"Always display" option has turned into "always display when battery present"

[Adam Conrad]

Summary says it all. Yesterday, I had an "Always display icon" option, which gave me a nice "plug" icon when I pulled out my batter. Now, I have "always display when battery present", so when I pull the battery, I just get no icon at all.

As discussed on IRC, this was probably in the name of "doing the right thing for desktop users", but my argument is that desktop users would never have "always display icon" checked at all, and if they DID, it's cause they want to see the plug icon, for whatever strange reason.

[Daniel Silverstone (dsilvers)]

I've just confirmed this behaviour with my laptop. This does indeed suck.

Either we should add a 'always with battery' option inbetween charge and always, or we should add a 'really always goddamnit' option after 'always' or we should revert the meaning of 'always'

Richard: Does this have something to do with the desktop case?

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

>This does indeed suck.

Why? Why would you want a battery charge meter showing when you have no battery? If there's a specific use case, then I can add another optionbox.

If you *really* want an icon on a desktop (or on a laptop without batteries) you can check the /apps/gnome-power-manager/use_icon_for_desktops key to true.

Tell me if this is crack.

Richard.

[Daniel Silverstone (dsilvers)]

Given that the icon is the one of the primary ways to interact with what g-p-m can do fo r you, it seems odd to hide it just because a battery isn't present.

Some users remove their batteries when they're going to be on-power for a long time yet might still want to suspend.

It seems to me that the idea of hiding the icon for desktops was sound. Perhaps 'always' should show the icon if there are battery bays at all; rather than if the bays are filled.

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

Can you file this as an upstream bug please, and I can discuss it with the other devlopers. Please reference this bug also. Thanks.

[Adam Conrad (adconrad)]

Indeed, when my laptop is at my desk (which is most of the time), the battery is removed. Not only is the icon the most convenient way to get at g-p-m's settings, it's also a subtle reminder to me that I don't have a battery in, so I don't absentmindedly reach around behind my laptop and uplug it without first putting a battery in. :)

[Daniel Silverstone (dsilvers)]

Fixed in 2.13.93-0ubuntu1

[Richard Hughes (richard-hughes)]

I've added this into CVS:

2006-03-10 Richard Hughes <email address hidden>
 * data/gnome-power-manager.schemas.in: Remove policy for desktops key, it was just working round missing preferences and nobody knew how to change the value to do what it should do.
 * src/gpm-prefs.(h|c) (setup_icon_policy): Use a key radio button, "Display when battery present" and connect to GUI. Restore the old text for always as it better reflects what the icon policy is. I know we have lots of options now, but people all want different things, and distros keep changing the defaults :-)
 * src/gpm-manager.c (get_stock_id): make logic more sane by using the new "present" key value. Fixes lp:33388