At Wed, 5 Aug 2009 09:43:36 -0400 CentOS mailing list <centos at centos.org> wrote: > > Hello all: > Does anyone know of a tool/project that will allow me to read the > battery condition (not the charge status) on a Dell laptop battery? > Under XP there is a utility that warns that the battery is still > holding a charge but that the battery is degraded and should be > replaced. If the laptop uses the (old!) APM interface, xapm will work. If the laptop uses the (newer, current) ACPI interface, I have written a little utility that displays the battery state. Visit http://www.deepsoft.com/OddsAndEnds and scroll down to the section titled 'TkBattery' for more information. This program just reads/monitors the files under /proc/acpi/ac_adapter/ and /proc/acpi/battery/, which map to the state of the power cord (plugged in or not) and the battery(ies) info and state files. All of these files are just text files that can be read by a program (or a simple script). > > Also, not sure if this is possible, but I would like to control how > the laptop charges the battery. I tend to have the laptop plugged in > most of the time and this constant charging state is apparently very > bad for battery lifetime. So a charge/drain cycle is supposedly > better. > > Thanks, > Kwan > _______________________________________________ > CentOS mailing list > CentOS at centos.org > http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos > > -- Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933 Deepwoods Software -- Download the Model Railroad System http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Binaries for Linux and MS-Windows heller at deepsoft.com -- http://www.deepsoft.com/ModelRailroadSystem/