troubleshooting gnome-power-manager and gnome-power-preferences

by Martin Monperrus
(tagged as )
On a Gnome desktop on Linux, gnome-power-manager is responsible for handling battery events and physical events (laptop lid closed, power button pressed, etc). The tool gnome-power-preferences configures it.

In recent versions, gnome-power-* is built on top of Upower. UPower publishes all hardware events on DBUS (in previous versions, it was the job of HAL, which is no longer used in gnome-power-manager). It also receives user commands for instance to suspend the computer. UPower internally uses pm-utils' utilities (pm-is-supported, pm-suspend, pm-hibernate, see upower development file linux/up-backend.c). Also some events are filtered using PolicyKit rules.

If something goes wrong in the stack, many symptoms may appear (e.g. no option "suspend" and "hibernate" in gnome-power-preferences.)

Troubleshooting


Here are some hints for analyzing the gnome-power-manager stack.

Can you suspend directly from the kernel?
$ echo mem > /sys/power/state
This command should suspend your system.

Can you suspend with pm-suspend as root?
$ pm-suspend
This command should suspend your system.

Is upower installed?
$ upower -d
This command should output a lot of information, including the related capabilities of the kernel (e.g. can-suspend), and the physical state (e.g. lid-is-closed)

Does upower publishes the information on dbus?
$ dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=org.freedesktop.UPower /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.SuspendAllowed
$ dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" --type=method_call --reply-timeout=6000 /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:"" string:CanSuspend
These commands should output true or false.
(org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get requires two parameters "STRING interface_name", and "STRING property_name" but An empty string may be provided for the interface name)


Do upower and policykit cooperate?
$ pkcheck --action-id org.freedesktop.upower.suspend --process $$ # $$ corresponds to the current shell process ID (PID)
$ echo $? # the result of the last command (pkcheck)
pkcheck should return "0", meaning that you have the correct rights. On my system, this grant is specified in /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.upower.policy.

Are you able to suspend by calling upower on DBUS?
$ dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=org.freedesktop.UPower /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend
This command should suspend your system.

See also https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingGNOMEPowerManager, http://upower.freedesktop.org/docs/UPower.html and numerous bug reports and forum posts on the web.


Possible errors

$ dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=org.freedesktop.UPower /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.Suspend
Error org.freedesktop.UPower.GeneralError: No kernel support
It seems that the value of the Gconf key "/apps/gnome-power-manager/general/can_suspend" is no more taken into account.

Raw output

$ upower -d
Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/line_power_AC
  native-path:          /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/ACPI0003:00/power_supply/AC
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sat Mar 26 22:16:22 2011 (2723 seconds ago)
  has history:          no
  has statistics:       no
  line-power
    online:             no

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_BAT0
  native-path:          /sys/devices/LNXSYSTM:00/LNXSYBUS:00/PNP0C0A:00/power_supply/BAT0
  vendor:               Samsung SDI
  model:                DELL RM66888
  serial:               10425
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sat Mar 26 23:01:27 2011 (18 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               discharging
    energy:              27.4392 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         71.5173 Wh
    energy-full-design:  86.58 Wh
    energy-rate:         16.5945 W
    voltage:             11.119 V
    time to empty:       1.7 hours
    percentage:          38.3672%
    capacity:            82.6026%
    technology:          lithium-ion
  History (charge):
    1301176887	38.367	discharging
    1301176856	38.585	discharging
    1301176825	38.802	discharging
    1301176794	39.019	discharging
  History (rate):
    1301176887	16.595	discharging
    1301176856	18.093	discharging
    1301176825	18.271	discharging
    1301176794	15.962	discharging

Daemon:
  daemon-version:  0.9.8
  can-suspend:     yes
  can-hibernate    yes
  on-battery:      yes
  on-low-battery:  no
  lid-is-closed:   no
  lid-is-present:  yes
  is-docked:       no

$ dbus-send --print-reply --system --dest=org.freedesktop.UPower /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.UPower.SuspendAllowed
method return sender=:1.14 -> dest=:1.110 reply_serial=2
   boolean true

$ dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest="org.freedesktop.UPower" --type=method_call --reply-timeout=6000 /org/freedesktop/UPower org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties.Get string:"" string:CanSuspend
false

$ cat /usr/share/polkit-1/actions/org.freedesktop.upower.policy 
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE policyconfig PUBLIC
 "-//freedesktop//DTD PolicyKit Policy Configuration 1.0//EN"
 "http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/PolicyKit/1.0/policyconfig.dtd">
<policyconfig>
  <vendor>The UPower Project</vendor>
  <vendor_url>http://upower.freedesktop.org/</vendor_url>
  <icon_name>system-suspend</icon_name>
  <action id="org.freedesktop.upower.suspend">
    <description>Suspend the system</description>
    <description xml:lang="fr">Mettre le système en veille</description>
    <description xml:lang="it">Sospende il sistema</description>
    <description xml:lang="pl">Wstrzymanie systemu</description>
    <description xml:lang="sv">Försätt systemet i vänteläge</description>
    <message>Authentication is required to suspend the system</message>
    <message xml:lang="fr">Vous devez vous identifier pour mettre le système en veille</message>
    <message xml:lang="it">È richiesto autenticarsi per sospendere il sistema</message>
    <message xml:lang="pl">Wymagane jest uwierzytelnienie, aby wstrzymać system</message>
    <message xml:lang="sv">Autentisering krävs för att försätta systemet i vänteläge</message>
    <defaults>
      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
    </defaults>
  </action>
  <action id="org.freedesktop.upower.hibernate">
    <description>Hibernate the system</description>
    <description xml:lang="fr">Mettre le système en hibernation</description>
    <description xml:lang="it">Iberna il sistema</description>
    <description xml:lang="pl">Hibernacja systemu</description>
    <description xml:lang="sv">Försätt systemet i viloläge</description>
    <message>Authentication is required to hibernate the system</message>
    <message xml:lang="fr">Vous devez vous identifier pour mettre le système en hibernation</message>
    <message xml:lang="it">È richiesto autenticarsi per ibernare il sistema</message>
    <message xml:lang="pl">Wymagane jest uwierzytelnienie, aby zahibernować system</message>
    <message xml:lang="sv">Autentisering krävs för att försätta systemet i viloläge</message>
    <defaults>
      <allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
      <allow_active>yes</allow_active>
    </defaults>
  </action>
</policyconfig>
Created on March 26, 2011. Last modified on June 03, 2011. Licensed under CC BY-NC-SA.