Score:1

Why does Ubuntu show battery and charge info when it is a desktop with no battery?

cn flag

I've just installed Ubuntu 20.04 on a desktop computer. The motherboard is an Asus P5N7A-VM in a desktop case. There is no "battery" (other than the BIOS battery) and no charger, just a normal power supply. But in Settings->Power Ubuntu shows the battery level as "Fully charged" and it has Automatic Suspend set for "When on battery power". In Notifications, Power is "On". And in Applications, Power Statistics is "on". I don't see settings about what to do when the lid closes, but other than that, it looks like Ubuntu thinks this is a laptop. Yet when I run sudo dmidecode -s chassis-type it responds with "Desktop". Is it normal Ubuntu behavior to always show battery info even when it doesn't apply? Or maybe I should have done something different for my install?

Levente avatar
cn flag
I use stock Ubuntu 20.04.2 on a laptop with no battery within (it died and swollen, had to be removed); so it's constantly on charger. My `chassis-type` is "Laptop", and I have no battery indicator anywhere, nor in the top panel's right corner, nor in the Settings app's Power tab.
Levente avatar
cn flag
I tried: `gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.interface show-battery-percentage`; it originally returned `false`. Now I have set it to `true`, and have restarted gnome-shell. Still no change, no battery indicator. Now I reboot to see if that changes it. No, even this value set to `true`, not even a reboot have I any battery indicator anywhere. — Maybe it's motherboard- or BIOS related as well...
Organic Marble avatar
us flag
Do you have a USB-connected UPS? One of my desktops does, and the UPS battery status is shown in the system tray. I find this useful.
ktbos avatar
cn flag
@OrganicMarble, that's it! It's the UPS. Unplugging that took away the battery icon at the top right away. Thanks for that. I hadn't considered that a "battery" but okay, sure!
Score:4
cn flag

Thanks to @OrganicMarble in the comments to my question. The answer is the "battery" is the UPS I have attached. I totally forgot I had the UPS connected via USB to this computer. When I unplug the UPS USB wire to the computer, the battery indicator on the top bar changes to a circle with the line, the symbol for power, and the battery section in Power Settings goes away. Then when I reattach it, the "Battery" on the Power Settings briefly shows the name of the UPS then switches back to "Battery" and "Fully charged" and the icon on the top bar also changes back to the battery. I think this could be more elegant and shouldn't be combined, but that's more a matter of style preference. Functionality-wise, the connection of the UPS does at least explain the "battery". Thanks again @OrganicMarble.

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