2
  model: DELL GK2X61C
  serial: 17768
  power supply: yes
  updated: Fri Feb 17 00:41:50 2012 (14 seconds ago)
  has history: yes
  has statistics: yes
  battery
    present: yes
    rechargeable: yes
    state: charging
    energy: 36.0861 Wh
    energy-empty: 0 Wh
    energy-full: 47.0751 Wh
    energy-full-design: 48.84 Wh
    energy-rate: 29.0598 W
    voltage: 12.246 V
    time to full: 22.7 minutes
    percentage: 76.6564%
    capacity: 96.3864%
    technology: lithium-ion
  History (charge):
    1329421310 76.656 charging
    1329421280 76.161 charging
    1329421250 75.619 charging
    1329421220 75.124 charging
  History (rate):
    1329421310 29.060 charging

Daemon:
  daemon-version: 0.9.15
  can-suspend: yes
  can-hibernate no
  on-battery: no
  on-low-battery: no
  lid-is-closed: no
  lid-is-present: yes
  is-docked: no

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

charger removed:

om26er@N4050:~$ upower -d
Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_AC
  native-path: /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
  power supply: yes
  updated: Fri Feb 17 00:42:28 2012 (3 seconds ago)
  has history: no
  has statistics: no
  line-power
    online: no

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path: /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/device:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
  vendor: LGC-LGC2.2
  model: DELL GK2X61C
  serial: 17768
  power supply: yes
  updated: Fri Feb 17 00:42:31 2012 (0 seconds ago)
  has history: yes
  has statistics: yes
  battery
    present: yes
    rechargeable: yes
    state: discharging
    energy: 36.408 Wh
    energy-empty: 0 Wh
    energy-full: 47.0751 Wh
    energy-full-design: 48.84 Wh
    energy-rate: 29.1264 W
    voltage: 11.813 V
    time to empty: 1.2 hours
    percentage: 77.3402%
    capacity: 96.3864%
    technology: lithium-ion
  History (charge):
    1329421350 77.340 discharging
    1329421348 77.317 discharging
    1329421340 77.175 charging
    1329421310 76.656 charging
    1329421280 76.161 charging
    1329421250 75.619 charging
  History (rate):
    1329421348 29.126 discharging
    1329421348 28.960 discharging
    1329421340 29.126 charging
    1329421310 29.060 charging

Daemon:
  daemon-version: 0.9.15
  can-suspend: yes
  can-hibernate no
  on-battery: yes
  on-low-battery: no
  lid-is-closed: no
  lid-is-present: yes
  is-docked: no

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

It's strange... indicator-power was listening for signals to be emitted from org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.Power, rather than listening for properties that changed. upower-monitor listens for properties, and dbus-monitor shows battery properties changing.

Patching indicator-power to listen for property changes (that is, listening for the "g-properties-changed" signal instead of the "g-signal" signal from its GDBusProxy) seems to fix the issue.

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

Indicator-power has listened for the "g-signal" (rather than "g-properties-changed") since at least its version 1.0. That explains why Omer is seeing the behavior in older versions of i-p, but it does make me wonder how the code worked before.

Maybe g-s-d used to trigger g-signal callbacks upon property change, but no longer does?

[Javier Jardón (jjardon)]

Yeah charles, seems you are rigth: http://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-settings-daemon/commit/?id=07b1ed63016f1725be251fa6ce8c15e0498539b5

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

Javier, nice detective work. How did you find that so quickly? :)

[Charles Kerr (charlesk)]

Fixed in http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~indicator-applet-developers/indicator-power/trunk.2.0/revision/129

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package indicator-power - 1.90-0ubuntu2

---------------
indicator-power (1.90-0ubuntu2) precise; urgency=low

  * src/indicator-power.c
    - cherry picked a fix for the icon not changing when state
      changes (LP: #933466)
 -- Ken VanDine <email address hidden> Fri, 17 Feb 2012 10:41:52 -0500

[Paul Dooley (pilotpaul)]

Indicator now working correctly but lid closure not being detected (I normally have it set to go into standby when I close the lid on battery power)...not sure if this is related or not (it used to work before the recent problem).

[Paul Dooley (pilotpaul)]

Further info on lid closure detection:

"upower --monitor-detailed" gives the following during a lid close & reopen:

[12:02:42.818] daemon changed:
  daemon-version: 0.9.15
  can-suspend: yes
  can-hibernate no
  on-battery: yes
  on-low-battery: no
  lid-is-closed: yes
  lid-is-present: yes
  is-docked: no

[12:02:46.678] daemon changed:
  daemon-version: 0.9.15
  can-suspend: yes
  can-hibernate no
  on-battery: yes
  on-low-battery: no
  lid-is-closed: no
  lid-is-present: yes
  is-docked: no

So it looks like the event is being detected ok but not processed.

[Harm van Bakel (hvbakel)]

The battery indicator in unity is now updating correctly, but the problem still persists in gnome-shell. Any chance a similar fix could be applied there?

[dmiranda (dmiranda)]

The bug persist on gnome shell

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

Actually, this is fixed in gnome-shell 3.3.5 which is available from the GNOME3 Team PPA (https://launchpad.net/~gnome3-team/+archive/gnome3).