16.04 Low-Power – No Low Battery Popup Notification

16.04low-power

I use Unity in 16.04. For some reason, I am not getting popup notifications for low battery. I have to rely on battery icon in top panel to see if battery is on the " low battery " side. Is the default behaviour in 16.04 ? Or I am not getting pop ups for low battery ?

Best Answer

Attempt reinstalling indicator-power with this command:

sudo apt-get install --reinstall indicator-power

If that doesn't solve the issue, consider using the battery monitoring script as provided by one of my previous answers : https://askubuntu.com/a/603322/295286

Below is python script that can notify you when battery charge gets past certain percentage, and suspend system once it is bellow 10 %. Usage is simple:

python battery_monitor.py INT

Where INT is integer value of your desired battery percentage at which you should receive notification, for example 30.

You can also add the above command to Startup Applications to start this script on every login into Unity session

Source code

As per OP requests in chat and comments , the script now takes two arguments, first for discharge notification and second os for charge notification.

Also available as Github Gitst 

#!/usr/bin/env python
from gi.repository import Notify
import subprocess
from time import sleep, time
from sys import argv
import dbus


def send_notification(title, text):
    try:
        if Notify.init(argv[0]):
            n = Notify.Notification.new("Notify")
            n.update(title, text)
            n.set_urgency(2)
            if not n.show():
                raise SyntaxError("sending notification failed!")
        else:
            raise SyntaxError("can't initialize notification!")
    except SyntaxError as error:
        print(error)
        if error == "sending notification failed!":
            Notify.uninit()
    else:
        Notify.uninit()


def run_cmd(cmdlist):
    try:
        stdout = subprocess.check_output(cmdlist)
    except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
        pass
    else:
        if stdout:
            return stdout


def run_dbus_method(bus_type, obj, path, interface, method, arg):
    if bus_type == "session":
        bus = dbus.SessionBus()
    if bus_type == "system":
        bus = dbus.SystemBus()
    proxy = bus.get_object(obj, path)
    method = proxy.get_dbus_method(method, interface)
    if arg:
        return method(arg)
    else:
        return method()


def suspend_system():
    run_dbus_method('session',
                    'com.canonical.Unity',
                    '/com/canonical/Unity/Session',
                    'com.canonical.Unity.Session',
                    'Suspend', 'None')


def get_battery_percentage():
    output = run_cmd(['upower', '--dump']).decode().split('\n')
    found_battery = False
    for line in output:
        if 'BAT' in line:
            found_battery = True
        if found_battery and 'percentage' in line:
            return line.split()[1].split('%')[0]


def main():
    end = time()
    battery_path = ""
    for line in run_cmd(['upower', '-e']).decode().split('\n'):
        if 'battery_BAT' in line:
            battery_path = line
            break
    while True:
        notified = False
        while subprocess.call(['on_ac_power']) == 0:

            sleep(0.25)
            run_dbus_method('system', 'org.freedesktop.UPower',
                            battery_path, 'org.freedesktop.UPower.Device',
                            'Refresh', 'None')
            battery_percentage = int(get_battery_percentage())
            if battery_percentage == int(argv[2]) and not notified:
               subprocess.call( ['zenity', '--info','--text', 'Battery reached' + argv[2] + '%'  ]  ) 
               notified = True
        while subprocess.call(['on_ac_power']) == 1:

            sleep(0.25)
            run_dbus_method('system', 'org.freedesktop.UPower',
                            battery_path, 'org.freedesktop.UPower.Device',
                            'Refresh', 'None')
            battery_percentage = int(get_battery_percentage())

            if battery_percentage <= int(argv[1]):
                if battery_percentage <= 10:
                    send_notification('Low Battery',
                                      'Will suspend in 60 seconds')
                    sleep(60)
                    suspend_system()
                    continue
                if end < time():
                    end = time() + 600
                    send_notification('Low Battery', 'Plug in your charger')

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()
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