Battery indicator has disappeared from Gnome panel

Question

I'm using Gnome Flashback (still the best!) on Ubuntu 14.04. In the Indicator app, it used to always show the battery level indicator. Now, it's missing entirely:

I've looked in the power settings to make sure it's set to show no matter what:

I assume "When battery is present" means "show the battery indicator whether charging or plugged in or whatever, just as long as the physical battery is in the laptop." I also tried the other option, "When battery is charging or in use", but that doesn:t make a difference.

The battery indicator was there consistently since upgrading to 14.04 a month ago, and has only started to be shy about appearing within maybe the last few days. So far as I know, I haven't done anything to alter any settings regarding power or indicators or applets that would have any impact on this.

Why is my power indicator missing, and how do I get it back?

Solution 1

Note: Try steps 4/5 first, it may be fixed with 1st hit.

Below the extended instruction to debug the problem with the indicator.

1. Check if indicator-power-service is running:

   ps ax | grep indicator-power
   

2. If it's running, try reset its settings then restart it:

   dconf reset -f /com/canonical/indicator/power/
   pkill -f indicator-power-service
   

   No success, locate it then try it from terminal (looking for any errors in output):

   sudo updatedb; locate -r indicator-power-service$
   

   My system is 64bit, So:

   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service
   

   If it works with command, then some thing wrong with its autostart.

3. As it was checked, it isn't running on start up. Verify the existence of:

   /usr/share/upstart/sessions/indicator-power.conf

   description "Indicator Power Backend"
   
   # Want to move to indicator-services-[start|end], but that's not all
   # there yet.  Use the signals that exist today for now.
   
   start on indicators-loaded or indicator-services-start
   stop on desktop-end or indicator-services-end
   
   respawn
   
   exec /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service
   

   /etc/xdg/autostart/indicator-power.desktop

   [Desktop Entry]
   Type=Application
   Name=Indicator Power
   Exec=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service
   NotShowIn=Unity;
   NoDisplay=true
   StartupNotify=false
   Terminal=false
   

4. This works for me with a fresh Ubuntu 14.04, Modifing indicator-power.desktop for autostart conditions similar to the other indicators. (Submitted bug report lp#1330302)

   sudo nano /etc/xdg/autostart/indicator-power.desktop

   Remove:

   NotShowIn=Unity;
   

   Replace it with:

   OnlyShowIn=Unity;XFCE;GNOME;
   AutostartCondition=GNOME3 unless-session gnome
   

5. Logout/Login

---

Well if it didn't work:

1. Try purge it then reinstall it:

   sudo apt-get remove --purge indicator-power
   sudo apt-get install indicator-power
   

   Reboot, Check again

2. No success, as workaround you can run it this way (you may close terminal after this):

   /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/indicator-power/indicator-power-service & disown $!
   

   & run it in background
   disown $! command to detach a process for current terminal, $! variable that hold PID of last process run in background

   Or better if add it to user startup applications, see How do I start applications automatically on login?

Solution 2

(1)

sudo apt-get install indicator-applet-complete
sudo apt-get install dconf-editor

change icon-policy to present. This might help you.

(2)

If first one do not work you can try to install indicator-power by sudo apt-get install indicator-power. If indicator-power is already install then uninstall it and then reinstall. This might get the power indicator back on the panel. Have fun.

Comments

[Questioner]

Thank you for this response. icon-policy was already set to present. I also have show-percentage and show-time checked on.

[Questioner]

I tried the second suggestion of reinstalling the package, but it does not seem to have changed anything.

[Questioner]

Thank you for this answer. I have both the files you mention in point 3, and they have the exact same contents as you. I can successfully run the command you offer and close a terminal window, but after I reboot, the power indicator is not there. I'd like to not have to run that command every time I restart. I seem to have all the power indicator components, but it does not automatically start. Is there a way I can get it to be there every time I start my computer?

[Questioner]

I tried the cp command, and rebooted, but, unfortunately, my battery indicator did not appear after logging in.

[Questioner]

Logging in as a guest session, the battery indicator is not there. I could add the command to the startup commands list, but is that a workaround? It seems that the battery indicator should already be displaying without having to explcitly run it in the startup applications.

[Questioner]

Okay, I've added the command to my list of startup applications for now, though I hesitate to consider the matter closed. It would be nice to have a solution that addressed the issue of why it was my battery indicator disappeared in the first place.

[RCF]

You may have already tried or checked this, but if you are running the Unity Tweak Tool there is a selection for Panel that includes power indicator visiblility.

[user.dz]

@DaveMG, any error in ~/.cache/upstart/unity-panel-service.log ?

[Questioner]

Thank you for your continued help. I looked for that log, but No such file or directory. Also, I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but, as mentioned in the question, I'm not using Unity, I'm on Gnome Flashback.

[user.dz]

@DaveMG, Yep, I forgot that. I have updated answer with mod to .desktop file, which works for me in Ubuntu 14.04

[Questioner]

The updated .desktop edit that you suggest in step 4 solved it. Nice work! Thanks for your help.

[Ad Infinitum]

You are great. After the first two steps, my power indicator came back :)

[user2342558]

Thanks, for me it's enough to run pkill -f indicator-power-service to make it reappear.