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<!ENTITY legal SYSTEM "legal.xml">
<!ENTITY appletversion "2.12.0">
<!ENTITY applet "Battery Charge Monitor">
]>
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<article id="index" lang="en_GB">
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  <articleinfo> 
    <title>Battery Charge Monitor Manual</title> 
    <abstract role="description">
      <para>Battery Charge Monitor shows the current charge of the battery and provides notifications if charge drops below a certain threshold.</para>
    </abstract>
    <copyright>
      <year>2005</year>
      <holder>Davyd Madeley</holder>
    </copyright>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year>
      <holder>Angela Boyle</holder>
    </copyright>
    <copyright>
      <year>2004</year>
      <holder>Sun Microsystems</holder>
    </copyright>
    <copyright>
      <year>2002</year>
      <holder>Trevor Curtis</holder>
    </copyright>
    <copyright> 
      <year>1999</year> 
      <year>2000</year> 
      <holder>Jorgen Pehrson</holder> 
    </copyright>
<!-- translators: uncomment this:

    <copyright>
     <year>2002</year>
     <holder>ME-THE-TRANSLATOR (Latin translation)</holder>
    </copyright>

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    <publisher role="maintainer"> 
      <publishername>GNOME Documentation Project</publishername> 
    </publisher> 
  
      <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
	<para>Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation Licence (GFDL), Version 1.1 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You can find a copy of the GFDL at this <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:fdl">link</ulink> or in the file COPYING-DOCS distributed with this manual.</para>
         <para>This manual is part of a collection of GNOME manuals distributed under the GFDL. If you want to distribute this manual separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the licence to the manual, as described in section 6 of the licence.</para>

	<para>Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those names appear in any GNOME documentation, and the members of the GNOME Documentation Project are made aware of those trademarks, then the names are in capital letters or initial capital letters.</para>

	<para>DOCUMENT AND MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE DOCUMENT ARE PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THE GNU FREE DOCUMENTATION LICENCE WITH THE FURTHER UNDERSTANDING THAT: <orderedlist>
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		  <para>DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES THAT THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS FREE OF DEFECTS MERCHANTABLE, FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGING. THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY, ACCURACY AND PERFORMANCE OF THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS WITH YOU. SHOULD ANY DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION PROVE DEFECTIVE IN ANY RESPECT, YOU (NOT THE INITIAL WRITER, AUTHOR OR ANY CONTRIBUTOR) ASSUME THE COST OF ANY NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION. THIS DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY CONSTITUTES AN ESSENTIAL PART OF THIS LICENCE. NO USE OF ANY DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT IS AUTHORISED HEREUNDER EXCEPT UNDER THIS DISCLAIMER; AND</para>
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		  <para>UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES AND UNDER NO LEGAL THEORY, WHETHER IN TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), CONTRACT OR OTHERWISE, SHALL THE AUTHOR, INITIAL WRITER, ANY CONTRIBUTOR OR ANY DISTRIBUTOR OF THE DOCUMENT OR MODIFIED VERSION OF THE DOCUMENT OR ANY SUPPLIER OF ANY OF SUCH PARTIES, BE LIABLE TO ANY PERSON FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY CHARACTER INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF GOODWILL, WORK STOPPAGE, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION, OR ANY AND ALL OTHER DAMAGES OR LOSSES ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO USE OF THE DOCUMENT AND MODIFIED VERSIONS OF THE DOCUMENT, EVEN IF SUCH PARTY SHALL HAVE BEEN INFORMED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.</para>
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    <authorgroup> 
      <author>
        <firstname>Sun</firstname>
        <surname>GNOME Documentation Team</surname>
        <affiliation><orgname>Sun Microsystems</orgname></affiliation>
      </author>
      <author>
        <firstname>Trevor</firstname>
        <surname>Curtis</surname>
        <affiliation>
          <orgname>GNOME Documentation Project</orgname>
          <address> <email>tcurtis@somaradio.ca</email> </address>
        </affiliation>
      </author>
      <author> 
        <firstname>Jorgen</firstname> 
        <surname>Pehrson</surname> 
        <affiliation> 
          <orgname>GNOME Documentation Project</orgname> 
          <address> <email>jp@spektr.eu.org</email> </address> 
        </affiliation> 
      </author> 
      <author>
	<firstname>Angela</firstname>
	<surname>Boyle</surname>
	<affiliation>
	  <orgname>GNOME Documentation Project</orgname>
	</affiliation>
      </author>
      <author>
        <firstname>Davyd</firstname>
	<surname>Madeley</surname>
	<affiliation>
	  <orgname>GNOME Project</orgname>
	</affiliation>
      </author>
        <!-- This is appropriate place for other contributors: translators,
             maintainers,  etc. Commented out by default.
             <othercredit role="translator">
	       <firstname>Latin</firstname> 
	       <surname>Translator 1</surname> 
	       <affiliation> 
	         <orgname>Latin Translation Team</orgname> 
	         <address> <email>translator@gnome.org</email> </address> 
	       </affiliation>
	       <contrib>Latin translation</contrib>
             </othercredit>
-->

    </authorgroup>
	
	<releaseinfo revision="2.26" role="review"/>

    <revhistory>
      <revision>
        <revnumber>Version 2.12</revnumber>
	<date>September 2005</date>
	<revdescription>
	  <para role="author">Davyd Madeley</para>
	</revdescription>
      </revision>
      <revision>
        <revnumber>Version 2.10</revnumber>
	<date>March 2005</date>
	<revdescription>
	 <para role="author">Davyd Madeley</para>
	</revdescription>
      </revision>
      <revision>
	<revnumber>Version 2.8</revnumber>
	<date>September 2004</date>
	<revdescription>
	  <para role="author">Angela Boyle</para>
	  <para role="publisher">GNOME Documentation Project</para>
	</revdescription>
      </revision>
      <revision>
        <revnumber>Battery Charge Monitor Applet Manual V2.2</revnumber>
        <date>August 2004</date>
        <revdescription>
          <para role="author">Sun GNOME Documentation Team</para>
          <para role="publisher">GNOME Documentation Project</para>
        </revdescription>
      </revision>
      <revision>
        <revnumber>Battery Charge Monitor Applet Manual V2.0</revnumber>
        <date>May 2002</date>
        <revdescription>
          <para role="author">Trevor Curtis <email>tcurtis@somaradio.ca</email></para>
          <para role="author">Jorgen Pehrson <email>jp@spektr.eu.org</email></para>
          <para role="publisher">GNOME Documentation Project</para>
        </revdescription>
      </revision>
    </revhistory>
                                                                                                  
    <releaseinfo>This manual describes version 2.12.0 of Battery Charge Monitor.</releaseinfo>
                                                                                                  
    <legalnotice>
      <title>Feedback</title>
      <para>To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the Battery Charge Monitor applet or this manual, follow the directions in the <ulink url="ghelp:gnome-feedback" type="help">GNOME Feedback Page</ulink>.</para>
    </legalnotice> 
  </articleinfo> 

  <indexterm zone="index"> 
	 <primary>Battery Charge Monitor Applet</primary> 
  </indexterm> 

  <indexterm zone="index"> 
	 <primary>Battstat Applet</primary> 
  </indexterm> 

<!-- ============= Document Body ============================= -->
<!-- ============= Introduction ============================== -->
  <sect1 id="battstat-introduction"> 
    <title>Introduction</title> 

    <figure id="battstat-applet-fig"> 
      <title>Battery Charge Monitor Applet</title> 
      <screenshot> 
        <mediaobject> 
          <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-applet.png" format="PNG"/> 
          </imageobject>
          <textobject> 
            <phrase>The Battery Charge Monitor applet.</phrase>
          </textobject> 
        </mediaobject> 
      </screenshot> 
    </figure>

    <para>The <application>Battery Charge Monitor</application> shows the status of any batteries in your laptop computer. The monitor can tell you the capacity remaining both visually and as a percentage, as well as offer you an estimate of the time remaining based off the current usage rate.</para>

    <sect2 id="battstat-introduction-add">
      <title>To Add Battery Charge Monitor to a Panel</title>
      <para>To add <application>Battery Charge Monitor</application> to a panel, right-click on the panel, then choose <guimenuitem>Add to Panel</guimenuitem>. Select <application>Battery Charge Monitor</application> in the <application>Add to the panel</application> dialogue, then click <guibutton>OK</guibutton>.</para>
      <para>The layout of the <application>Battery Charge Monitor</application> applet varies depending on the size and type of panel in which the applet resides.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="battstat-power-backends">
     <title>Power Management Backends</title>

     <para>The battery monitor supports a number of power management backends. If it is available, the monitor will attempt to use the freedesktop.org <ulink url="http://freedesktop.org/Software/hal">HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer)</ulink>. If it is unavailable or unsupported on your platform, the battery monitor will attempt direct access to the power management system.</para>
     <para>Not all power management backends are available from all vendors, and some vendors add their own additional backends for specific platforms and hardware. If the battery monitor is misreporting information from your battery see <xref linkend="battstat-troubleshooting"/>.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="battstat-getting-help">
      <title>Getting Help</title>
      <para>If the battery monitor doesn't work for you, see these additional resources:</para>
      <itemizedlist>
       <listitem><para><xref linkend="battstat-troubleshooting"/>;</para></listitem>
       <listitem><para>
        <ulink url="http://mail.gnome.org/archives/">GNOME mailing lists</ulink>
       </para></listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </sect2>

</sect1>

<!-- ================ Customizing the Appearance ========================= -->

  <sect1 id="battstat-appearance">
    <title>Preferences</title>
          <para>To bring up the preferences for the monitor, right-click on the monitor in the panel and then choose <guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem></para>
    <figure id="battstat-applet-prefs-menu"> 
      <title>Battery Charge Monitor context (right-click) menu</title> 
      <screenshot> 
        <mediaobject> 
          <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/context-menu.png" format="PNG"/> 
          </imageobject>
          <textobject> 
            <phrase>Battery Charge Monitor context menu</phrase>
          </textobject> 
        </mediaobject> 
      </screenshot> 
    </figure>
    <figure id="battstat-applet-prefs"> 
      <title>Preferences Dialogue</title> 
      <screenshot> 
        <mediaobject> 
          <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-preferences.png" format="PNG"/> 
          </imageobject>
          <textobject> 
            <phrase>Preferences Dialogue</phrase>
          </textobject> 
        </mediaobject> 
      </screenshot> 
    </figure>
      <variablelist>
        <varlistentry>
          <term><guilabel>Appearance</guilabel></term>
	  <listitem>
	  <variablelist>
	    <varlistentry>
	      <term><guilabel>Compact view</guilabel></term>
	      <listitem><para>This view shows only a single graphic in the panel, either an upright battery to indicate remaining capacity or a plug to indicate your laptop is connected to an external power source. <figure id="battstat-applet-compact"> 
      <title>Compact view</title> 
      <screenshot> 
        <mediaobject> 
          <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-applet.png" format="PNG"/> 
          </imageobject>
          <textobject> 
            <phrase>Compact View</phrase>
          </textobject> 
        </mediaobject> 
      </screenshot> 
    </figure></para>
	      <para>The compact view is the default view for the monitor as of GNOME 2.12.</para></listitem>
	    </varlistentry>
	    <varlistentry>
	      <term><guilabel>Expanded view</guilabel></term>
	      <listitem><para>The expanded view is old look from previous versions of GNOME. It has the larger graphic for the battery as well as a separate graphic to indicate what state the battery is in. <figure id="battstat-applet-expanded"> 
      <title>Expanded view</title> 
      <screenshot> 
        <mediaobject> 
          <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-applet-expanded.png" format="PNG"/> 
          </imageobject>
          <textobject> 
            <phrase>Expanded View</phrase>
          </textobject> 
        </mediaobject> 
      </screenshot> 
    </figure></para></listitem>
	    </varlistentry>
	    <varlistentry>
	      <term><guilabel>Show time/percentage</guilabel></term>
	      <listitem><para>Selecting this option will display one of two pieces of information. <guilabel>Show time remaining</guilabel> will tell you how many hours and minutes until the battery is fully discharged or recharged. <guilabel>Show percentage remaining</guilabel> will tell you the percentage charge remaining in the battery.</para></listitem>
	    </varlistentry>
	  </variablelist>
	  </listitem>
        </varlistentry>
	<varlistentry>
	 <term><guilabel>Notifications</guilabel></term>
	  <listitem>
	  <itemizedlist>
	   <listitem><para><guilabel>Warn when battery charge drops to</guilabel></para>
	   <para>Selecting this option will cause a warning dialogue to be displayed whenever your laptop battery reaches specified value, either as a percentage remaining or a number of minutes remaining. This indicates that the amount of charge remaining in your battery is critically low. charge. You can dismiss this warning dialogue yourself, otherwise it will vanish automatically when you plug your laptop into mains power.</para>
	   </listitem>
	   <listitem>
	    <para><guilabel>Notify when the battery is fully recharged</guilabel></para>
	    <para>Selecting this option notifies when your battery is fully recharged. If you have compiled the Battery Charge Monitor with libnotify support a non-intrusive notification will popup from the monitor on the panel.</para>
	   </listitem>
	  </itemizedlist>
	  </listitem>
	</varlistentry>
      </variablelist>
   </sect1>

   <sect1 id="battstat-troubleshooting">
    <title>Troubleshooting</title>
    
    <para>Due to the complexities of power management and the vast differences between each of the different power management systems available, debugging errors in the battery monitor can be difficult. You will need to determine if the error exists in the battery monitor or is a bug in the information provided by your machine.</para>
    <para>The following information may be useful for troubleshooting what is wrong with your battery monitor. It is by no means exhaustive. If you find a bug with the Battery Charge Monitor (that is not caused by bad information being reported by ACPI), please <ulink url="http://bugzilla.gnome.org/">report it</ulink>.</para>

    <sect2 id="battstat-troubleshooting-backends">
     <title>Determining the backend</title>
     <para>If you are using the Hardware Abstraction Layer (see <xref linkend="battstat-power-backends"/>) then that will be indicated in the about dialogue by placing a star next to the author of the HAL backend. <figure id="battstat-credits-hal"> 
      <title>Check you're using the HAL backend</title> 
      <screenshot> 
        <mediaobject> 
          <imageobject><imagedata fileref="figures/battstat-credits-hal.png" format="PNG"/> 
          </imageobject>
          <textobject> 
            <phrase>Expanded View</phrase>
          </textobject> 
        </mediaobject> 
      </screenshot> 
    </figure></para>

     <para>Other backends do not currently give indication they are being used, so you will have to guess based on your hardware. Most modern PC laptops are using ACPI as the backend. This is also the backend with the largest number of inconsistencies.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="battstat-troubleshooting-acpi">
      <title>Checking the ACPI information</title>
      <para>If you are using the ACPI backend for the Battery Charge Monitor, it is important to check that ACPI is giving you the right information. If it isn't, then you will need to look into upgrading your DSDT or something else related to ACPI.</para>
      <example><title>Example ACPI output</title>
       <screen>
[rupert@laptop ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info
present:                 yes
design capacity:         41040 mWh
last full capacity:      37044 mWh
battery technology:      rechargeable
design voltage:          10800 mV
design capacity warning: 745 mWh
design capacity low:     0 mWh
capacity granularity 1:  10 mWh
capacity granularity 2:  10 mWh
model number:            G71C00056110
serial number:           0000000008
battery type:            Li-ION
OEM info:
[rupert@laptop ~]$ cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/state
present:                 yes
capacity state:          ok
charging state:          discharging
present rate:            11232 mW
remaining capacity:      27140 mWh
present voltage:         11400 mV
[rupert@laptop ~]$</screen>
      </example>
      <para>You can quickly calculate the percentage remaining using <guilabel>remaining capacity</guilabel> divided by <guilabel>last full capacity</guilabel>, you can calculate the time remaining by taking <guilabel>remaining capacity</guilabel> divided by <guilabel>present rate</guilabel>.</para>
    </sect2>

    <sect2 id="battstat-troubleshooting-nohal">
      <title>Hardware Abstraction Layer</title>
      <para>You can check that your battery is detected by HAL using the command <command>hal-device-manager</command>. If your battery is not detected by HAL or the wrong information is being reported, you can attempt to disable the HAL backend by setting a GConf key.</para>
      <para>Select <guimenuitem>Configuration Editor</guimenuitem> from the <guimenu>Applications</guimenu> menu, under <guisubmenu>System Tools</guisubmenu>. Search for the key value <prompt>OAFIID:GNOME_BattstatApplet</prompt> which should be located in the path <filename>/apps/panel/applets</filename>.</para>
      <para>Assuming the path is <filename>/apps/panel/applets/applet_1</filename>. In <filename>/apps/panel/applets/applet_1/prefs</filename> add a <guimenuitem>New Key...</guimenuitem> called <guilabel>no_hal</guilabel> and set it to the boolean value of true. This will disable the usage of HAL (see <xref linkend="battstat-troubleshooting-backends"/> to learn how to check this).</para>
    </sect2>
    
   </sect1>

</article>
