Since about 2 months, more or less, my KDE EndeavourOS can’t retrieve the battery state and always show “fully charged”. This occurs in the system tray:
but also when I run upower -i upower -e | grep ‘BAT’` and I get at output:
Any idea how to debug this ?
Could it be related to tlp? I had a similar problem a while back on manjaro and this fixed it:
Seems not, my laptop is a DELL, not a Lenovo, and tlp-stat --battery does not output me to install the acpi_call module.
+++ Battery Features: Charge Thresholds and Recalibrate
natacpi = inactive (laptop not supported)
tpacpi-bat = inactive (laptop not supported)
tp-smapi = inactive (laptop not supported)
+++ Battery Status: BAT0
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer = LGC-LGC8.948
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name = DELL X77XY95
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count = (not supported)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_full_design = 8948 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_full = 8425 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_now = 8425 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/current_now = 1 [mA]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status = Full
Charge = 100.0 [%]
Capacity = 94.2 [%]
Ok. Dell may also have a tool in the bios to test the battery and or recalibrate in case it turns out to be unrelated to kde. Let’s what other solutions/troubleshoot will be posted here.
I have just flash a Bios update, and check the Bios entries but could not find anything relevant. I have tweaked some settings as “Activate State-C” but can’t see any change in the battery behaviour (Not sure it is related to the battery anyway 
). The system still can’t retrieve it.
Let’s wait and see for other possible solutions 
Have you tried booting the system with the battery physically removed and on live power to see if it still reports the same?
No yet … I know it’s the next step but I need to open the laptop (don’t have an external removable battery) and I don’t want to make an error, so I still hope to find another solution before doing this. Anyway, I’ll soon get to try this if not other way.
Fair enough didn’t know it wasn’t readily removable. 
edit can you post inxi -Fxxxza --no-host form a terminal with three ` before and after the text please?
Makes searching easier.
Here is the outpout of inxi -Fxxxza --no-host:
System: Kernel: 5.11.8-arch1-1 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 10.2.1
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-linux root=UUID=2da1fa85-e611-4b20-a87f-767c628167f9 rw
loglevel=3 nowatchdog
Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.21.3 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM Distro: EndeavourOS base: Arch Linux
Machine: Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude 5500 v: N/A serial: <filter> Chassis: type: 10
serial: <filter>
Mobo: Dell model: 0M14W7 v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.10.1 date: 12/18/2020
Battery: ID-1: BAT0 charge: 64.0 Wh condition: 64.0/68.0 Wh (94%) volts: 8.2/7.6
model: LGC-LGC8.948 DELL X77XY95 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full
CPU: Info: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-8265U bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Kaby Lake note: check
family: 6 model-id: 8E (142) stepping: C (12) microcode: DE L2 cache: 6 MiB
flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 28808
Speed: 3533 MHz min/max: 400/3900 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 3533 2: 800 3: 800 4: 800 5: 772 6: 800
7: 816 8: 831
Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled
Type: l1tf status: Not affected
Type: mds status: Not affected
Type: meltdown status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Enhanced IBRS, IBPB: conditional, RSB filling
Type: srbds mitigation: TSX disabled
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics: Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 620 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0
chip ID: 8086:3ea0 class ID: 0300
Device-2: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD type: USB driver: uvcvideo bus ID: 1-6:5 chip ID: 0bda:565c
class ID: 0e02 serial: <filter>
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.10 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: loaded: modesetting
unloaded: fbdev,vesa alternate: intel display ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 3840x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 1016x285mm (40.0x11.2") s-diag: 1055mm (41.5")
Monitor-1: eDP-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 142 size: 344x194mm (13.5x7.6") diag: 395mm (15.5")
Monitor-2: DP-1-1 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 102 size: 480x270mm (18.9x10.6") diag: 551mm (21.7")
Message: Unable to show advanced data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio: Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP High Definition Audio vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
alternate: snd_soc_skl,snd_sof_pci bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9dc8 class ID: 0403
Device-2: Realtek Realtek Audio USB type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio bus ID: 1-3:3 chip ID: 0bda:4938
class ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
Device-3: Realtek USB Audio type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio bus ID: 1-1.5:4 chip ID: 0bda:4014
class ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
Device-4: Sunplus Innovation FHD Camera Microphone type: USB driver: snd-usb-audio,uvcvideo
bus ID: 1-1.6:6 chip ID: 1bcf:28c4 class ID: 0102 serial: <filter>
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.8-arch1-1
Network: Device-1: Intel Cannon Point-LP CNVi [Wireless-AC] driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: 3000
bus ID: 00:14.3 chip ID: 8086:9df0 class ID: 0280
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
Device-2: Intel Ethernet I219-V vendor: Dell driver: e1000e v: 3.8.7-NAPI port: efa0 bus ID: 00:1f.6
chip ID: 8086:15be class ID: 0200
IF: eno2 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Device-3: Realtek RTL8153 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter type: USB driver: r8152 bus ID: 2-1.2:5
chip ID: 0bda:8153 class ID: 0000 serial: <filter>
IF: enp0s20f0u1u2 state: down mac: <filter>
IF-ID-1: tun0 state: unknown speed: 10 Mbps duplex: full mac: N/A
Bluetooth: Device-1: Intel Bluetooth 9460/9560 Jefferson Peak (JfP) type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
bus ID: 1-10:7 chip ID: 8087:0aaa class ID: e001
Message: Required tool hciconfig not installed. Check --recommends
Drives: Local Storage: total: 4.56 TiB used: 3.32 TiB (72.8%)
SMART Message: Unable to run smartctl. Root privileges required.
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: SK Hynix model: HFM512GDHTNG-8710B size: 476.94 GiB
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 rotation: SSD serial: <filter>
rev: 80020C00 temp: 32.9 C scheme: GPT
ID-2: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme SSD size: 1.82 TiB block size:
physical: 512 B logical: 512 B rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0116 scheme: GPT
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
ID-3: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme SSD size: 931.51 GiB
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0111 scheme: GPT
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
ID-4: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 type: USB vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme SSD size: 931.51 GiB
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B rotation: SSD serial: <filter> rev: 0111 scheme: GPT
SMART Message: Unknown USB bridge. Flash drive/Unsupported enclosure?
ID-5: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 type: USB vendor: HGST (Hitachi) model: HTS545050A7E680 size: 465.76 GiB
block size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> scheme: MBR
Partition: ID-1: / raw size: 476.64 GiB size: 468.16 GiB (98.22%) used: 284.43 GiB (60.8%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2
ID-2: /boot/efi raw size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 17.6 MiB (5.9%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1
Swap: Alert: No Swap data was found.
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 53.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 2477
Info: Processes: 311 Uptime: 1h 51m wakeups: 4561 Memory: 15.48 GiB used: 4.92 GiB (31.8%) Init: systemd
v: 247 Compilers: gcc: 10.2.0 clang: 11.1.0 Packages: pacman: 1398 lib: 302 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.4
running in: konsole inxi: 3.3.01
Just talking out load here. It looks like the maximum capacity on the battery at this point is ~94%. In theory until you get the charge down below that it will report 100% (@94% total capacity). Just so I understand you are saying no matter how long you use the battery it never drops below 100% correct?
Correct. I can leave it hours without AC plugged-in and it will still show 100%
Also on the system-tray, the icon always shows the AC plugged-in, … even when it is not.
I have only come across one suggestion so far. It was to reset the bios to factory defaults. That would mean having to redo anything you had to do to get linux installed like disabling secure boot and so on.
Yes, well… I need to choose between this or leaving it in the actual state. I will get to this, I believe, I should not get into an issue but… well, I know by experience that issues are coming when they are not expected 
Maybe next week, when I’ll have a few hours to play with “just in case…” Thanks for the suggestion. After trying this I’ll report if any change (or not)
fair enough can you provide one more outpu?
sudo tlp-stat --battery
Yep!..
+++ Battery Features: Charge Thresholds and Recalibrate
natacpi = inactive (laptop not supported)
tpacpi-bat = inactive (laptop not supported)
tp-smapi = inactive (laptop not supported)
+++ Battery Status: BAT0
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/manufacturer = LGC-LGC8.948
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/model_name = DELL X77XY95
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/cycle_count = (not supported)
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_full_design = 8948 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_full = 8425 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_now = 8425 [mAh]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/current_now = 1 [mA]
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/status = Full
Charge = 100.0 [%]
Capacity = 94.2 [%]
Same for mainline and lts kernels?
For an older laptop you could try linux-lts54 from kernel-lts repo.
What packages changed 2 months ago? Was it related to Plasma 5.21 update?
Yes, it does not seems to be Kernel related.
A lot ! lol… It’s a rolling distro isn’t it 
.
But yes, it begun before the update to Plasma 5.21
I can’t say exactly when it begun as last year - and still now - I don’t travel a lot (I wonder why… something occurred in 2020 ?) - so I am at home and I usually keep the laptop plugged-in. So I didn’t pay attention when this occured the first time.
I didn’t reset the bios, but in the bios itself the battery status can be read with the correct values. So I have boot with the last EndeavourOS on USB, in a live session and the battery status is also correctly retrieved. (but I didn’t install plasma).
I also opened the laptop, disconnected the battery, pressed the power button 15 sec to discharge the laptop, wait 2 minutes, reinstalled the battery… no change.
So bottom line: it seems to me it is something related to my specific plasma installation. Not a bios or a specific laptop issue.
I could reinstall EndeavourOS from the beginning, but I really don’t want to do this (I would loose the option to found the answer to this issue).
I am open to new suggestions !
Can you get the battery info manually using acpi?
acpi -i
You should also be able to see the info in sysfs.
cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT[n]/capacity
Should either be BAT0 or BAT1.