Battery indicator goes Critical Red with 1:10 battery left

Bug #743823 reported by Paul Sladen
14
This bug affects 2 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Ayatana Design
Fix Released
Undecided
Matthew Paul Thomas
indicator-power
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned
indicator-power (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: ubuntu-mono

Since the Ubuntu-Monochrome 0.0.26 upload, the battery status icon now goes critical red with over an hour to spare.

We need to confirm this in Ayatana-Design, but my hunch is the following would be more useful:

  external power: normal text colour (ivory/chocolate for Ambiance/Radiance)
  >=1:00 remaining: normal text colour
  < 1:00 remaining: orange non-critical warning
  <=0:10 remaining: red critical warning
  <=0:02 remaining: red critical warning if suspend/hibernate action selected and proven working
  <=0:02 remaining: red critical (flashing) warning if simply going to power-off

Additionally, the Ubuntu Mono 0.0.26 change uses a battery icon with no fill for empty. This is not as clear to the user as an icon that instead uses a very small fill at end of the battery, even for zero. This is more intuitive as it makes it clear that the icon is used as a percentage indicator; with an empty fill the user must already know this for "empty" to be useful as a relative indicator.

At the moment, the "Red with some left" state seen at 1:10 remaining is far more visible to the user than the (more serious) completely empty icon.

Tags: needs-design
Paul Sladen (sladen)
tags: added: needs-design
description: updated
Paul Sladen (sladen)
summary: - Battery goes Critical Red with 1:10 battery left
+ Battery indicator goes Critical Red with 1:10 battery left
Revision history for this message
Nathanel Titane (nathanel.titane) wrote :

you can avoid this bug by changing the gnome power referencing to percentage values instead of time ineither gconf or dconf.

the keys are as folow:

for dconf:

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power use-time-for-policy false

for gconf:

gconftool-2 --type=boolean -s /apps/gnome-power-manager/general/use_time_for_policy "false"

make sure you set your battery level checks to reflect proper battery percentage level for 'low', 'critical' and 'action' values

mine are respectively 15%, 10% and 5%

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

The correct behavior is already specified: "If it has less than 30 minutes left, the fill should be red rather than black." <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Power#Icons>

Changed in ayatana-design:
assignee: nobody → Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

affects: ubuntu-mono (Ubuntu) → indicator-power (Ubuntu)
Changed in indicator-power (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Javier Jardón (jjardon) wrote :
Changed in indicator-power:
status: New → Fix Committed
Javier Jardón (jjardon)
Changed in indicator-power:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Javier Jardón (jjardon)
Changed in indicator-power (Ubuntu):
status: New → In Progress
John Lea (johnlea)
Changed in ayatana-design:
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package indicator-power - 0.10-0ubuntu1

---------------
indicator-power (0.10-0ubuntu1) precise; urgency=low

  * New upstream release.
    - Use battery-with-a-plug when the batttery is fully charged but still
      on AC (LP: #865342)
    - Only show a red icon when we have less than 30 minutes of battery
      remaining (LP: #743823)
    - Fix icon creation for UP_DEVICE_STATE_CHARGING state
    - support for old name icons
    - Do not hardcode icon percentage when discharging
 -- Ken VanDine <email address hidden> Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:07:54 -0400

Changed in indicator-power (Ubuntu):
status: In Progress → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Christoph Buchner (bilderbuchi) wrote :

Has this bug regressed since 2011? My battery indicator shows a red-with-a-little-left icon, when I have 1h10min of battery left (so definitely over 30min). The percentage is at 22%. (on ubuntu 14.10)

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

Christoph, yes, please report a new bug including a screenshot. On phones we may have to color by percentage, but on PCs we can and should color by time remaining to avoid false alarms.

Revision history for this message
Christoph Buchner (bilderbuchi) wrote :

Matthew, thanks, I just did: #1410495

Revision history for this message
Christoph Buchner (bilderbuchi) wrote :

argh, why did the auto-linking of the bug id not work? here, have a link instead: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-power/+bug/1410495

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