Need a command/program to find out laptop battery level
 

I'm running slack 10.2 with 2.4 kernel and the icewm windows manager and I'm trying to find a command or program so I can see (or preferably monitor) my battery life.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

Slackware comes with Gkrellm which has a battery monitor as well as monitors a lot of other things (which you can turn off if you don't want to see them)

After typing that into the command line nothing seems to happen...

edit- nevermind it was hidden over other windows, but I don't see the battery level...

right click on the stack that comes up, you might have to enable the battery monitor (with a checkbox maybe?)

Nothing changes when I enable or disable the battery in the options after right clicking.

Which 2.4 kernel? Bare.i? Or bareacpi.i?
You need acpi enabled to get battery info.
Either install bareacpi (You can use 'pkgtool' as root to do this, just choose 'Install Scripts to run again'), or recompile your kernel with ACPI functions included.

If you choose to recompile, here is an EXCELLENT guide.

Another thing to try
Sample output:

present: yes
design capacity: 47520 mWh
last full capacity: 32840 mWh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 10800 mV
design capacity warning: 1642 mWh
design capacity low: 200 mWh
capacity granularity 1: 1 mWh
capacity granularity 2: 1 mWh
model number: IBM-08K8193
serial number: 125
battery type: LION
OEM info: SANYO

Mine is cat /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info

Some laptops (such as mine) use APM rather than ACPI. If that's the case, you'll load the apm module and then type "apm" at the command line to check your battery status.

hmm when I try apm it says I don't have support in this kernel, and I don't have a acpi directory in my proc directory.

Would upgrading to 2.6 kernel allow me to install battery monitoring modules?

Sometimes, you already have the answer.