Battery status bug on Inspiron 6000

[andybuonviri]

Hi,

I'm fairly new to Linux in general. I use Windows at work. In the past I've used a Knoppix CD to access laptops that had OS problems but now I'm playing around with a Knoppix flash drive, which is so much nicer than the CD version I used to have.

Anyway, I am using Knoppix 6.0.1 on a Dell Inspiron 6000. I was wondering about the little green bar in the bottom right corner that indicates battery status. What program is that, and is there an update or patch for it? Mine currently shows "Battery: 126% charged, -1019:00 until full". I don't think there's anything wrong with the battery itself because acpi says it's "Full, 100%", as does Windows. Also, where would I find the source code for that program?

Thanks,
Andy

[andybuonviri]

It turns out the acpi "Full, 100%" wasn't the whole story. It does report that when I type acpi, but more importantly it reports "last full" capacity of 3781 mAh and "remaining capacity" of 4800 mAh when I display everything in /proc. The last bit is the problem. The remaining capacity of a 5-year-old battery is not going to be 4800. That's the nominal (aka "design") capacity. The 126% in the graphic display is the 4800 divided by 3781, but an old battery, even fully charged, is never going to be 4800. For some reason acpi reports that when the battery reaches 100%.

I will try to post some logs of the last stage of charging, not that anyone cares, but at least I'll feel better.

[andybuonviri]

Here are the logs of "last full" and "remaining", as the battery finished charging and hit 100%:

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3183 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3408 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3483 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3589 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3693 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3705 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 3715 mAh

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 4800 mAh

Battery 0: Full, 100%
Battery 0: design capacity 4800 mAh, last full capacity 3781 mAh = 78%
AC Adapter 0: on-line
Thermal 0: ok, 43.5 degrees C
Cooling 0: Processor 0 of 10

last full capacity: 3781 mAh
remaining capacity: 4800 mAh

As you can see, remaining capacity creeps up towards 3781 and when it hits it, jumps to 4800 which is invalid for an old dead battery. The battery meter in LXDE showed 97/98/99% just fine then jumped to 126% when the bad reading occured, and stayed there forever as long as the AC adapter was plugged in.