Gave Natty a try (also had to use the "nomodeset" option to boot). Still no battery status - actually worse, there was no indicator at all. I went to Power Management Preferences and noticed that there was not "On Battery" tab and enabling "Always Display Icon" only showed the AC Power icon. Basically, it appears Natty didn't recognize the battery at all. I rebooted Natty and still had the same result.
Gave Natty a try (also had to use the "nomodeset" option to boot). Still no battery status - actually worse, there was no indicator at all. I went to Power Management Preferences and noticed that there was not "On Battery" tab and enabling "Always Display Icon" only showed the AC Power icon. Basically, it appears Natty didn't recognize the battery at all. I rebooted Natty and still had the same result.