[Bug 30038] SmartBattery load level not shown

Mon Jan 30 06:06:28 UTC 2006

Public bug reported:
https://launchpad.net/malone/bugs/30038

Affects: gnome-applets (Ubuntu)
       Severity: Normal
       Priority: (none set)
         Status: Unconfirmed

Description:
Gnome "Battery Charge Monitor" does not show battery load level with
SmartBatteries. SmartBatteries use i2c for reporting load level.

SmartBatteries work on Windows XP. Because they work on Windows, it is
unlikely that laptop manufacturer would ever fix the old ACPI interface
in the DSDT.

I have tested this with both 5.10 Breezy Badger and Dapper Flight #3 with updates on Acer Travelmate 3000 (3004WTMi). 
http://www.iki.fi/karvinen/acer_travelmate_3004wtmi_with_linux.html
The same problem is reported to exist, for example, on Acer Aspire 1684WLMi. 

In #20466: "ACPI-EC is already in the kernel. So you just need the program to read this."
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.15/+bug/20466

About Smart Batteries and SMBus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smart_Battery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMBus