mate-power-manager-common 1.20.1-2ubuntu1 / usr / share / help / C / mate-power-manager / index.docbook

<?xml version="1.0"?>
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  <!ENTITY legal SYSTEM "legal.xml">
  <!ENTITY GFDL  SYSTEM "fdl-appendix.xml">
  <!ENTITY app "MATE Power Manager">
  <!ENTITY application "<application>&app;</application>">
  <!ENTITY appversion "1.10.0">
  <!ENTITY manrevision "1.10.0">
]>
<!--
      (Do not remove this comment block.)
  Template Maintained by the MATE Documentation Project:
	  http://www.mate-desktop.org/development/
  Template version: 2.0 beta
  Template last modified Feb 12, 2002
-->

<!-- =============Document Header ============================= -->
<article id="index" lang="en">
<!-- please do not change the id; for translations, change lang to -->
<!-- appropriate code -->

  <articleinfo>
    <title>&application; Manual</title>
    <abstract role="description">
      <para>
        &application; is a session daemon for the MATE Desktop that
        manages the power settings for your laptop or desktop computer.
      </para>
    </abstract>
    <copyright>
      <year>2015</year>
      <holder>MATE Documentation Team</holder>
    </copyright>
    <copyright>
      <year>2006-2009</year>
      <holder>Richard Hughes (richard@hughsie.com)</holder>
    </copyright>

  <!-- translators: uncomment this:

  <copyright>
   <year>2006</year>
   <holder>ME-THE-TRANSLATOR (Latin translation)</holder>
  </copyright>

  -->

<!-- An address can be added to the publisher information.  If a role is
     not specified, the publisher/author is the same for all versions of the
     document.  -->
    <publisher role="maintainer">
      <publishername>MATE Documentation Team</publishername>
    </publisher>
    <publisher role="maintainer">
      <publishername>Richard Hughes</publishername>
    </publisher>

   &legal;
   <!-- This file  contains link to license for the documentation (GNU FDL), and
        other legal stuff such as "NO WARRANTY" statement. Please do not change
        any of this. -->

    <authorgroup>
      <author role="maintainer"> 
	<surname>MATE Documentation Team</surname>
	<affiliation>
	  <!-- <orgname>MATE Documentation
	  Project</orgname> -->
	  <!-- The email address of the author is optional and is commented out by default.
	  <address> <email>doc-writer2@mate.org</email> </address>
	  --> 
	</affiliation>
      </author>
      <author role="maintainer">
        <firstname>Richard</firstname>
        <surname>Hughes</surname>
	<email>richard@hughsie.com</email>
      </author>
<!-- This is appropriate place for other contributors: translators,
      maintainers,  etc. Commented out by default.
       <othercredit role="translator">
        <firstname>Latin</firstname>
        <surname>Translator 1</surname>
        <affiliation>
          <orgname>Latin Translation Team</orgname>
          <address> <email>translator@gnome.org</email> </address>
        </affiliation>
        <contrib>Latin translation</contrib>
      </othercredit>
-->
    </authorgroup>

    <revhistory>
      <revision>
        <revnumber>2.0</revnumber>
        <date>2006-08-30</date>
        <revdescription>
          <para role="author">Richard Hughes
            <email>richard@hughsie.com</email>
          </para>
          <para role="publisher">Richard Hughes</para>
        </revdescription>
      </revision>
    </revhistory>

    <legalnotice>
      <title>Feedback</title>
      <para>
        To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding the &app; application or
        this manual, follow the directions in the
        <ulink url="https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-power-manager/"
	  type="http">&application; Contact Page</ulink>.
      </para>
<!-- Translators may also add here feedback address for translations -->
    </legalnotice>
  </articleinfo>

  <indexterm zone="index">
    <primary>&application;</primary>
  </indexterm>
  <indexterm zone="index">
    <primary>mate-power-manager</primary>
  </indexterm>

<!-- ============= Document Body ============================= -->
<!-- ============= Introduction ============================== -->
<section id="intro">
  <title>Introduction</title>
  <!-- manrevision 2.0 compatibility -->
  <anchor id="aboutex"/>
  <anchor id="notice"/>
  <indexterm>
    <primary>&application;</primary>
    <secondary>Manual</secondary>
    <tertiary>mate-power-manager</tertiary>
  </indexterm>

  <para>
  The &app; session daemon is a power management daemon
  for the <systemitem>MATE desktop</systemitem>
  </para>

</section>

<section id="using">
  <title>Usage</title>
  <para>
    <application>&app;</application> is usually started in MATE startup, but
    you can manually start <application>&app;</application> by doing:
  </para>
  <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
      <term>Command line</term>
      <listitem>
    	<para>
    	  Type <command>mate-power-manager --verbose --no-daemon</command>,
          then press <keycap>Return</keycap>:
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
  </variablelist>
</section>

<section id="notify">
  <title>Notification Messages</title>
  <para>
    When &application; has started, the following notifications may be displayed.
  </para>

  <section id="notify-unplugged">
    <title>AC Adapter Unplugged</title>
    <figure>
      <title>&app; Notification when AC adapter is removed</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-unplugged.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <note>
      <para>
        You can disable this notification by changing the dconf key
        <command>org.mate.power-manager notify-discharging</command>.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="notify-fully-charged">
    <title>Fully Charged</title>
    <figure>
      <title>&app; Notification when laptop primary battery is fully charged</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-charged.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <note>
      <para>
        You can disable this notification by changing the dconf key
        <command>org.mate.power-manager notify-fully-charged</command>.
      </para>
    </note>
    <note>
      <para>
        You will only get a repeat notification if your battery percentage charge
        drops below 95% and then is again fully charged.
        This prevents some machines from showing unwanted repeat notifications
        if the battery is incorrectly reporting the charged status.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="notify-low">
  <title>Power Low</title>
    <para>
      When the battery is low, you will receive the following notification.
      You should consider switching to AC power really soon.
    </para>
    <figure>
      <title>&app; Notification when battery power is low</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-low.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <note>
      <para>
        You can disable this notification by changing the dconf key
        <command>org.mate.power-manager notify-low-power</command>.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="notify-critical">
  <title>Power Critical</title>
    <para>
      When the computer has run out of power, it will show this notification
      explaining what action is required.
      You can change the critical low action using the preferences tool.
    </para>
    <figure>
      <title>&app; Notification when the system power is critically low</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-critical.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
  </section>

  <section id="notify-suspend-failure">
  <title>Suspend Failure</title>
    <para>
      When a suspend failure occurs you may get this following warning.
      The most common reason for this notification is that the current user does
      not have permission to suspend or hibernate the computer.
    </para>
    <figure>
      <title>&app; Notification when suspend failure occurs</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-suspend-problem.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <note>
      <para>
        You can disable this notification by changing the dconf key
        <command>org.mate.power-manager notify-sleep-failed</command>.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>
</section>

<section id="statistics">
  <title>Statistics</title>
  <para>
    The statistics program allows you to visualize the power consumption
    of your laptop hardware.
  </para>
  <note>
    <para>
      This has been removed from the information window of previous versions of
      &app; as the data interface is now using DBUS rather than internal IPC.
      This allows other applications to query and display the data if required.
    </para>
  </note>
  <figure id="statistics-graph">
    <title>Power History going from battery power to AC</title>
    <screenshot>
      <mediaobject>
        <imageobject>
          <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-stats-graph.png" format="PNG"/>
        </imageobject>
      </mediaobject>
    </screenshot>
  </figure>
  <note>
    <para>
      You may not see some options or graphs if your computer does not
      have the required hardware.
      You may also see other hardware not shown here (for example
      UPS devices) but these are treated the same way as other devices.
    </para>
  </note>

  <section id="statistics-charge">
    <title>Charge History</title>
    <para>
      This graph shows the percentage charge available for the composite primary
      battery, so if you have a main laptop battery and an auxiliary battery
      then only the averaged value will be shown.
      A legend is not shown with this graph.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="statistics-power">
    <title>Power History</title>
    <para>
      This graph shows the power history charge used by the composite
      primary battery.
      This line represents the amount of power that is either being used to
      charge the batteries in the system, or the power being used by the system
      from the batteries.
      You should see the line go up when processor intensive tasks are
      performed, and down when the system is at idle, or when the screen is
      dimmed.
      A legend is shown with this graph when data events have been received.
    </para>

    <note>
      <para>
        You will not receive rate data from your computer if it is not
        charging or discharging, or if the computer is suspended.
        This is due to hardware limitations where the rate is only sent from
        the battery management chip, rather than the power management chip on
        the motherboard.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="statistics-time">
    <title>Estimated Time History</title>
    <para>
      This graph shows the estimated charge history for the composite primary
      battery.
      This line represents the amount of time required until charged, or the
      amount of time until discharge.
      This line should go proportionally up when the rate decreases and down
      when the rate increases.
      A legend is shown with this graph when data events have been received.
    </para>
  </section>
</section>

<section id="preferences">
  <title>Preferences</title>

  <para>The preferences window allows you to control:</para>

  <itemizedlist>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        The LCD brightness when on AC and battery power
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        The idle time for the screen power-down and suspend action
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        The actions to perform when the laptop lid is closed
      </para>
    </listitem>
    <listitem>
      <para>
        The notification area icon policy
      </para>
    </listitem>
  </itemizedlist>

  <note>
    <para>
      Some sliders or option boxes may be disabled if the dconf policy keys are
      not writable.
      This allows administrators to lock-down the actions that a user can select.
    </para>
  </note>

  <section id="preferences-ac">
    <title>AC Preferences</title>
    <figure id="prefs-ac">
      <title>&app; AC tab</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-prefs-ac.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
  </section>

  <section id="preferences-battery">
    <title>Battery Preferences</title>
    <figure id="prefs-processor">
      <title>&app; battery tab</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-prefs-battery.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <para>
      This allows a powerful computer to reduce the power usage when
      idle, or when the full capabilities are not required.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="preferences-general">
    <title>General Preferences</title>
    <figure id="prefs-general">
      <title>&app; general tab</title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-prefs-general.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
  </section>

  <section id="preferences-idletimes">
    <title>Session and system idle times</title>
    <para>
      <command>mate-screensaver</command> is a session daemon that monitors user
      input, and if the mouse has not been moved, or the keyboard been pressed then
      it starts a timeout.
      When the value of this timeout reaches the value set in
      <command>mate-screensaver-preferences</command>, then the login is marked
      as 'session idle'.
      This is when &application; performs all the session idle actions such as
      enabling low-power mode and lowering the laptop panel brightness.
    </para>

    <figure>
      <title>
      Changing the session idle timeout in <command>mate-screensaver-preferences</command>
      </title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gs-prefs.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <para>
      As soon as the session is marked at idle, &application; starts its own
      'system' timer.
      When the timeout set in <command>mate-power-preferences</command> is reached,
      and the CPU load is idle, then the idle action is
      performed, which is usually to turn off the screen, or to suspend or hibernate.
    </para>
    <para>
      To make this clearer, the sliders in <command>mate-power-preferences</command>
      are set to start at the value of the session-timeout + 1 minute, as we cannot
      logically trigger before the session is marked as idle.
      If you adjust the value of the 'session idle' timeout in
      <command>mate-screensaver-preferences</command> then the start of the sliders
      in <command>mate-power-preferences</command> will change accordingly.
    </para>
  </section>
</section>

<section id="preferences-advanced">
  <title>Advanced Preferences</title>

  <section id="advanced-preferences-brightness">
    <title>Screen Dim Brightness</title>
    <note>
      <para>
        You can change the idle laptop panel brightness by changing the dconf key
        <command>org.mate.power-manager idle-brightness</command>.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="advanced-preferences-locking">
    <title>Screen Locking</title>
    <para>
      By default, &application; supports a simple locking scheme.
      This means that the screen will lock if set to "Lock screen" in
      mate-screensaver when the lid is closed, or the system performs a suspend or
      hibernate action.
    </para>
    <para>
      There is a complex locking scheme available for power users that allows
      locking policy to change for the lid, suspend and hibernate actions.
      To enable this complex mode, you will have to disable the dconf key:
    </para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <command>org.mate.power-manager lock-use-screensaver</command>
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
    <para>
      Then the policy keys can be set to force a mate-screensaver lock and unlock
      when the action is performed:
    </para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <command>org.mate.power-manager lock-blank-screen</command>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <command>org.mate.power-manager lock-suspend</command>
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          <command>org.mate.power-manager lock-hibernate</command>
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <note>
      <para>
        The lock policy for mate-screensaver is ignored until the simple mode
        is re-enabled.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>
</section>

<section id="applets-general">
  <title>MATE Power Applets</title>

  <section id="applets-brightness">
    <title>Brightness Applet</title>
    <para>
      The brightness applet allows the user to change the brightness
      temporarily without changing the default policy.
      This may be useful if you have got a laptop without brightness
      buttons, as you can now change the brightness easily.
    </para>
    <figure>
      <title>
      Brightness applet drop-down.
      </title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/applet-brightness.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <note>
      <para>
        You will not get the slider if your hardware is not supported.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>

  <section id="applets-inhibit">
    <title>Inhibit Applet</title>
    <para>
      The inhibit applet allows the user to prevent the computer
      auto-sleeping when inactive. This may be required with old or
      proprietary programs such as VMWare or Matlab.
      Just click the icon for the auto-suspend to be inhibited,
      and click it again for normal operation.
    </para>
    <figure>
      <title>
      Inhibit applet in inhibited state.
      </title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/applet-inhibit.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
    <note>
      <para>
        Don't use this applet if you just use MATE software, instead
        file a bug to make the application use the Inhibit() and
        UnInhibit() methods as this should 'just work'.
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>
</section>

<section id="faq">
  <title>Frequently Asked Questions</title>
  <para>
    These are questions the mailing list gets asked frequently.
  </para>
  <section id="faq-capacity">
    <title>What is battery capacity?</title>
    <para>
      Capacity is how much charge your battery can store compared to its
      manufacturer's guidelines.
    </para>
    <figure>
      <title>
        This graph shows the capacity of a typical lithium ion battery over a
        few hundred charge-discharge cycles.
      </title>
      <screenshot>
        <mediaobject>
          <imageobject>
            <imagedata fileref="figures/gpm-cell-capacity.png" format="PNG"/>
          </imageobject>
        </mediaobject>
      </screenshot>
    </figure>
  </section>

  <section id="faq-suspend-hibernate-differences">
    <title>What's the difference between suspend and hibernate?</title>
    <para>
      The Suspend state is a power saving feature which is the lowest level of
      power consumption that preserves program data in the computer's memory.
      When your computer is in the Suspended state, computation will not be
      performed until normal activity is resumed.
      It will not resume until signaled by an external event such as a keyboard
      button press.
      It generally takes a few seconds to suspend and then resume your computer.
    </para>
    <caution>
      <para>
        You still use a small amount of battery power while suspended, so is
        not recommended for the low power action.
        If you remove AC power on a desktop, or run out of battery power on a
        laptop then you will lose your work.
      </para>
    </caution>
    <para>
      The Hibernation state saves the complete state of the computer to hard
      disk and turns off the power, so that the computer appears to be off.
      It will not resume until signaled by an external event such as a
      keyboard button press.
      This is the lowest power sleeping state available.
      If you remove AC power on a desktop, or run out of battery power on a
      laptop then work will not be lost.
      It can take up to a minute or more to hibernate and wake your computer.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="faq-dpms-broken-monitor">
    <title>
      My monitor is broken and treats DPMS standby and off states as
      'no-signal' which leaves the monitor powered on.
    </title>
    <para>
      You have to change the DPMS suspend mode &application; uses.
      Open <command>dconf-editor</command>, and then change the keys 
      <literal>org.mate.power-manager dpms-method-ac</literal> and
      <literal>org.mate.power-manager dpms-method-battery</literal>
      to one of the modes that work, e.g. standby, suspend or off.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="faq-discharge-time-wrong">
    <title>
      My time to discharge is always incorrect due to a faulty battery, what
      can I do?
    </title>
    <para>
      You might be able to use the percentage charge for g-p-m to use as the
      policy data.
      Open <command>dconf-editor</command>, and then change the key 
      <command>org.mate.power-manager use-time-for-policy</command> to false.
      You can do this easily by doing:
      <command>
        gsettings get org.mate.power-manager use-time-for-policy false
      </command>
    </para>
    <para>
      This should get the policy actions working for you, but of course the
      time remaining will still be incorrect.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="faq-inhibit">
    <title>
      How do I make my application stop the computer auto-suspending?
    </title>
    <para>
      If your application is doing a long operation, you might want to
      disable the ability to suspend for a little while.
      You should use mate-session if you really don't want the user to be
      able to suspend, or for the computer to save power by hibernating
      or suspending.
    </para>
  </section>

  <section id="faq-acpi-delay">
    <title>
      I'm running ACPI. Why do events (such as removing the AC adapter)
      take so long to register?
    </title>
    <para>
      One of two things might be the problem.
    </para>
    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          HAL might not be running the addon that captures the ACPI event.
        </para>
      </listitem>
      <listitem>
        <para>
          You BIOS could be faulty, and might need a work-around.
          Please send a bug report.
        </para>
      </listitem>
    </itemizedlist>
    <para>
      For the first case, try to find the HAL processes that are running:
      <command>ps -eaf | grep hal</command>
    </para>
    <para>
      And check for the process <command>hald-addon-acpi</command>.
      If it is not being run, then please make sure that HAL is being run
      with the  <command>--retain-privileges</command> option in the
       <command>haldaemon</command> initscript.
      An alternative to this is to use acpid, rather than the kernel proc file.
    </para>
  </section>

</section>

<section id="about">
  <title>About</title>
  <para>
    &app; was written by Mate Development.
    To find more information about &app;, please visit the
    <ulink url="https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-power-manager" type="http">
    &application; web page</ulink>.
    Origin power-manager was written by Richard Hughes <email>richard@hughsie.com</email>.
  </para>
  <para>
    To report a bug or make a suggestion regarding this application or
    this manual, follow the directions at the
    <ulink url="https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-power-manager" type="http">
    &application; Bug Page</ulink>.
  </para>
  <para>This program is distributed under the terms of the GNU
    General Public license as published by the Free Software
    Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
    any later version. A copy of this license can be found at this
    <ulink type="help" url="help:gpl">link</ulink>, or in the file
    COPYING included with the source code of this program.
  </para>
</section>

</article>