Ok. But how do I enable the notifications on Zorin Core?
The gnome help link you shared shows how to disable the notifications, not on how to enable them.
The link shows the gconf key path to follow. If you open it in dconf-editor, then you can change the setting as needed.
I don’t see gnome-power-manager in the apps path of dconf-editor. What do I do? When I try to install gnome-power-manager using apt-get it says that it’s already installed.
hmmm… I wonder if it is listed under a different name…
Does the link to the gnome-extension that Swarfendor posted help?
The link @swarfendor437 shared is to enable showing battery percentage. And indeed, I see the battery percentage already. All I want is a notification when my battery is low.
Ah, ok. I am sorry- I failed to fully understand.
I am not really sure if this will work, so please post along with your progress... But check if you have this file:
/etc/UPower/UPower.conf
On mine, starting around line 65 there is the following:
PercentageLow=10
PercentageCritical=3
PercentageAction=2
Change the above values to double:
20, 6 and 4 respectively. Then save and exit the file.
In terminal please enter:
sudo systemctl restart upower
Reboot or log out and in and check if you are getting notifications.
(May need to wait until battery gets low...)
Ok. I applied the above solution and will let you know if notifications show up. And another doubt of mine is, how do I calibrate the battery? My battery was a little bit new at the time of installing Zorin. So, how do I calibrate?
The usual method is to run the battery until it dies during use. Then fully charge it up. Some say to do this a couple times in a row.
Ok. So the battery runs out and the laptop shuts off. Now, do I have to charge the laptop while it’s in the off state?
You can charge the battery during use but it will take a bit longer. Ideally to maintain a notebook battery you should:
a. Not charge it above 80%
b. Not let it drop below 30-35%
This increases the life of the battery in terms of number of cycles.
Samsung had a clever utility that prevented you charging above 80% but Samsung notebboks were never brilliant overall - apart from that feature!
In this case, capriciousduck is Calibrating the Battery, so must fully discharge the battery (all the way til it dies) then charge up fully (All the way to 100%) a couple times.
@capriciousduck, I would recommend charging it fully with laptop off just to be on the safe side.
Is it possible to implement this feature on my laptop?
Mine is Lenovo Z50-70 20354 model(i7 CPU)
Ok. And really thanks for the support. I feel relieved knowing that I’ll receive an email(probably with a solution) from you guys for all my queries. Thank you Aravisian and Swarfendor.
If this is a NiCad battery then discharge and recharge is correct, not with a Lithium-Ion battery - experienced this at work. On Ni-Cads they had a memory issue that meant you had to charge and drain 3 times on install - If you do this with a Lithium-Ion battery it kills it - and that’s what happened to me when I purchased for the organisation a Toshiba battery - the supplier told me to run the battery down then charge it up 3 times - the battery died! After the first element had been done!
From what I know of Lithium chemistry, no lower than 20% state of charge (~3.7 volts/cell). The batteries last longer if you keep them minimum at 40% state of charge (~3.8 volts/cell). Also don’t keep them fully charged too long and charging up to 95% state of charge is healthier than 100% (although I do leave my laptop plugged-in, since the life hit from 95% vs 100% isn’t as bad as discharging too low).
https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
Yes that is correct - I only discovered the battery level bit having found it on a US Fire Service web page!
You mean having the laptop always plugged in harms the battery? The laptop takes power from the power source when the battery is charged 100%, right?
Now I am tensed. I always use the laptop plugged in and the battery level will always be 100%
My laptop just now has shut down even if battery percentage is 48%. What does this mean?
@capriciousduck. Will it boot in that state or is battery dead after showing 48%?
If dead then charge it up fully. You need to do at least a full charge cycle dead to 100% to calibrate battery meter.
@swarfendor437 is right old NiCd betteries had memory which meant full charge voltage reduced over time unless subjected to a full discharge now and again. Not many PC’s will have NiCd batteries these days but some small domestic appliances do.
My Lenovo (Windows) has an Energy Management app which allows you choice of best battery performance or best battery health. I use the latter setting which maintains charge at 60% on a.c. Same app allows you to perform a battery calibration cycle, then returns to chosen otimisation at the end, but not seen anything similar on Linux (yet).
Once it got shut down, I press the power button and it started booting and then showed 48% battery after fully booting up. I’m confused. Can you please me some steps on what to do now?