Always display the gnome-power-manager icon in the notification area by default

[Hubert Figuiere]

g-p-m does not show any icon on AC Power. The icon only appears if I unplug the AC adapter. This is a bit confusing, and different behaviour from previous versions.

[Daniel Robitaille (robitaille)]

You can change this default behaviour in the g-p-m preferences to always displ;ay an icon. It's one of the first change I always do after a fresh install on my laptop.

[Andrew Conkling (andrewski)]

Well, would changing the default option be something to consider?

[Hubert Figuiere (hub)]

uh oh. I missed the optin.

Yes changing the default option would do the trick. Two reason:

1/ it is disturbing to have it
2/ the icon provide quick access to features.

[Aaron Whitehouse (aaron-whitehouse)]

An extensive discussion of this has occurred on the Ubuntu-Desktop mailing list.
See:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2006-March/000424.html

[Andrew Conkling (andrewski)]

By far the most salient point in that thread was this:
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-desktop/2006-March/000452.html:
"I agree that it seems to make sense to have the icon shown even with a
full battery and the power cable connected. But this means that the icon
is no loger a notification - i.e. showing when something of non-critical
urgency happens (like "New updates available" or "Restart recommended"
or even "Charging battery") - but a permanent status indicator, like
network connection, sound volume, system load etc. Shouldn't battery
status be implemented as a panel applet then, like the other permant
status indicators, leaving the notification area for actual notification
icons? This would have the added benefit of a fixed location for the
applet, so that the users can always find their battery status at
exactly the same place."

We are talking, of course, about *defaults*, since the presence/absence is configurable in g-p-m settings. I think people make a good point that most portable devices always show the power status, but in a fixed location.

Further, notification icons are abused for things like status indicators (especially in a Windows environment) so maybe a more sane default would be to put the Battery Charge Monitor in a fixed place on laptop systems?

[Brian Curtis (bcurtiswx)]

This bug has turned into a wishlist item. Marking as so.

[Brian Curtis (bcurtiswx)]

Bug report created upstream, bug triaged.
Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and make Ubuntu better.

[Brian Curtis (bcurtiswx)]

 Comment #1 from Richard Hughes (gnome-power-manager developer, points: 18)
2009-03-01 09:32 UTC [reply]

The upstream default is:

    <schema>
      <key>/schemas/apps/gnome-power-manager/ui/icon_policy</key>
      <applyto>/apps/gnome-power-manager/ui/icon_policy</applyto>
      <owner>gnome-power-manager</owner>
      <type>string</type>
      <default>present</default>
      <locale name="C">
        <short>When to show the notification icon</short>
        <long>Display options for the notification icon. Valid options are
"never", "critical", "charge", "present" and "always".</long>
      </locale>
    </schema>

I guess Ubuntu patch this, so not an upstream bug.

That was from Upstream. This is Ubuntu related and not GNOME