Getting a warning when battery power gets low.

Question

Hello!
I would like to get a warning, like a window popping up, saying that my battery power is running low. How can this be done?
Is it possible to make my machine hibernate if I don't connect it to power if I don't react to the warning?
I'm using a Lenovo Thinkpad T400, with an updated Arch installation, running Fluxbox.

Answer 1

I use this script to alert me when battery is low
#!/bin/bash
#low battery in %
LOW_BATTERY="10"
#critical battery in % (execute action)
CRITICAL_BATTERY="5"
#sleep time 4 script
SLEEP="60"
#acpi battery name
BAT="BAT0"
#action
ACTION="/sbin/poweroff"
#display icon
ICON="/usr/share/icons/oxygen/48x48/devices/battery.png"
#notify sound
PLAY="aplay /usr/local/bin/bears01.wav"
MAX_BATTERY=$(cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info | grep 'last full' | awk '{print$4}')
LOW_BATTERY=$(($LOW_BATTERY*$MAX_BATTERY/100))
CRITICAL_BATTERY=$(($CRITICAL_BATTERY*$MAX_BATTERY/100))
while [ true ]; do
if [ -e "/proc/acpi/battery/$BAT/state" ]; then
PRESENT=$(grep "present:" /proc/acpi/battery/$BAT/state | awk '{print $2}')
if [ "$PRESENT" = "yes" ]; then
STATE=$(grep "charging state" /proc/acpi/battery/$BAT/state | awk '{print $3}')
CAPACITY=$(grep "remaining capacity" /proc/acpi/battery/$BAT/state | awk '{print $3}')
if [ "$CAPACITY" -lt "$LOW_BATTERY" ] && [ "$STATE" = "discharging" ]; then
$($PLAY)
DISPLAY=:0.0 notify-send -u critical -t 5000 -i "$ICON" "Battery IS low. Plug or Pray." "remaining $CAPACITY mah, shutdown @ $CRITICAL_BATTERY mah"
fi
if [ "$CAPACITY" -lt "$CRITICAL_BATTERY" ] && [ "$STATE" = "discharging" ]; then
$($ACTION)
fi
fi
fi
sleep $SLEEP
done
You have to install notification-daemon or you can look here http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=67565
Last edited by atasmrk (2009-04-16 08:09:22)