Comment 3 for bug 250172

I can confirm this behaviour. If gnome-power-manager is started while the battery is not plugged in, then the "On Battery Power" tab never appears. However, G-P-M does seem to recognize the battery as the status icon is updated and the battery-related options now appear in the context menu. See g-p-m_nobat.txt

If, on the other hand, I start g-p-m while the battery is plugged in, the "On Battery Power" tab is permanently available. Even if I unplug the battery, the tab remains visible. See g-p-m_withbat.txt

lshal -m does not produce any output while (un)plugging the battery.

gnome-power-bugreport.sh (after restarting g-p-m with attached battery):
Distro version: DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=8.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=intrepid
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 8.10"
Kernel version: 2.6.27-7-generic
g-p-m version: 2.24.0
HAL version: 0.5.11
System manufacturer: missing
System version: missing
System product: missing
AC adapter present: yes
Battery present: yes
Laptop panel present: yes
CPU scaling present: yes
Battery Information:
  battery.charge_level.current = 42368 (0xa580) (int)
  battery.charge_level.design = 47520 (0xb9a0) (int)
  battery.charge_level.last_full = 42422 (0xa5b6) (int)
  battery.charge_level.percentage = 99 (0x63) (int)
  battery.charge_level.rate = 0 (0x0) (int)
  battery.is_rechargeable = true (bool)
  battery.model = 'e00511301B34B240 1704' (string)
  battery.present = true (bool)
  battery.rechargeable.is_charging = false (bool)
  battery.rechargeable.is_discharging = false (bool)
  battery.reporting.current = 3923 (0xf53) (int)
  battery.reporting.design = 4400 (0x1130) (int)
  battery.reporting.last_full = 3928 (0xf58) (int)
  battery.reporting.rate = 0 (0x0) (int)
  battery.reporting.technology = 'Li-ion' (string)
  battery.reporting.unit = 'mAh' (string)
  battery.serial = ' 1704' (string)
  battery.technology = 'lithium-ion' (string)
  battery.type = 'primary' (string)
  battery.vendor = 'SMP-PAN-22/main' (string)
  battery.voltage.current = 12505 (0x30d9) (int)
  battery.voltage.design = 10800 (0x2a30) (int)
  battery.voltage.unit = 'mV' (string)
GNOME Power Manager Process Information:
pg 8382 0.1 0.6 225680 13660 ? Ss 16:05 0:00 gnome-power-manager
HAL Process Information:
107 5365 0.0 0.2 36268 4916 ? Ss 13:52 0:00 /usr/sbin/hald
root 5369 0.0 0.0 17932 1236 ? S 13:52 0:00 \_ hald-runner
root 5450 0.0 0.0 20048 1168 ? S 13:52 0:00 \_ hald-addon-input: Listening on /dev/input/event3 /dev/input/event6 /dev/input/event4 /dev/input/event5 /dev/input/event1
root 5460 0.0 0.0 20060 1148 ? S 13:52 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/hal/hald-addon-cpufreq
107 5461 0.0 0.0 16752 1040 ? S 13:52 0:00 \_ hald-addon-acpi: listening on acpid socket /var/run/acpid.socket
root 5472 0.0 0.0 20052 1176 ? S 13:52 0:00 \_ hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/sdb (every 2 sec)
root 5477 0.0 0.0 20052 1184 ? S 13:52 0:04 \_ hald-addon-storage: polling /dev/scd0 (every 2 sec)