Unix and Linux Stack Exchange
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Questions tagged [battery]

Batteries have two primary uses in computing. Portable computers and devices use a battery as a power source. Lithium-ion batteries are standard for these applications, but other types such as Nickel-Metal-Hydride are also used. Most batteries used in portable computing are rechargeable.

Certain settings and memory on motherboards use a battery to keep the onboard clock powered even if the computer is powered off. Usually these are non-rechargeable cells that last 5-10 years.

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How can I get an alert when my battery is about to die in Linux Mint?

This happens to me more than I'd like to admit, but sometimes I don't notice the power getting low since it only shows up in my status bar, then the computer just quits. I'd like a big alert that warns me before this happens. Is there any way for it…
Travis Reeder
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Can a laptop battery explode while using Linux?

I have a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, and I really want to install Debian on it. I have the know-how and have had at least three Debian systems before this. I am very knowledgable with the command-line and Linux's inner workings, and partitioning isn't…
Alexis Dumas
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How do I make my laptop sleep when it reaches some low battery threshold?

I'm using Ubuntu, but I have i3 as my window manager instead of a desktop environment. When my battery reaches 0%, the computer will just abruptly shut down, no warning or anything. Is there a simple script or configuration I can set up so that it…
o_o_o--
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How to check if my battery is healthy?

My Lenovo ThinkPad T61 is rather old, and a couple of years ago I had to replace the battery as the old one was dead. Now the replacement battery seems like dying a slow death, but I get conflicting data from xfce4-power-manager. So I'm wondering if…
landroni
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Why does Linux have poor battery life by default compared to Windows?

Is there something inherent to Linux operating systems that makes them poor managers of battery power by default? I would have thought a light distro like Lubuntu would have a clear battery life advantage over Windows, yet this doesn't seem to be…
decvalts
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How to adjust charging thresholds of laptop battery?

My laptop is Lenovo T400, and OS is Ubuntu 12.04. I have not been able to adjust the thresholds for battery starting charging and stopping charging. I observed that its current starting charging threshold is about 40%, and stopping charging…
Tim
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Lenovo T440s battery status unknown, but charging?

I'm trying to configure my Lenovo on arch linux. The last thing I need to do is get the battery 100% working. Right now it appears that the main battery's state is unknown: > acpi -V Battery 0: Unknown, 97% Battery 0:…
Aqyr
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Text only mode in Linux (No Gnome, KDE, Unity) to prolong battery life

If I want to disable my GUIs completely to save battery life, how would I proceed? I know that I can hit Ctrl + Alt + F3 and be on the command line, but the desktop manager would be in the background still (I suppose). So, after Ctrl + Alt + F3, I…
juannot clearence
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How to clear / reset smart battery memory?

So, I got a new battery for my laptop, and right from the get go, I'm having problems. The battery came almost entirely discharged from the manufacturer. I plugged it into my computer and the batter would report that the charge rate is 0, and hence…
polemon
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How can I change the battery icon in the systray?

I have installed Gnome and Awesome window manager. The window manager has a panel that displays systray icons according to the freedesktop.org System Tray Protocol Specification. I'd like to change the icon of the battery in the system tray. I…
Shawn J. Goff
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Is there a risk of data corruption if suspended laptop runs out of battery?

I often tend to just put my laptop on suspend using xfce4-power-manager, and although usually the battery is sufficiently charged up until the next time (when I plug in the charger), sometimes I forget and after a week or so the battery empties out…
landroni
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Battery drains while powered off after upgrade to kernel 4.13

After upgrading to kernel 4.13, the battery of my laptop started to drain while powered off (about 30% in one day). This didn't happen if I booted the laptop from kernel 4.12 or Windows 8.1, so the problem is clearly related to the new kernel…
Henri
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Undesired shutdown on low battery - Debian Testing

I'm currently using Debian Testing (stretch) after a hard drive crash on my laptop, but I'm facing a weird issue with it. The laptop (Acer 5830TG) has a non-removable three-cell 6000mAh Li-Ion battery, current capacity only 335mAh due to wear, which…
Arnab
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How do I see how long the battery has been running without AC?

I am trying to figure out how effective my laptop battery is. Therefore, I woud like to see for how long the battery has been running without AC, since reboot or since AC was plugged in last. Is this possible? If not, I'll just have to time it…
anaotha
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Bash script: do something one time inside a loop then stop, but continue looping

I have a Bash script that checks my laptop battery and sends me an Android notification (via shuttle, a Bash script I wrote that serves as a cli interface for the Pushbullet API). It works nicely, but it will repeatedly notify me to unplug my laptop…
Sophie
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