gnome-power-manager sucks

[nerdy_kid]

seriously, anyone have a laptop? Dont u love it when your laptop suspends in the middle of a game?

things i hate about gnome-power-manager:

1. No profiles.
2. No automatic powersaving inhibit (like KDE??)
3 .Doesn't even work all the way. (laptop users, ever close your lid and see it still shining? cause i do every time i log into gnome)

please someone kill it!

[Pasdar]

KDE is best for laptops because of all its features... not to mention its design

[RiceMonster]

Mine always suspends on lid close.

[LowSky]

Mine always suspends on lid close.

Some people don't want it to suspend they want it to only turn the screen off.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

RiceMonster: You can change this stuff in the power preferences.

As for instances where you don't want it to suspend at all, these are meant to be controlled by individual apps. Like screensaver inhibit, they can ask for the system to not turn off. Transmission does this when it is downloading something, for example. There is an applet you can use called Inhibit Applet, which does the same thing when you click it.

[nerdy_kid]

Some people don't want it to suspend they want it to only turn the screen off. which it randomly forgets to do; a huge issue on laptops.

[RiceMonster]

RiceMonster: You can change this stuff in the power preferences.

As for instances where you don't want it to suspend at all, these are meant to be controlled by individual apps. Like screensaver inhibit, they can ask for the system to not turn off. Transmission does this when it is downloading something, for example. There is an applet you can use called Inhibit Applet, which does the same thing when you click it.

I know, it's intentional that it suspends on lid close. I was saying it works for me ;). Obviously not the case for everyone, though.

[Mr. Picklesworth]

Oh, I get it now. I just wasn't following the thread very well :)

[Keyper7]

which it randomly forgets to do; a huge issue on laptops.

Not on mine.

Gosh, why people insist on following the "I had a problem with it, thus it obviously sucks for everyone and must die" logic? Filing/confirming a bug report with details about your hardware would take less time than posting this useless rant.

[FuturePilot]

Not on mine.

Gosh, why people insist on following the "I had a problem with it, thus it obviously sucks for everyone and must die" logic? Filing/confirming a bug report with details about your hardware would take less time than posting this useless rant.

This

[nerdy_kid]

i did say randomly -- i have noticed that sometime it works, but then the next time i check it doesn't. Please note that i was HUGE gnome fan, so I'm not trying to critize the DE as a whole. I havn't posted a bug report cause for one, it seems that they are trying to work on the screen blanking, but as far as profile support goes, I am 90% sure that it won't get implimented as it is (from my understanding) aganst GNOME philosophy. (which is, as i understand it, as little configing as possible).

I wasn't saying it sucks for everyone, i was saying it sucks for laptops, which it does. I am just suggesting the possibility of improvement, which is what Open Source is all about, right?

please no one get offended over this, not my intention.

[Crunchy the Headcrab]

not on mine.

+1

[edin9]

KDE is best for laptops because of all its features... not to mention its design

Except you can't disable tapping.

[Keyper7]

i did say randomly -- i have noticed that sometime it works, but then the next time i check it doesn't.

Nobody is claiming you said it happens all the time.


Please note that i was HUGE gnome fan, so I'm not trying to critize the DE as a whole.

Nobody is claiming you are criticizing the DE as a whole.


as far as profile support goes, I am 90% sure that it won't get implimented as it is (from my understanding) aganst GNOME philosophy. (which is, as i understand it, as little configing as possible).

No. It's as little as unnececessary configuring as possible. If you have reasonable arguments to claim it's necessary, that's why the development mailing lists are for.

But don't pull bogus 90% statistics out of nowhere before even trying.


I wasn't saying it sucks for everyone, i was saying it sucks for laptops, which it does.

Stop giving over-general statements.

Didn't you read what I said? I said "not on mine". I didn't say "not on my computer which is not a laptop". I said "not on mine" as a response to your "a huge issue on laptops".

I have a laptop.


I am just suggesting the possibility of improvement, which is what Open Source is all about, right?

No. Open source is about giving useful contributions.

Over-general statements, name-calling and "please someone kill it" are not useful contributions.

[Screwdriver0815]

on my Laptop, a Lenovo 3000 N200 (@OP: note!! its a Laptop I use!!) the Gnome power manager works perfectly.

It goes in Hibernate when closing the lid, it wakes up quickly, it goes into suspend to RAM too and wakes up quickly, it takes care on Transmission (for example) - it works like it should. And it has a profile for running it connected to 230 Volts and also one for running it on battery.

The same goes for the KDE power-devil. Works perfect. The difference is that in KDE there are some more power profiles. Which of course work perfectly with my Laptop

so I think, that you just have the wrong hardware. Your fault. You should have been checking the laptoptesting site in the Ubuntu-wiki before buying random crap

):P

[Tristam Green]

so I think, that you just have the wrong hardware. Your fault. You should have been checking the laptoptesting site in the Ubuntu-wiki before buying random crap

):P

Laffo. Shame on the OP for wanting to buy a computer and expect it to actually operate properly with the software he wanted.

EGG ON YOUR FACE THERE, nerdy_kid.

[/sarcasm]

[spupy]

GPM doesn't even work correctly in my Arch Linux installation - it doesn't think that my laptop is able to hibernate/suspend. At least the battery-related part work, but I had to write my own scripts to make the lid suspend the laptop (using acpi). I don't even bother trying to fix GPM.

[RiceMonster]

so I think, that you just have the wrong hardware. Your fault. You should have been checking the laptoptesting site in the Ubuntu-wiki before buying random crap

):P

Perhaps the OP bought the laptop before deciding s/he wanted to try Ubuntu?

[Screwdriver0815]

Perhaps the OP bought the laptop before deciding s/he wanted to try Ubuntu?
perhaps the op's laptop even doesn't work in the right way in other operating systems, as for example my job-machine does (powersaving does not work in windows)... lots of questions... :rolleyes:

[RiceMonster]

perhaps the op's laptop even doesn't work in the right way in other operating systems, as for example my job-machine does (powersaving does not work in windows)... lots of questions... :rolleyes:

The fact that there's so many questions proves it's not the OP's fault.

[Foster Grant]

Not on mine.

Gosh, why people insist on following the "I had a problem with it, thus it obviously sucks for everyone and must die" logic? Filing/confirming a bug report with details about your hardware would take less time than posting this useless rant.

+1 Insightful

I'm trying to figure out what "laptop suspends in the middle of a game" means. OP, were you plugged in or on battery? Those run down, ya know.

[3rdalbum]

It's highly ironic that gnome-power-manager used to wake up the CPU a hundred times per second, causing a noticably higher rate of battery use. It certainly didn't manage power very well :-)

[nerdy_kid]

alright fine ill shut up lol

[3rdalbum]

Gnome Power Manager is pretty awesome really. It displays a warning message if your laptop battery has been recalled by the manufacturer.

[meditatingfrog]

Well, if it sucks, why don't you stop playing your game and fix it? Have you even tried? I think if you try to fix it, you'll start to appreciate the amount of effort that people with the drive and/or knowledge are willing to do to get free software over to the end-users like us.

As far as KDE and Gnome, I moved to enlightenment e17 (saw MoonOS in a vm and had to give enlightenment e17 a shot). It isn't perfect (what GNU Linux DE is?) but after compiling from source i can say that what it does do, it does quite well. For instance, the battery warning indicator is very accurate, where as the indicator in Gnome was shakey, sometimes my laptop would lose power before I even had time to get it on AC. Maybe Gnome compiled from source would perform quicker and more dependably? Who knows, haven't tried. Maybe someone else out there has.

Btw, what kind of laptop do you have. Is it a Toshiba by chance?

[meditatingfrog]

Here's a perl script that I managed to find on the LXDE forum. Perhaps some of you who are having some problems with gnome-power-manager can utilize it http://paste.ubuntu.com/340361/. Incidentally, I moved back to gnome. Hopefully I can get this perl script to work, since looking at the the source code for gnome-power-manager is like reading a foreign language. I'm not confident gnome-power-manager is getting the proper information from the /proc/acpi/battery/BAT*/info file.

[Exodist]

seriously, anyone have a laptop? Dont u love it when your laptop suspends in the middle of a game?

things i hate about gnome-power-manager:

1. No profiles.
2. No automatic powersaving inhibit (like KDE??)
3 .Doesn't even work all the way. (laptop users, ever close your lid and see it still shining? cause i do every time i log into gnome)

please someone kill it!

But GNOME philosophy is that users are to stupid to set power settings..

[nerdy_kid]

But GNOME philosophy is that users are to stupid to set power settings..

thats what i was trying to say we should get fixed, but i kinda got bashed instead ;)

[Keyper7]

thats what i was trying to say we should get fixed, but i kinda got bashed instead ;)

You got bashed because you posted a rant that was impolite, contained no useful information whatsoever and gave over-general statements that not apply to all users like they were the absolute truth. And meanwhile, you apparently didn't do anything actually useful like filing a bug report or starting a discussion in the mailing list.

Furthermore, you proceeded to blatantly ignore or misinterpret most things that were said in the replies.

Stop playing the victim.

[AICollector]

I havent had much trouble with it, save for me forgetting the default profile for laptop lids closing.

(Can it detect desktop monitors being turned off as well? and can it really notify you about battery recalls?)

[nerdy_kid]

You got bashed because you posted a rant that was impolite, contained no useful information whatsoever and gave over-general statements that not apply to all users like they were the absolute truth. And meanwhile, you apparently didn't do anything actually useful like filing a bug report or starting a discussion in the mailing list.

Furthermore, you proceeded to blatantly ignore or misinterpret most things that were said in the replies.

Stop playing the victim.


yes yes, i realize i went about this the wrong way. i dont want to get in a fight over it, so i apologize for my mistake.

[ikacer]

things i hate about gnome-power-manager:

1. No profiles.
2. No automatic powersaving inhibit (like KDE??)
3 .Doesn't even work all the way. (laptop users, ever close your lid and see it still shining? cause i do every time i log into gnome)

here's one you missed:

4. No battery charge thresholds

here is an Ubuntu brainstorm on this:
http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/22336/

fortunately for me, I've got a thinkpad, so I can use a kernel module deigned for this, but all other laptop users currently get screwed, because there is nothing else available.

although, to be fair, gnome-power-manager really isn't to blame for this problem....

[jvpgomes]

It's not only in his laptop.

This is actually a true problem for many users.
There are several bug reports related with gnome-power-manager.

And since Karmic, the automatic powersaving is really inconsistent for many users.
Probably, it was the change from HAL. The truth is that sometimes it goes off after the timeout predefined (as it should do), but other times it doesn't.
From what I could find out, it also seems to be common to laptops using Intel integrated graphics.

Maybe the OP has exaggerated in the way he spoke. However, I can fully understand him because this is a really frustrating issue. After spending days looking for a solution and trying to understand how to reproduce the problem (as it almost seems to be random), you end up thinking "for god sake, all I want is for my monitor to turn off when it's supposes to...".

Also, this is not a problem of the computer that is experienced with in any operating system.
Xfce4-power-manager works properly, KDE works properly, even in Windows it works as it should...

Actually my suggestion for the OP is to remove gnome-power-manager and use xfce4-power-manager. I know that it is not the perfect solution, but it works.
That's what I'm doing. The problem exists in Karmic and Lucid, and probably it will continue to be present in future releases. The bugs don't seem to be assigned, maybe because it may not affect everybody.

Nevertheless, for me it is quite... understandable that many people are unable to follow the Linux spirit.
I listen people all the time saying that Linux is all about freedom. And then, somebody says that, in order to have Linux system working properly, you should only buy laptop X or Y.

Also... :D many people says Linux is also good for people that don't know much about programming, operating systems and so one and simply want to use their computer easily. But then, somebody says something like "if you think it is not working properly why don't you try to modify it?".

[MindSz]

My laptob (Toshiba Satellite) turns off when the battery indicator is around 10%. Still, it's really not that hard to plug it in whenever I see the battery is getting close to this. It's annoying sometimes, but I learned to live with it.

btw, wasn't this thread kinda dead?

[witeshark17]

There are plenty of settings in GNOME and my laptop has no issues. All the power prefs on battery work as specified and the sleep mode always starts on display close. :popcorn:

[jvpgomes]

Hi

Probably it was dead. But I just notice the thread now and I decided to write my opinion.

In my case, the problem is the inconsistency of the monitor power saving. But, there are other already reported problems.

As I said, I understand that there are people who don't have any of this problems in their laptop. And that is good. But other people do.
And, in my opinion, feeling happy when the software works on a subset of the available hardware is something more related with Apple.