Toshiba c850-10n battery shows as 0% allways

Hi, just installed Zorin to this laptop- first time running any kind of Linux (liking it so far thanks to being so similar to windows).

one problem i have is the battery is perpetually at 0%(with both batteries i have) which is a pain as i never know the actual charge level. can anyone help this simple idiot?

laptops a toshiba satellite pro c850-10n, i3 etc.

Thanks

Could you run this command in terminal by hitting ctrl+alt+t to open a terminal and pasting in:

sudo apt install linux-generic

If it successfully installs - reboot and test.

No dice, still says 0% when plugged in and a ‘?’ when running on battery.

Are you running Zorin Core or Zorin Lite?

not sure. think its core- new to this stuff.

NAME=“Zorin OS”
VERSION=“15.3”
ID=zorin
ID_LIKE=ubuntu
PRETTY_NAME=“Zorin OS 15.3”
VERSION_ID=“15”

That is Core.
If you put in the Installation media, on “Try Zorin”, does the battery indicator work at that time?

If you are willing to test it, you can create a bootable LiveCD (“Try Zorin”) of Zorin Lite- boot that up and test if Battery Indicator works.

put my boot media in- its zorin lite.

Ok, good.
Can you open a terminal and run this command and relay the output?

xfconf-query -c xfce4-power-manager -p /xfce4-power-manager/show-panel-label --create -t int -s 1

does nothing

Can you right click your panel, select Panel and slide over to the arrow for Panel Properties and click that - A popup window will open. Select the third tab over for Items - This is a list of all the Plugins loaded onto the panel - and Identify which Battery Indicator you have on there?
Is it XFCE4 Power Manager? Or Battery Monitor?

you gonna have to help me here, i am an idiot after all, you say ‘panel’ wth is that?

I think Windows calls it the Taskbar.
It is the long bar with the zorin App menu on it.

xfce4-power-manager is in the task manager if that help.

sorry to be a pain, trying to get my head around this stuff.

From that Popup Window, you should see a Plus Sign Icon- to Add new items to the panel.
If you click that, a popover Window opens with a list of Pulgins you can install.
If you need, you can run this in terminal to install more

sudo apt install xfce4-goodies

See if Battery Monitor is listed and if so, Add It to the panel and check if it can read your Upower Output and display the battery percentage. Some users prefer it over the Default XFCE4Power Manager Plugin.

No need to apologize, you are not a pain. It was not very long ago I migrated from Windows to Linux and was learning all of this. But for now, I keep getting called away from work- So, I need to go away for a while. If I do not respond right away, I probably was crushed under a pile of metal or something.

i managed to solve this, by more fluke than anything- i installed gnome power management and then uninstalled xfce4 pm rebooted and now it displays.

awesome.
thank you very much for your time and effort, you’ve been very informative.

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